In Episode 154 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy sits down with Mark Morgan, ScanSource’s newly appointed President of Specialty Technologies, about channels in transition, companies in transition, and leaders in transition.

“The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org. 

Watch Episode 154 now: 

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Full episode transcript via Apple Podcasts:

00:00:00.920 –> 00:00:02.620
Roddy: Hi, Jim Roddy here from the RSPA.

00:00:02.620 –> 00:00:16.320
Roddy: I wanted to chat with you for a minute before we start today’s podcast to make sure you’re aware that registration is now open for RetailNOW 2026, the Retail Technology Channel’s number one trade show education conference and networking event.

00:00:16.540 –> 00:00:28.140
Roddy: Join RSPA and retail IT channel leaders live and in person, July 26th through the 28th in Las Vegas at the new Caesars Forum Convention Center attached to Harris and the Link Hotels.

00:00:28.460 –> 00:00:30.840
Roddy: I’m going to pause here to clarify something.

00:00:31.000 –> 00:00:37.420
Roddy: A lot of times when people hear Caesars, they think of Caesars Palace, which is where last year’s retail now is held.

00:00:37.820 –> 00:00:45.680
Roddy: But now for RetailNOW 2026, that’s going to be held across the street from Caesars Palace again at the new Caesars Forum Convention Center.

00:00:46.140 –> 00:00:51.580
Roddy: Now, when people hear Caesars Forum, some of them think of the shopping area that’s attached to Caesars Palace.

00:00:51.580 –> 00:00:58.240
Roddy: Now, of course, at the RSPA, we like retail, but we’re not going to hold RetailNOW 2026 there in the shopping center.

00:00:58.360 –> 00:01:10.320
Roddy: Again, we’re going to be across the street from Caesars Palace and the Caesars Forum Shopping Center attached at the Caesars Forum Convention Center attached to Harris and the Link.

00:01:10.620 –> 00:01:18.900
Roddy: They should have just named this new convention center which had built in 2020, the Liberace Convention Center or the Elvis Presley Convention Center or something like that.

00:01:19.420 –> 00:01:23.560
Roddy: Well, now that we’ve clarified that, let’s get back to talking about RetailNOW 2026.

00:01:24.020 –> 00:01:29.780
Roddy: With nearly 200 exhibiting organizations, RetailNOW will be one stop shopping for VARs and ISVs.

00:01:30.100 –> 00:01:35.380
Roddy: With an expected 1,600 or more attendees, it’s the place for extreme industry connectivity.

00:01:35.680 –> 00:01:41.720
Roddy: Across just 48 hours, you’ll meet new partners and new solution providers who can accelerate the success of your business.

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Roddy: If you’re serious about the retail IT channel, you have to attend RetailNOW 2026, July 26th through 28th in Las Vegas.

00:01:50.200 –> 00:01:52.540
Roddy: RetailNOW is where the industry meets.

00:01:52.900 –> 00:02:02.800
Roddy: For all the details and to register at discounted early bird rates that expire June 15th, visit the RetailNOW website today at gorspa.org/retail now.

00:02:03.000 –> 00:02:07.260
Roddy: That’s gorspa.org/retail now.

00:02:07.440 –> 00:02:11.640
Roddy: I hope to see you there and I hope you enjoy this episode of The Trusted Advisor.

00:02:17.819 –> 00:02:24.999
Roddy: Welcome to another episode of the Trusted Advisor podcast and video series, powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association.

00:02:25.219 –> 00:02:30.519
Roddy: Our goal on the pod is to accelerate the success of today’s and tomorrow’s leaders in the retail IT industry.

00:02:30.699 –> 00:02:32.119
Roddy: I’m Jim Roddy back with you again.

00:02:32.119 –> 00:02:33.559
Roddy: Thank you so much for joining us.

00:02:33.859 –> 00:02:39.399
Roddy: As always, we talk with leaders in the retail IT channel about their leadership journeys and what they’ve learned along the way.

00:02:39.779 –> 00:02:47.479
Roddy: It gives me great pleasure that in this episode, we’ll talk with Mark Morgan, ScanSource’s newly appointed president of Specialty Technologies.

00:02:47.699 –> 00:02:54.739
Roddy: Mark has been instrumental in ScanSource’s evolution from a traditional distributor to hardware, software, cloud, and connectivity.

00:02:54.939 –> 00:03:00.179
Roddy: He joined ScanSource in 2003 as VP of Sales for the barcode and mobility business.

00:03:00.439 –> 00:03:08.979
Roddy: Since then, he’s held several leadership roles, including VP of Sales for the former communications business, president of Intellisys and president of Global Strategy.

00:03:09.039 –> 00:03:12.839
Roddy: Mark, you and I have had many, many conversations behind the scenes over the years.

00:03:12.899 –> 00:03:14.699
Roddy: It’s great to have you on The Trusted Advisor.

00:03:15.919 –> 00:03:16.679
Morgan: Great to be here.

00:03:16.679 –> 00:03:17.959
Morgan: Thanks for the invitation.

00:03:18.479 –> 00:03:19.439
Roddy: No, happy to do it.

00:03:20.039 –> 00:03:25.939
Roddy: I gave a very brief description of your path to become president of ScanSource, Specialty Technologies.

00:03:26.119 –> 00:03:28.439
Roddy: Can you share with us the more detailed story?

00:03:28.559 –> 00:03:32.919
Roddy: How did you come to ScanSource and then your leadership journey inside the organization?

00:03:34.699 –> 00:03:35.519
Morgan: Great question.

00:03:36.459 –> 00:03:37.459
Morgan: It’s good to see you again.

00:03:38.119 –> 00:03:44.639
Morgan: It has been a while, even though we’ve talked over the years, it’s good to be back in this business.

00:03:47.699 –> 00:03:57.679
Morgan: If you go back career-wise, coming out of college, I started out in construction products distribution, and that role expanded.

00:03:57.679 –> 00:04:01.599
Morgan: I did that for about 14 years, and then I got the dot-com bug.

00:04:02.179 –> 00:04:13.579
Morgan: And in 1999, I decided to, it’s interesting if you go backwards and think about what was going on, I still remember the sound of a 9600-baud modem.

00:04:14.839 –> 00:04:27.279
Morgan: And when the internet came around, as everybody, you’re either playing around with AOL, Yahoo was one of the early things to come out, I got that bug.

00:04:27.299 –> 00:04:40.799
Morgan: And in 1999, I invested some money in a.com startup, did that for a couple of years, and I ended up on the wrong side of in the.com heyday.

00:04:40.859 –> 00:04:51.999
Morgan: And around the time of, I guess, in early 2003, a guy that used to work with me in the.com, he got a job at ScanSource.

00:04:52.419 –> 00:04:56.639
Morgan: And while he had a job, I didn’t.

00:04:56.959 –> 00:04:59.039
Morgan: I actually did, but it wasn’t a real job.

00:04:59.039 –> 00:05:10.319
Morgan: I was doing contract work selling software into the oil and gas industry in the Permian Basin and up in Ponca City, Utah, or not Utah, Oklahoma.

