Tech Data‘s move to private equity ownership is delivering measurable benefits already.
That’s according to Alex Ryals, the company’s vice president of security solutions for the Americas, during a keynote presentation at Tech Data’s second annual Security Enforce conference, which is taking place today and tomorrow online.
“It has been an amazing decision,” said Ryals this morning of Tech Data’s sale to Apollo.
Tech Data announced the Apollo purchase a year ago, one day before the start of its first Enforce conference. The deal, in which Tech Data ultimately paid $6 billion to holders of its common stock and accepted a $3.75 billion equity investment, closed some seven months later.
Apollo immediately announced plans to pour $750 million into efforts aimed at increasing Tech Data’s operational efficiency and agility. According to Ryals, the extra capital is paying dividends already.
“We’re using Apollo investments in order to make interaction with Tech Data easier for our channel,” he said this morning. Examples, he added, include the company’s “enhance, optimize, and strengthen,” or “EOS,” campaign.
“It’s a project where we are optimizing every area of our business and transforming many of our technologies that we use,” Ryals said. A related digital transformation initiative called Tech Data Operating System, he continued, seeks to unify currently separate ordering applications.
“It’s about bringing together our many disparate systems so that it feels like one system for you, our channel, to interact with to do business with Tech Data, one place to go for quoting, no matter what vendor you’re interested in,” he explained. “We’ve had several systems in the past, and it’s been a bit of a challenge in many cases to work with us, so we are making that easier.”
A new version of Tech Data’s StreamOne cloud marketplace, launched earlier this year, similarly consolidates formerly distinct cloud portals.
“It’s a new platform bringing the best of some of our old platforms to market to make it easier for you to leverage private consumption and subscription-based solutions from Tech Data through an easy to use cloud marketplace,” Ryals said. “We have iterative releases throughout this year and next year to constantly improve on it.”
All of those endeavors, according to Ryals, are examples of how Tech Data is trying to find a silver lining in the disruptive effects of the coronavirus pandemic on normal business rhythms.
“We’re really trying to make the best use of our time during the coronavirus when we have a little more time at home, a lot less time on the road, and we can be more productive,” he said.
Ryals discussed current and long-term threats, as well as technologies for mitigating them, at the conference today as well.
