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Best practices used to be a recipe for success, but clinging to them today could actually be a path to failure. To compete in today’s marketplace, businesses need to embrace change. The IoT has transformed the landscape by connecting operations and information technology, expanding the scope of what’s possible. Instead of looking for one-off systems, businesses need smart solutions.

Systems integrators could be missing out if they don’t take full advantage of the new opportunities IoT presents. To be relevant in the new marketplace, SIs must shed their traditional business models of selling, integrating, and servicing technical components, and address broader business challenges. They must become solution integrators.

Making this shift requires a “village” of vendors, products, solutions, and logistics. But most SIs don’t have the resources and infrastructure to deliver the transformational solutions their customers are looking for. Fortunately, they don’t have to go it alone. SIs can turn to solution aggregators to provide these capabilities at scale, helping them better serve their customers’ fast-changing business needs with innovative new technologies.

Aggregators that offer professional #logistics services can help SIs not only leverage new #technologies; they can take them into new geographic markets, expanding their businesses. @SYNNEX via @insightdottech

Aggregators are not simply distributors. These value-add partners offer SIs deep knowledge of the IoT space, assembling all of the necessary technology from a wide range of suppliers as well as a host of business services to meet an SI’s needs with proven, use-case-specific solutions.

“End users might not really know their pain points, or if they do, they might not know how to overcome it,” says Matthew Dyenson, Vice President, Product Management – Components & Storage, Synnex Technology International Corp., an Intel^® Solutions Aggregator. “Integrators may have a lot of systems, but they may not fit the new market requirements. When it comes to IoT solutions that blur the boundaries between IT and operations, aggregators have strong global networks and can be the voice for the end user.”

Getting Help for Your IoT Projects

SIs can leverage aggregators’ vast knowledge of technology capabilities as well as niche expertise to expand their businesses, bidding on and winning new projects. For example, Synnex recently helped an SI replace and update outdated projector technology for a school district that wanted to better engage its students.

The previous technology required students and teachers to work on interactive whiteboards through touch or a stylus. But the solution was aging and limiting the district’s ability to prepare students for the modern world. The outdated technology was no longer covered under warranty, and projectors were either too dim or missing functional bulbs completely. Additionally, the technology’s touch and stylus capabilities were unreliable, causing teachers to struggle to retain students’ attention and interest.

Synnex collaborated with the SI to create a more modern and interactive solution. With new portable NEC projectors, teachers were no longer tethered to the interactive whiteboard and could better move and engage throughout the classroom. The brighter screens ensured students didn’t have trouble understanding the presentation and teachers could easily convey their messages.

The implementation of an administrator network-based control and asset management system allowed the district to view multiple projectors through a central console to detect early on if any the projectors needed a new bulb or additional maintenance. In the end, the district replaced and updated 90 projectors and added two portable projectors across four schools and within budget.

Pairing Solutions with Services

But the school solution is just one example. Synnex collaborates with SIs in a wide range of markets and industries (Video 1) such as healthcare, where it has helped automate the patient process, from registration to prescription fulfillment, and manufacturing, where it created scalable wireless architecture that helps managers make faster decisions. Synnex also offers deployment services to ensure solutions are delivered successfully and on time.

Depending on an SI’s needs, providing market-ready solutions is only the beginning of what an aggregator can offer. Many also give access to business-growing tools, such as distribution, logistics, and financial support.

As a Preferred Global Service Project for Intel, Synnex ServiceSolv:

• Performs site assessments
• Configures, installs, and supports IoT devices
• Offers on-site service capabilities in the United States and more than 180 countries
• Adheres to OSHA as well as international and regional safety standards
• Assigns a project manager to every service event
• Schedules and coordinates against defined standard service or custom SOW
• Provides certified engineers
• Integrates with facilities that align with field installation for low-cost deployment
• Reports on each step of the service process

“Synnex is able to provide an ecosystem of services to partners that are upstream and downstream,” says Dyenson. “Besides business engagement and financial support, we can become partners in warehousing and logistics.”

Aggregators that offer professional logistics services can help SIs not only leverage new technologies; they can take them into new geographic markets, expanding their businesses. For example, Synnex combines its core strengths to help its customers improve time to market and supply chain linkages.

Aggregators Stay on Top of IoT Innovations

To be strong partners, aggregators must stay on the cutting edge of technology. As the number-one Intel volume distributor in North America, Synnex has unique access to the very latest solutions—including a portfolio of Intel^® Market Ready Solution (Intel^® MRS) and Intel^® RFP Ready Kits (Intel^® RRKs).

These Intel-validated IoT Solutions provide the recipes to serve local market partners. By collaborating with local SIs and ISVs, all the existing solutions can be deconstructed, enhanced, and reconstructed to fit local regulations and answer specific challenges. And Synnex offers a broad portfolio of complementary products and services to helps SIs quickly ramp up to meet the needs of their customers.

“Synnex not only sells whole solutions; we can introduce new technologies and scenarios to the market,” says Dyenson. “We provide all of the necessary ingredients into a one-stop shopping experience for SIs who want to build the best solutions.”