00:05:11.199 –> 00:05:15.859
Morgan: And it was contract work, making a couple thousand dollars a month.

00:05:16.699 –> 00:05:22.899
Morgan: And I was painting houses with two girls in private school, a mortgage, all of those things.

00:05:22.919 –> 00:05:29.699
Morgan: And my friend that I used to work with, this guy named Van Thomas, there’s a number of people that may know him.

00:05:29.879 –> 00:05:33.879
Morgan: He worked here for quite a while, was one of our business development reps.

00:05:33.879 –> 00:05:36.399
Morgan: And he called me up one day and invited me to lunch.

00:05:36.399 –> 00:05:40.239
Morgan: And I was having one of those, what have I done with my life moments?

00:05:41.419 –> 00:05:44.919
Morgan: And I said, how ScanSource and he was a great company.

00:05:44.919 –> 00:05:50.419
Morgan: And I went out to their website and just Googled John, or I don’t know if it’s Google, probably John.

00:05:50.579 –> 00:05:52.239
Morgan: I don’t know how right they’re back then.

00:05:52.239 –> 00:05:59.379
Morgan: But I pulled up jobs and I said, hey man, what’s this VP of Sales role?

00:05:59.799 –> 00:06:02.019
Morgan: And he said, well, they just opened that up today.

00:06:02.339 –> 00:06:05.779
Morgan: He said, and he gave me a brief description.

00:06:05.779 –> 00:06:07.999
Morgan: I said, will you pass off my resume?

00:06:07.999 –> 00:06:15.799
Morgan: And it’s probably two months later, I got an interview, came in at 11 on a Wednesday morning.

00:06:16.239 –> 00:06:23.139
Morgan: And at 6.15, I was standing in the parking lot talking to my bower about the tires on my truck, of all things.

00:06:24.339 –> 00:06:33.579
Morgan: But the one thing that I believed that day was, wow, if I get this job, I want to get a job at this company.

00:06:33.579 –> 00:06:38.559
Morgan: Because it was a lot of energy.

00:06:39.059 –> 00:06:44.239
Morgan: I believe they had a great story or great strategy and definitely had a great story.

00:06:47.359 –> 00:06:49.059
Morgan: Ultimately, Mike hired me.

00:06:49.399 –> 00:06:53.159
Morgan: I was the first executive that was hired outside of the company.

00:06:53.799 –> 00:06:59.119
Morgan: I was really his first VP of sales in the Point of Sale and Bar Coding Division.

00:06:59.239 –> 00:07:07.959
Morgan: Because back then in early 2000, Mike was still president of ScanSource POS and Bar Coding and CEO of the company.

00:07:07.959 –> 00:07:12.779
Morgan: So I had VP or I had big shoes to fill.

00:07:13.179 –> 00:07:14.939
Morgan: It was tough because this was his baby.

00:07:14.939 –> 00:07:16.639
Morgan: It was the founding business unit.

00:07:19.459 –> 00:07:24.839
Morgan: What I always heard from Mike and I still do today is, don’t screw it up.

00:07:25.299 –> 00:07:27.139
Morgan: But that’s how I got here.

00:07:28.919 –> 00:07:42.939
Morgan: The best thing about Mike and ScanSource is it gave me an incredible opportunity and allowed me to maintain an entrepreneurial spirit.

00:07:43.979 –> 00:07:45.019
Morgan: It’s been great for me.

00:07:45.019 –> 00:07:48.059
Morgan: It’s life changing for me and my family.

00:07:48.679 –> 00:07:49.319
Roddy: Thank you for that.

00:07:49.479 –> 00:07:56.619
Roddy: So your most recent position was as president of Global Strategy, and our listeners might think, well, that could be anything.

00:07:56.659 –> 00:08:04.859
Roddy: But it’s been very much the last 11 years you’ve been doing a lot of in acquisition space and really expanding ScanSource from that standpoint.

00:08:04.859 –> 00:08:12.679
Roddy: Can you give us a little bit of glimpse of what that was like in terms of all the due diligence, the actual acquisitions and everything that was involved there?

00:08:12.679 –> 00:08:15.079
Roddy: I’m curious what role you played in that.

00:08:18.299 –> 00:08:21.119
Morgan: Well, can I go back to where that started?

00:08:21.159 –> 00:08:22.259
Morgan: So it started in 2015.

00:08:24.399 –> 00:08:30.199
Morgan: I was in the point of sale and barcoding side of the business as VP of Sales from 2003 to 2012.

00:08:30.899 –> 00:08:35.139
Morgan: And in 2012, I moved to our communications division.

00:08:35.139 –> 00:08:47.819
Morgan: And the interesting thing about that, if you go back to that time period as a distributor, if anyone asks this, what is your cloud strategy?

00:08:48.499 –> 00:08:54.219
Morgan: I would go, I’m waiting on I’m waiting on Zebra or I’m waiting on NCR.

00:08:54.219 –> 00:08:56.319
Morgan: I’m waiting on, just tell me what their strategy is.

00:08:56.319 –> 00:08:58.259
Morgan: Because a lot of times that’s distribution.

00:08:58.539 –> 00:09:05.479
Morgan: You know, they’re not only are they supporting the channel, but they’re also executing on the strategy of their suppliers.

00:09:05.479 –> 00:09:15.359
Morgan: And, you know, so the thing in comms that I saw right away was that it’s the first piece of our business that was truly being impacted by cloud.

00:09:15.359 –> 00:09:20.039
Morgan: And, you know, I had a three-year run in that business segment.

00:09:20.039 –> 00:09:22.559
Morgan: We tripled the size of that business in three years.

00:09:22.839 –> 00:09:27.559
Morgan: But it was very clear that the heavy on-prem equipment was heading south.

00:09:27.559 –> 00:09:28.419
Morgan: You know, it was interesting.

00:09:28.419 –> 00:09:33.179
Morgan: The big PBX hardware was rapidly declining.

00:09:33.179 –> 00:09:39.419
Morgan: But the number of units of desktop phones or voiceover IP phones was just, it was a hockey stick.

00:09:39.819 –> 00:09:44.519
Morgan: And you started to see these, you know, you had hosted voice providers back then.

00:09:45.179 –> 00:09:55.219
Morgan: And, you know, some of the dominant cloud players today, you know, Ring and Zoom, I’m not even sure back then, right now, when Zoom showed up.

00:09:55.219 –> 00:09:57.959
Morgan: But, you know, it was nice for them.

00:09:58.299 –> 00:10:02.939
Morgan: And, you know, Mike and I, you know, how did I get into this role?

00:10:02.939 –> 00:10:10.099
Morgan: You know, actually, Mike and I had gone fishing down in Charleston.

00:10:10.559 –> 00:10:14.279
Morgan: And I’d left some of my gear at Mike’s place in Charleston.

00:10:14.279 –> 00:10:18.639
Morgan: And he had been riding around with him in his car, with the gear in his car for a couple of weeks.

00:10:18.639 –> 00:10:21.959
Morgan: He said, you need to come by my house tonight and pick these up.

00:10:22.379 –> 00:10:25.059
Morgan: And I’m not gonna be there, but come by and get them.

