While technology solutions distributors (TSDs) have evolved significantly in recent years, the advisor experience largely has stayed the same – driven by manual and email-based workflows and disparate pre-sales tools. A disconnect emerged, with advisors often selling cutting-edge technologies from inefficient and outdated back-end platforms. This is starting to change. A wave of innovation has swept through the TSD space in recent months, with some of the largest distributors updating their platforms to accelerate and enable advisors. Intelisys introduced Simply Quote toward the end of 2024, featuring a new tool for automated quoting. More recently, the company announced an integration that combines essential resources such as ordering, commissions and quoting into a single, streamlined structure. Bridgepoint, meanwhile, enhanced its Signal platform by introducing new features. Its portal now includes a product for measuring buyer intent, a co-sell solution and a ML-based recommendation engine for technology sourcing. AVANT, for its part, rolled out a Commissions feature for its Pathfinder platform in March, which aims to eliminate uncertainty and complexity and equip advisors with insights for tracking and optimizing earnings. And Telarus launched Telarus Hub, an all-new platform that replaces Agent Back Office (ABO). Telarus Hub offers a new pipeline dashboard, streamlined access to account, order, supplier and commission data and easier access to supplier and sales resources. An arms race is developing in the TSD space, with competing distributors seeking to win market share and secure more deals. However, advisors stand to benefit the most, as new sales tools come to market that promise to save time and boost efficiency. Driving TSD Adoption These updates come as technology advisors – who have historically under-utilized TSD pre-sales tools – are increasingly leveraging them to close deals. In a Channel Futures study from 2023, 68 percent of technology advisors said they rarely or never used TSD pre-sales tools in customer engagements. More recent data reveals a shift, with 77 percent of technology advisors now using TSDs to research and vet vendors at least CHANNEL MANAGEMENT By Gerald Baldino TSDs are investing heavily in sales enablement and back-office innovation to attract more advisors and help them close more deals TSD Arms 32 CHANNELVISION | SUMMER 2025
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