00:10:25.059 –> 00:10:26.299
Morgan: They’ll be on my front porch.

00:10:26.299 –> 00:10:32.079
Morgan: And so in July of 2015, Mike went to his house about 8.30 at night.

00:10:32.079 –> 00:10:34.179
Morgan: He came out and I said, I thought you were gonna be here.

00:10:34.179 –> 00:10:36.579
Morgan: And he said, no, my plans changed.

00:10:36.579 –> 00:10:41.339
Morgan: And I said, well, that’s great because at some point this week, I wanna get on your calendar.

00:10:41.799 –> 00:10:42.879
Morgan: And he said, for what?

00:10:42.879 –> 00:10:45.559
Morgan: I said, I wanna talk about me and the company.

00:10:46.379 –> 00:10:56.939
Morgan: And so we sat on the tailgate of my pickup truck for about probably two and a half to three hours and talked about the business, talked about what we saw, what we both saw.

00:10:57.539 –> 00:10:59.799
Morgan: And he said, well, what do you wanna do?

00:10:59.799 –> 00:11:01.439
Morgan: And I said, I wanna go figure this out.

00:11:01.699 –> 00:11:04.739
Morgan: And I had this naive belief that I was gonna build our cloud strategy.

00:11:05.319 –> 00:11:07.439
Morgan: And he gave me the opportunity.

00:11:07.439 –> 00:11:08.819
Morgan: He said, okay, let’s go do it.

00:11:08.819 –> 00:11:12.999
Morgan: And it didn’t give me a lot of guidance.

00:11:12.999 –> 00:11:15.859
Morgan: You know, it was pretty much free form.

00:11:15.859 –> 00:11:20.399
Morgan: And, you know, Mike’s office is right over here, just right across from mine.

00:11:20.399 –> 00:11:23.079
Morgan: And he kicked me out of the office.

00:11:23.139 –> 00:11:29.119
Morgan: He subleased office space in downtown Greenville and said, you’re gonna go down there and you’re gonna be on your own.

00:11:29.339 –> 00:11:36.899
Morgan: He said, I’m gonna give you Greg Dixon, I’m gonna give you a guy named Lynn Paramore, who’s from our finance side, and you’re gonna get out of here.

00:11:36.899 –> 00:11:43.399
Morgan: I want you to detach yourself from physical devices and, you know, away we went.

00:11:43.699 –> 00:11:51.299
Morgan: I can remember on the first day, my daughter, my oldest daughter, who, by the way, at the time was working at NCR, channel manager at NCR.

00:11:51.619 –> 00:11:54.799
Morgan: She called me up and she said, daddy, what are you doing?

00:11:54.799 –> 00:11:55.999
Morgan: This is day one.

00:11:56.519 –> 00:11:58.519
Morgan: And I said, well, I’m getting started.

00:11:58.519 –> 00:12:00.059
Morgan: And she said, no, what are you doing?

00:12:00.399 –> 00:12:01.879
Morgan: And I said, what are you asking me?

00:12:01.879 –> 00:12:04.579
Morgan: And she said, we don’t understand it.

00:12:04.579 –> 00:12:06.099
Morgan: She’s talking about her mother and her sister.

00:12:06.099 –> 00:12:07.119
Morgan: We don’t understand it.

00:12:07.119 –> 00:12:11.579
Morgan: You used to run this business and you always had a large team of people.

00:12:11.579 –> 00:12:19.319
Morgan: And not only are you by yourself in downtown, but you’re also not in the corporate office.

00:12:19.319 –> 00:12:20.859
Morgan: You know, what did you do?

00:12:20.859 –> 00:12:25.539
Morgan: So they had a little trust in what I was going to go out and do, or they were skeptical.

00:12:25.539 –> 00:12:27.559
Morgan: I thought I did something and got kicked out.

00:12:27.839 –> 00:12:28.079
Roddy: Right.

00:12:28.079 –> 00:12:31.899
Roddy: It sounds a lot like a suspension rather than a new division.

00:12:31.939 –> 00:12:38.039
Roddy: But it seems like, you know, when you read, there’s the pull of the current business and you do have to set up something separate.

00:12:38.039 –> 00:12:42.839
Roddy: It’s interesting that people talk about it, but people rarely actually do it.

00:12:42.839 –> 00:12:44.739
Roddy: But it sounds like that was the catalyst.

00:12:45.519 –> 00:12:45.799
Roddy: Yeah.

00:12:45.799 –> 00:13:01.179
Morgan: And I think that was, I think it was a brilliant move on Mike’s part, because it did allow me the luxury of being able to clear my head and think about it in a different way.

00:13:02.939 –> 00:13:10.079
Morgan: So I can remember the very first thing I did is said, okay, what are we challenged with as a business?

00:13:10.739 –> 00:13:13.199
Morgan: And what are we challenging ourselves to do?

00:13:13.539 –> 00:13:38.099
Morgan: And these are just a few of those data points, but everybody faces this, the channel faces this, we’re facing it then, we’re still facing it today, is number one, especially as a distributor, how do you maintain a certain level of independence?

00:13:38.099 –> 00:13:45.599
Morgan: We tend to a lot of times market multiple brands and execute the strategies of the brands that we sell.

00:13:45.959 –> 00:13:54.679
Morgan: But how do we go to market as a distributor and continue to enhance our unique value proposition?

00:13:56.519 –> 00:14:00.879
Morgan: All of us, from a distribution perspective, we call ourselves value-added distributors.

00:14:00.879 –> 00:14:01.859
Morgan: We still do today.

00:14:02.579 –> 00:14:07.199
Morgan: But value is something that is not infinite.

00:14:07.379 –> 00:14:08.019
Morgan: It’s finite.

00:14:08.019 –> 00:14:09.739
Morgan: You have to continue to reinvent it.

00:14:11.779 –> 00:14:16.319
Morgan: So one of the things that I started with was, what are we challenged with?

00:14:16.319 –> 00:14:19.399
Morgan: Make the list of those and then said, what are we challenging ourselves to do?

00:14:21.439 –> 00:14:31.299
Morgan: I think the very first bullet on that challenge, what we challenged ourselves to do was tied to, we need to diversify our revenue stratum and profit pools.

00:14:33.259 –> 00:14:42.059
Morgan: We need to enable our partners to do more, meaning, I thought about this before I called this morning.

00:14:42.059 –> 00:14:50.119
Morgan: One of the things that I can remember happening back in 2007, 2008 time frame is the footprint of Point of Sales started changing.

00:14:50.779 –> 00:14:58.899
Morgan: Now, I can remember when Restoration Hardware took IBM out of all their stores and gave iPads and a lot of people thought that was going to be a fad.

00:14:58.899 –> 00:15:05.779
Morgan: So a lot of the, what are we challenging ourselves to do is find adjacent markets, find adjacent technologies.

00:15:07.159 –> 00:15:10.319
Morgan: And the big one was, hey, we’ve got to develop a cloud strategy.

00:15:10.319 –> 00:15:25.059
Morgan: And what I’ve seen realize is that, our view of what we thought cloud was or what I thought it was, was not what I thought it was.

00:15:25.139 –> 00:15:35.499
Morgan: And it, but where I was able to make good decision was, decisions was basically a strategy that, that is about, you know, where are we going to play?

00:15:35.499 –> 00:15:36.519
Morgan: How are we going to win?

00:15:36.519 –> 00:15:38.079
Morgan: And it starts with the core.

00:15:38.479 –> 00:15:40.159
Morgan: What’s your core business today?

00:15:40.919 –> 00:15:43.119
Morgan: And what’s required?

00:15:43.119 –> 00:15:46.419
Morgan: What’s required to play in the core business?

00:15:46.419 –> 00:15:48.719
Morgan: What’s required to win?

00:15:48.719 –> 00:15:50.199
Morgan: What are the capabilities we need?

00:15:50.199 –> 00:15:51.259
Roddy: What are the resources?

00:15:51.979 –> 00:15:55.359
Morgan: And then looked at from what are the adjacencies?

00:15:55.479 –> 00:15:57.859
Morgan: What are the adjacencies to what we do today?

00:15:57.859 –> 00:16:04.699
Morgan: And if you think about the retail point of sales space, you could think about the mobility space, or you could think about the comm space.

00:16:05.139 –> 00:16:11.199
Morgan: There’s just a, you know, there’s a certain number of adjacent markets out there.

00:16:11.199 –> 00:16:13.079
Morgan: There’s a lot of adjacent technologies.

00:16:13.079 –> 00:16:17.439
Morgan: And I use that as a framework to start doing research.

00:16:17.639 –> 00:16:19.839
Morgan: And I spent a lot of time.

00:16:20.499 –> 00:16:32.199
Morgan: I had resources, you know, we had, we leveraged consultants, we leveraged PWC, we leveraged a number of independent consultants that were instrumental in a lot of the decisions we made.

00:16:32.199 –> 00:16:40.599
Morgan: You know, guys that feed on the street and out in Silicon Valley, that in places that we’ve never played before.

00:16:42.139 –> 00:16:50.619
Morgan: And it helped us gain a big framework, but, or a great framework we’re still using today.

00:16:50.619 –> 00:17:01.419
Morgan: But the thing about the strategy in M&A space is it’s, there’s a lot of highs and lows and it’s, you know, you have to thrive on ambiguity.

00:17:01.419 –> 00:17:04.499
Morgan: And it gets a little bit lonely at times because it’s not a huge team.

00:17:04.499 –> 00:17:17.759
Morgan: You bring people in, you know, for example, if you’ve got some M&A targets, as you find the one you want to work with, it just accelerates and we bring people in the organization, finance, et cetera.

00:17:18.479 –> 00:17:23.879
Morgan: And you’re doing the diligence and you get right there and then all of a sudden the deal doesn’t happen.

00:17:23.879 –> 00:17:26.639
Morgan: So it goes right back down and you start over again.

00:17:26.639 –> 00:17:30.919
Morgan: And you know, you go home and your wife says how to go and it’s like, don’t ask.

00:17:31.299 –> 00:17:31.679
Roddy: Right.

00:17:31.679 –> 00:17:37.239
Morgan: And you know, that’s the, a lot of people think it’s, it’s glamorous.

00:17:37.239 –> 00:17:42.919
Morgan: There is some glamor if you win a deal and there’s even more glamor if it turns out to be the right deal.

00:17:43.519 –> 00:17:46.439
Morgan: And, you know, that’s what it looks like.

00:17:46.439 –> 00:17:48.739
Morgan: And, but I’ve enjoyed it.

00:17:48.739 –> 00:17:50.199
Morgan: You know, I did a lot of hard work.

00:17:50.199 –> 00:17:53.939
Morgan: Did we did a lot of great work, pulled a lot of people in and we did a lot of great work.

00:17:53.939 –> 00:18:00.139
Morgan: But now that I’m back in this role, I feel like I had an 11 year sabbatical.

00:18:02.939 –> 00:18:04.979
Roddy: But you were seeing other things and that’s what I’m curious.

00:18:04.979 –> 00:18:08.779
Roddy: So for our listeners, we’re going to talk today about transitions, right?

00:18:08.779 –> 00:18:17.099
Roddy: And so channels in transition, companies in transition, leaders in transition, because that’s going to impact all of our listeners and viewers at one point or another.

00:18:17.099 –> 00:18:31.219
Roddy: So Mark, when you look back at seeing those channels in transition, right now you’re back in this space, but you’ve seen all these other ones, like what’s the biggest learning that you’ve had from having a front row seat to all those different transitions?

00:18:31.219 –> 00:18:33.079
Roddy: What’s the biggest takeaway for you as a leader?

00:18:36.399 –> 00:18:44.379
Morgan: Well, for that 11 years, the biggest takeaway for me is you have to always keep your eye on where the mark is moving.

00:18:44.639 –> 00:18:55.679
Morgan: You know, if we go, let’s go back to the early 2000s, I think the average hardware refresh rate back then was probably five to seven years.

00:18:56.319 –> 00:19:04.339
Morgan: I think that’s probably, you know, generally at least in point of sale and even in mobility, the refresh rate is a lot faster now.

00:19:05.399 –> 00:19:12.899
Morgan: In some cases, the devices are refreshing at the rate of software upgrades.

00:19:13.139 –> 00:19:14.339
Morgan: I mean, think about your phone.

00:19:14.879 –> 00:19:18.399
Morgan: How many apps do you have on your phone and how often are those apps updating?

00:19:19.959 –> 00:19:26.719
Morgan: You know, and one of the biggest learnings is that you have to keep your eye out on the market.

00:19:27.039 –> 00:19:30.479
Morgan: You have to stay focused on what are the market adjacencies.

00:19:30.819 –> 00:19:35.459
Morgan: You know, how is, you know, technology today, what are the new markets it’s impacting?

00:19:36.099 –> 00:19:38.339
Morgan: The point of sale is mobile in a big way.

00:19:38.339 –> 00:19:43.519
Morgan: I mean, you can go to a flea market, you can go to a festival and it’s so easy to pay.

00:19:43.519 –> 00:20:07.339
Morgan: I mean, it’s payments is FinTech is one thing, but, you know, the thing that was that is just really important to me and to this business is we have to always focus on adjacent markets, but also be look out a step further into where the innovation is really happening.

00:20:07.339 –> 00:20:24.499
Morgan: And, you know, back in 2000 me and a co-worker put together about 120-page strategy document and it took us about six months to put it together and it was for every tech segment in the business.

00:20:24.499 –> 00:20:38.459
Morgan: And we leveraged the where to play, how to win strategy and it’s really just a grid that starts with the core of your business moving to adjacencies and moving to innovative products, products and markets.

00:20:38.899 –> 00:20:55.459
Morgan: The one thing that was perfectly clear and we really didn’t even have to do any research on this because it was very apparent that the one commonality across all of our technology segments, once you get out into the innovation phase that’s coming straight at us, it’s AI.

00:21:01.499 –> 00:21:02.639
Morgan: What’s it going to be after that?

00:21:02.779 –> 00:21:04.079
Morgan: Is it going to be quantum compute?

00:21:04.959 –> 00:21:07.839
Morgan: What’s AI going to do to a device?

00:21:07.839 –> 00:21:09.219
Morgan: What’s it going to do to industries?

00:21:09.559 –> 00:21:23.579
Morgan: That’s where I’ve spent a lot of the past six years is better understanding the speed at which markets change and the impact on our business and what do we need to be doing.

00:21:25.699 –> 00:21:30.459
Morgan: I don’t know if that’s the answer you were looking for, but that’s how I approach it.

00:21:30.679 –> 00:21:31.679
Roddy: No, that’s helpful.

00:21:31.679 –> 00:21:36.659
Roddy: You’re talking about the big question has to be always, where’s the innovation happening?

00:21:36.819 –> 00:21:40.519
Roddy: Then I’m curious, how do you translate that into specific actions or how have you?

00:21:40.519 –> 00:21:47.459
Roddy: Because I remember you mentioned Greg Dixon, the former CTO, now retired for ScanSource.

00:21:47.619 –> 00:21:53.719
Roddy: We talked, I don’t know if it was like 10, 15 years ago, it was under an NDA at that point, and it was about ScanSource adapting to the future.

00:21:53.979 –> 00:21:58.839
Roddy: I’m curious, can you talk about the company transition in terms of how you plan for it?

00:21:58.839 –> 00:22:02.959
Roddy: Because you can only see innovation out so much and then adapt along the way.

00:22:02.979 –> 00:22:14.439
Roddy: That’s what I’m thinking is the challenge of a lot of our viewers and RSPA members, that they don’t have some team or they can’t bring in those consultants, so they have to see as far out as they can go and then adapt.

00:22:14.439 –> 00:22:16.479
Roddy: I’m curious how you did that.

00:22:16.479 –> 00:22:21.199
Roddy: Is it something you would do six months at a time or how did you do that?

00:22:21.199 –> 00:22:22.839
Roddy: I’m just curious if you can give insights into that.

00:22:25.659 –> 00:22:32.959
Morgan: You know, we basically broke it into three pieces, near-term, mid-term, long-term, five years out.

00:22:33.599 –> 00:22:41.239
Morgan: And you know, if you remember, Greg Dixon was a big, you know, we’ve done a lot of things at ScanSource that were too soon.

00:22:41.719 –> 00:22:49.439
Morgan: And we spent a couple million dollars in the early 2000s on an RFID lab at our warehouse back then in Memphis.

00:22:50.939 –> 00:22:53.399
Morgan: We, I don’t know if you remember Solution City.

00:22:53.399 –> 00:22:56.459
Morgan: It was great, but it was probably a little bit too soon.

00:22:56.459 –> 00:22:58.139
Morgan: Same thing with Sumo.

00:22:58.279 –> 00:22:59.399
Roddy: Do you remember?

00:22:59.419 –> 00:23:01.279
Roddy: I do remember Sumo, yes.

00:23:01.279 –> 00:23:03.459
Morgan: Yeah, and a lot of it was with Greg’s ideas.

00:23:03.459 –> 00:23:09.559
Morgan: And you know, everything we did, we did through the lens of the channel.

00:23:09.559 –> 00:23:18.619
Morgan: I can remember that we, I had this kind of mission statement on my whiteboard, you know, in the office downtown.

00:23:19.079 –> 00:23:35.879
Morgan: And it said something like this, we want to build or acquire the capabilities and competencies that enable our partners, our VARs, to transition to a recurring revenue model with limited to no disruption in their current core business.

00:23:35.919 –> 00:23:37.139
Morgan: It was a mouthful.

00:23:38.219 –> 00:23:40.099
Morgan: And the word was transition to.

00:23:40.119 –> 00:23:54.279
Morgan: And, you know, as I think about that one today, I think that I was naive, we were naive about that because it’s not about transitioning to, from one thing to the other, because the truth is, is the old enhances the new and the new enhances the old.

00:23:54.619 –> 00:23:57.579
Morgan: That’s my, I believe that is the reality.

00:23:58.419 –> 00:24:00.379
Morgan: Both of those benefit each other.

00:24:00.379 –> 00:24:11.499
Morgan: And, you know, so our strategy was focused on midterm, short term, the here and now, midterm and long term.

00:24:11.499 –> 00:24:15.319
Morgan: And we just started looking at adjacent markets.

00:24:15.839 –> 00:24:22.059
Morgan: And we, you know, and Greg was a big fan of, he, back then, he had a managed retail solution.

00:24:22.339 –> 00:24:25.359
Morgan: He wanted to be able to automate everything in a retail store.

00:24:25.719 –> 00:24:27.099
Morgan: And it was a little early for that.

00:24:27.099 –> 00:24:28.399
Morgan: We had big ideas for it.

00:24:28.399 –> 00:24:29.839
Morgan: We looked at a number of companies.

00:24:29.839 –> 00:24:36.639
Morgan: We believed that we needed to provide a channel ready model for managed services.

00:24:37.059 –> 00:24:47.259
Morgan: You know, we believed we could be a big managed service provider and provide a channel ready model to help more partners expand their business.

00:24:47.439 –> 00:24:54.039
Morgan: Everything that we did and still are doing is, it was designed to help our partners do more than they’re doing today.

00:24:54.039 –> 00:25:06.739
Morgan: Because if they’re allowing someone else in the door, you know, because there’s a capability that they don’t have, then they’re allowing a competitor in that could potentially take over their business.

00:25:08.059 –> 00:25:14.679
Morgan: And so when we didn’t stumble upon it, I already knew who Intellisys was at the time.

00:25:16.639 –> 00:25:19.099
Morgan: And here’s what we realized.

00:25:19.239 –> 00:25:26.639
Morgan: We realized it was going to be too expensive and there was really no one to go out and acquire back then that had a channel ready MSP model.

00:25:26.639 –> 00:25:35.319
Morgan: There was a company called Continuum, but it would have been a very big acquisition, multiple 100 million, millions of dollars, excuse me.

00:25:35.899 –> 00:25:49.699
Morgan: And as we were going through our research, we locked in on the, back then it was called the Master Agent Model, today it goes by TSD, and Intellisys.

00:25:49.699 –> 00:25:55.739
Morgan: And there were basically three TSDs that we zoomed in on.

00:25:55.739 –> 00:26:00.739
Morgan: Intellisys went to market very similar to how we’ve always gone to market.

00:26:02.019 –> 00:26:05.359
Morgan: They supported partners the way that we’ve always supported partners.

00:26:05.819 –> 00:26:10.159
Morgan: And the cool thing about it was it’s a completely different transactional model.

00:26:11.079 –> 00:26:19.059
Morgan: But it opened the door for, we believed our partners to do more without having to make the investments that you have to.

00:26:19.099 –> 00:26:24.979
Morgan: The interesting thing about it, the rules are not the same in that world versus the hardware world.

00:26:25.159 –> 00:26:26.999
Morgan: And over here, you have to get certifications.

00:26:26.999 –> 00:26:29.579
Morgan: You got to have the right technical staff.

00:26:29.579 –> 00:26:31.199
Morgan: You have to continue to invest.

00:26:31.199 –> 00:26:39.399
Morgan: And you have to have the ability to finance end users, et cetera.

00:26:39.699 –> 00:26:42.399
Morgan: And in the agency model, it doesn’t work that way.

00:26:43.499 –> 00:26:44.339
Morgan: It’s similar.

00:26:44.639 –> 00:26:45.659
Morgan: It’s a supplier.

00:26:45.659 –> 00:26:46.719
Morgan: It’s a distributor.

00:26:46.719 –> 00:26:48.819
Morgan: It’s a bar or an agent.

00:26:48.819 –> 00:26:50.039
Morgan: And then it’s the end user.

00:26:50.039 –> 00:26:58.999
Morgan: The difference is when contract time comes, the contract is between the supplier and the end user and Intellisys.

00:26:58.999 –> 00:27:06.279
Morgan: Although they’ve enabled a lot of agents and even bars over the years, there’s over 4,000 active partners in our Intellisys business.

00:27:06.739 –> 00:27:09.679
Morgan: And over a third of those are bars.

00:27:11.819 –> 00:27:14.939
Morgan: Intellisys, we distribute cash.

00:27:14.939 –> 00:27:21.899
Morgan: We take the commissions from any of those deals and distribute a percentage of those commissions back to the partners.

00:27:22.039 –> 00:27:25.159
Morgan: And so it was a great line cart.

00:27:27.179 –> 00:27:32.599
Morgan: It’s a big piece of the transition of ScanSource to become who we are today.

00:27:32.679 –> 00:27:39.959
Morgan: And it was a relatively small business back in 2015, and it’s more than quadrupled.

00:27:39.959 –> 00:27:44.559
Morgan: I think today we’re a little over 3 billion in top line buildings in that business.

00:27:44.719 –> 00:27:47.139
Morgan: But foundationally, that’s where we started.

00:27:47.239 –> 00:27:50.559
Morgan: We made subsequent acquisitions after that.

00:27:52.219 –> 00:27:56.219
Morgan: But the framework was all tied to where do we think the market is going?

00:27:56.459 –> 00:27:58.639
Morgan: What do we believe our partners need today?

00:27:58.639 –> 00:28:01.639
Morgan: And how can we make it easy for them to go do that?

00:28:02.159 –> 00:28:06.259
Morgan: And in a large percentage of our base, we’ve done that.

00:28:06.259 –> 00:28:09.559
Morgan: But we still have unfinished business there, in my opinion.

00:28:09.939 –> 00:28:15.299
Roddy: Yeah, but it sounds like the guiding principle wasn’t, hey, we are a POS and AIDC distributor.

00:28:15.619 –> 00:28:17.299
Roddy: It’s answering those questions.

00:28:17.499 –> 00:28:20.419
Roddy: What can we do for our partners?

00:28:20.419 –> 00:28:25.839
Roddy: Now, you said a phrase just a bit ago that the old enhances the new and vice versa.

00:28:25.999 –> 00:28:28.539
Roddy: And then you and I talked before we recorded today.

00:28:28.739 –> 00:28:39.359
Roddy: And when you said about adjacent technologies, you were enthusiastic, but you specifically said, adjacent to advance, not abandon, not abandoning your current offering.

00:28:39.359 –> 00:28:40.499
Roddy: Can you expand upon that?

00:28:40.499 –> 00:28:44.939
Roddy: Because I think that’s important for our members and our listeners to understand.

00:28:44.939 –> 00:28:46.679
Roddy: Like you said, it’s expanding what you have.

00:28:46.679 –> 00:28:47.799
Roddy: It’s not necessarily…

00:28:47.799 –> 00:28:52.619
Roddy: There might be some things you don’t do anymore because the world has moved on from that.

00:28:52.619 –> 00:28:56.519
Roddy: But can you talk more about adjacent to advance, not abandon?

00:28:58.019 –> 00:28:59.819
Morgan: Yeah, I think if you…

00:29:00.899 –> 00:29:03.759
Morgan: ScanSource has always been a specialty technology distributor.

00:29:03.759 –> 00:29:05.519
Morgan: We’re not broad line.

00:29:07.099 –> 00:29:10.979
Morgan: Point of sale and barcoding, we’re an inch wide and a mile deep in that business.

00:29:11.539 –> 00:29:17.699
Morgan: But we’ve always been an inch wide and a mile deep in the markets our customers serve.

00:29:18.399 –> 00:29:21.559
Morgan: And so you can apply that to the communications business.

00:29:21.559 –> 00:29:25.859
Morgan: You can apply it to our physical security business.

00:29:25.859 –> 00:29:27.919
Morgan: You can apply it to the network business.

00:29:28.379 –> 00:29:37.039
Morgan: But the unique nature of cloud, I mean, if you think about it this way, the foundation of everything technical today, in my opinion, is the network.

00:29:37.039 –> 00:29:38.779
Morgan: You don’t have the network.

00:29:38.779 –> 00:29:41.459
Morgan: You may not have sold the network, but you need the network to do it.

00:29:41.459 –> 00:29:45.319
Roddy: Today, Greg and I would talk about that all the time.

00:29:45.319 –> 00:29:47.519
Roddy: Whoever owns the network owns the customer.

00:29:47.519 –> 00:29:48.479
Roddy: Like that’s the reality.

00:29:48.479 –> 00:29:49.219
Morgan: That’s right.

00:29:49.259 –> 00:29:49.679
Roddy: Yeah.

00:29:49.739 –> 00:29:49.919
Morgan: Yeah.

00:29:49.919 –> 00:29:54.319
Morgan: And it’s the rails that the train runs on, is what Greg used to say.

00:29:55.119 –> 00:29:58.779
Morgan: And so in that Intellisys business, there’s a lot of cloud products.

00:29:58.779 –> 00:30:10.799
Morgan: But there’s about probably $1.5 billion of network that on an annual top line, on an annual basis is running through our business today.

00:30:11.219 –> 00:30:24.719
Morgan: And so, regardless of the tech segment, everything that we did was focused on technologies that were adjacent to everything that we sold.

00:30:24.939 –> 00:30:26.119
Morgan: Yes, the network.

00:30:28.959 –> 00:30:31.999
Morgan: If it was, I mean, think about the mobile devices.

00:30:32.139 –> 00:30:34.899
Morgan: We sell a lot of ruggedized mobile devices.

00:30:35.759 –> 00:30:40.059
Morgan: You know, we made a couple of acquisitions to enhance the value of that device.

00:30:40.059 –> 00:30:46.459
Morgan: We’ve got a unified system that we can put in mobile devices that allow our partners to generate recurring revenue from.

00:30:47.719 –> 00:30:56.999
Morgan: You know, the cool thing about where we are today, if you have, I mean, I don’t have it here.

00:30:56.999 –> 00:30:58.459
Morgan: I was going to pick my phone up.

00:30:58.459 –> 00:31:12.199
Morgan: But, you know, if you think about a ruggedized mobile device that the FedEx guy comes to your door with, and today there’s cloud contact center applications running on those devices.

00:31:13.459 –> 00:31:20.259
Morgan: So for me, I think that the acquisitions that we’ve made are not about any one specific business.

00:31:20.819 –> 00:31:22.479
Morgan: It’s not about communications.

00:31:22.759 –> 00:31:24.299
Morgan: It’s about everything that we sell.

00:31:24.639 –> 00:31:46.359
Morgan: And because the way technology is used and the way that software can run on all these devices today, there’s so many, there’s so many different applications that I like to say this, I like to say what we’ve done over the past 11 years is about enhancing the value of the device for our partners and for our suppliers.

00:31:46.639 –> 00:31:50.179
Morgan: Our suppliers are looking for new streams of revenue as well.

00:31:50.179 –> 00:31:59.879
Morgan: And one of the things that we found is, that’s very interesting is customers can be suppliers, and suppliers can be customers.

00:32:00.699 –> 00:32:08.659
Morgan: And so this idea that distribution is still a linear model, I just don’t, I don’t believe that it is anymore.

00:32:08.659 –> 00:32:11.419
Morgan: And it’s hard for a lot of people to understand, well, how does that work?

00:32:11.919 –> 00:32:17.199
Morgan: And even internally, it’s hard for people to understand what you sound like a lot of people.

00:32:17.359 –> 00:32:19.699
Morgan: I try not to use buzzwords, by the way.

00:32:19.919 –> 00:32:21.939
Morgan: You know, one of the words is ecosystem.

00:32:21.999 –> 00:32:35.299
Morgan: The other one is orchestration and, but, you know, I think we as a company, we’ve got to do a better job of helping our customers understand who we are and what we’re capable of today.

00:32:35.679 –> 00:32:35.919
Roddy: Yeah.

00:32:35.919 –> 00:32:41.779
Morgan: But yeah, I think that’s the opportunity for us and for the opportunity for our channel partners.

00:32:41.999 –> 00:32:48.219
Roddy: And I’ve got a question about that, but first we’re going to pause to let our listeners and viewers know about the Retail Solutions Providers Association.

00:32:48.399 –> 00:32:57.019
Roddy: RSPA is North America’s largest community of retail technology VARs, software providers, vendors, and distributors in the retail, restaurant, and grocery verticals.

00:32:57.139 –> 00:33:02.559
Roddy: To accelerate your success through an RSPA membership, email membership at gorspa.org.

00:33:03.839 –> 00:33:10.499
Roddy: Also, I want to say thanks to these channel-focused companies who support the RSPA community and make this podcast and video series possible.

00:33:10.599 –> 00:33:16.659
Roddy: Our gold sponsors are Bluestar, CoCard, Epson, Global Payments, and ScanSource.

00:33:16.859 –> 00:33:26.499
Roddy: And finally, I want to make sure you’re aware, registration is now open for RetailNOW 2026, the Retail IT channel’s number one trade show, education conference and networking event.

00:33:26.559 –> 00:33:32.959
Roddy: This year’s event is set for July 26th through 28th at the new Caesar’s Forum Convention Center in Las Vegas.

00:33:32.959 –> 00:33:35.759
Roddy: For more information, visit gorspa.org.

00:33:35.999 –> 00:33:37.459
Roddy: Forward slash RetailNOW.

00:33:37.559 –> 00:33:40.559
Roddy: RetailNOW is where the industry meets.

00:33:40.979 –> 00:33:47.139
Roddy: So you were talking about what ScanSource has become and the challenge in communicating that.

00:33:47.139 –> 00:33:55.799
Roddy: So a challenge for a lot of organizations in transition in the RSPA is, those long-term customers not knowing that, right?

00:33:55.799 –> 00:34:06.079
Roddy: When you start working with somebody five, 10, 20 years ago, they knew you as one thing, but you have to get them paying attention to the new and expanded offering.

00:34:06.339 –> 00:34:10.059
Roddy: So Mark, can you talk about that challenge that you have at ScanSource?

00:34:10.059 –> 00:34:14.579
Roddy: Because I think the VARs and ISVs listening will be able to draw some parallels in their own organizations.

00:34:17.219 –> 00:34:25.039
Morgan: You know, if you look at our…I think what made us successful also hindered us a little bit over the past couple of years.

00:34:25.399 –> 00:34:30.539
Morgan: You know, the…I don’t want to call it silos, but that’s probably the best word to use.

00:34:30.539 –> 00:34:32.379
Morgan: You know, we had a point of sale and VAR coding division.

00:34:33.319 –> 00:34:39.419
Morgan: We had Catalyst Telecom, then we had ScanSource Communications, and then we had ScanSource Physical Security in Cisco.

00:34:40.239 –> 00:34:43.319
Morgan: And you know, one of the challenges when you go out and make…

00:34:44.099 –> 00:34:45.479
Morgan: You know, we acquired Intellisys.

00:34:45.479 –> 00:34:54.639
Morgan: We acquired a company called RPM Software, which is basically a platform for managing recurring revenue and commissions management and contract management.

00:34:55.859 –> 00:34:57.819
Morgan: That was adjacent to Intellisys.

00:34:57.819 –> 00:34:59.059
Morgan: It helped make us stronger.

00:34:59.059 –> 00:35:01.399
Morgan: Our competitors even use that platform.

00:35:02.779 –> 00:35:07.999
Morgan: Then we acquired a company called KingCom, which got us…expanded our Verizon business.

00:35:08.559 –> 00:35:23.799
Morgan: We acquired NT, which was a SaaS platform company based out of the UK that allowed us…we recently rebranded NT as Channel Exchange and it’s our marketplace and SaaS platform.

00:35:23.959 –> 00:35:26.079
Morgan: It got us into the Microsoft business.

00:35:26.879 –> 00:35:29.259
Morgan: We acquired Advantix.

00:35:29.259 –> 00:35:30.579
Morgan: We acquired Datasum.

00:35:30.579 –> 00:35:32.779
Morgan: We acquired a company called Resource.

00:35:33.259 –> 00:35:35.399
Morgan: If you’re inside this building, we got monitors.

00:35:35.399 –> 00:35:40.599
Morgan: We got big 65-inch monitors on all the walls.

00:35:41.479 –> 00:35:44.159
Morgan: And there’s a lot of logos up there.

00:35:44.779 –> 00:35:51.719
Morgan: And if you’re in Point of Sale, I’ll walk down with some of the sales reps and say, tell me what that is.

00:35:52.539 –> 00:35:56.479
Morgan: And we’ve got a little bit of work to do there.

00:35:56.479 –> 00:36:01.059
Morgan: And if we have work to do inside the building, we’ve got a lot of work to do outside of the building.

00:36:03.559 –> 00:36:10.519
Morgan: But I look forward to helping the channel better understand that.

00:36:10.519 –> 00:36:15.919
Morgan: But I think part of it is the speed at which we made acquisitions.

00:36:15.959 –> 00:36:21.239
Morgan: I think we spent a little over 650 million over the past 11 years on acquisitions.

00:36:21.239 –> 00:36:24.939
Morgan: And all but one of them has turned out to be great acquisitions.

00:36:25.179 –> 00:36:26.659
Morgan: I’m not gonna talk about that one.

00:36:30.299 –> 00:36:31.219
Roddy: No, not a problem at all.

00:36:31.219 –> 00:36:42.999
Roddy: So it sounds like from a communication standpoint, you’ve got to make sure internally first everybody understands how everything works together, and then the next step is external, if I’m understanding that correctly.

00:36:43.039 –> 00:36:55.139
Morgan: I think the challenge is, if you think about how we’ve served our customers over the past 35 years, I think it’s 35 years, 34, the transaction is familiar.

00:36:56.019 –> 00:37:14.759
Morgan: And we’ve got to do a better job of making the transactions a little more familiar, because if someone calls us and we answer the phone in less than four rings, and we can tell you price availability and 99.987% of the time, it ships out when we set it was going to, and that’s a factual statistic.

00:37:16.539 –> 00:37:18.539
Morgan: A lot of the cloud stuff doesn’t work that way.

00:37:18.539 –> 00:37:20.679
Morgan: The speed at which you get quotes is slower.

00:37:22.319 –> 00:37:42.899
Morgan: If you got companies that are struggling to move from a CapEx to an OpEx model or to even just add OpEx to their business, and OpEx beyond just, a lot of people say, well, I’ve got OpEx, I’ve got recurring revenue, and that’s most likely annual maintenance and support agreements.

00:37:43.579 –> 00:38:02.679
Morgan: There might be other services that people have, but the pure OpEx play is a different sales motion, it’s a different compensation motion, and we’ve got to do a better job, and we are doing a better job of making those transactions or those engagements more familiar.

00:38:02.679 –> 00:38:14.219
Morgan: But when you can answer a question like that, but then somebody wants to quote on 20 locations for network, and it takes the carrier two weeks to get a quote back.

00:38:15.079 –> 00:38:31.539
Morgan: So, people, the great thing about the RSPA channel and our other channels, these guys, as you know, we don’t let grass grow under our feet, so you can’t, you can’t.

00:38:31.539 –> 00:38:40.239
Morgan: But I do think that kind of back to your other question is, you’ve got to have a greater understanding.

00:38:40.959 –> 00:38:44.019
Morgan: I think our biggest competitor today is the algorithm.

00:38:45.179 –> 00:38:48.299
Morgan: Especially, if you’re selling to end users, the algorithm.

00:38:49.439 –> 00:38:54.799
Morgan: And if you’re competing with an algorithm, you’ve got to have deeper relationships with your customers.

00:38:55.279 –> 00:39:01.099
Morgan: You know, you’ve got to, you know, you’ve got to focus on the ideal customers.

00:39:01.099 –> 00:39:06.759
Morgan: And those are the people that want your advice and want your support, because we’re in a moment in time.

00:39:06.759 –> 00:39:13.319
Morgan: And I know this factually because on this agency side, where those guys, early on in COVID drove a ton of growth there.

00:39:13.319 –> 00:39:18.639
Morgan: And I think COVID drove a lot of growth for the channel in general.

00:39:18.639 –> 00:39:29.479
Morgan: But in the agency world, there was a lot of, there was, you know, I think Mackenzie said that eight years of demand was pulled forward in a period of 18 weeks.

00:39:30.159 –> 00:39:34.959
Morgan: There were a lot of people that won a lot of business in the agency world did as well.

00:39:35.079 –> 00:39:43.239
Morgan: But I do believe we’re at a moment in time where suppliers are expecting more of partners.

00:39:43.699 –> 00:39:47.219
Morgan: And most importantly, end users are expecting more of partners.

00:39:47.639 –> 00:39:57.199
Morgan: And it doesn’t matter if it’s in the on the traditional IT distribution or the hardware resale side, or it’s on the cloud side.

00:39:58.559 –> 00:40:03.119
Morgan: All suppliers are looking for partners that can do more and support in a different way.

00:40:03.459 –> 00:40:10.839
Morgan: A lot of the cloud companies have a lot of their support is in, you know, it’s in, it’s in, it’s offshore.

00:40:11.319 –> 00:40:29.459
Morgan: And what I do know is that if you have, if we have channel partners that have lost some of their business to other companies, if, here’s what I know, is the end user wants that familiar experience of, hey, you’re the guy that pulled the cable in my building.

00:40:29.459 –> 00:40:31.319
Morgan: You’re the guy that installed all this stuff.

00:40:31.559 –> 00:40:38.439
Morgan: I know I cheated on you and went out here and bought some stuff from you, but they don’t support me the way that you used to support me.

00:40:38.439 –> 00:40:39.779
Morgan: I want you to come back.

00:40:39.779 –> 00:40:47.819
Morgan: And I think if you focus on this type of customers, we’ve got to do a better job of saying, hey, if you can’t do this today, we can do it with you.

00:40:48.059 –> 00:40:50.239
Morgan: We can do it on behalf of you.

00:40:50.239 –> 00:40:51.479
Morgan: We can do it for you.

00:40:51.479 –> 00:41:08.599
Morgan: We, there’s, and that’s how you’re going to win because we definitely are at a pivotal moment where demand is picking up in a big way, but it’s going to require our core partners to do more than they’re probably capable of today.

00:41:09.259 –> 00:41:15.859
Morgan: And, you know, it’s, why do certain partners not embrace it?

00:41:15.859 –> 00:41:20.899
Morgan: I think it’s probably because a lot of people say, I’m not going to lose account control.

00:41:21.499 –> 00:41:26.039
Morgan: And I’m not sure how many of us truly have account control.

00:41:26.399 –> 00:41:26.799
Roddy: Right.

00:41:27.039 –> 00:41:30.079
Morgan: And definitely when you’re competing with the algorithm, right?

00:41:30.079 –> 00:41:30.659
Roddy: That’s right.

00:41:30.779 –> 00:41:31.219
Morgan: Yeah.

00:41:31.739 –> 00:41:31.959
Roddy: Yeah.

00:41:31.959 –> 00:41:34.519
Roddy: We’ve talked about on unpassed podcast episodes like that.

00:41:34.519 –> 00:41:37.999
Roddy: Customer loyalty is not, they’re loyal to their bottom line.

00:41:37.999 –> 00:41:41.499
Roddy: I think that’s Dan Bratlin from CoCard was the one who says that.

00:41:41.499 –> 00:41:43.199
Morgan: So that’s true.

00:41:43.259 –> 00:41:43.659
Morgan: Yeah.

00:41:43.659 –> 00:41:48.559
Roddy: So Mark, I do want to ask at least one question about your leadership transition.

00:41:48.599 –> 00:41:51.339
Roddy: But I do want to squeeze one more in just about the general market.

00:41:51.339 –> 00:41:58.239
Roddy: And so this is because the perspective you’ve had and the one that I had back when I was at Business Solutions Magazine, we saw the two worlds.

00:41:58.239 –> 00:42:01.779
Roddy: There was like the POS world, was one that also had AIDC.

00:42:01.999 –> 00:42:04.579
Roddy: Then there was also the networking MSP world.

00:42:04.739 –> 00:42:07.779
Roddy: Many, many years ago, they didn’t even know that each other existed.

00:42:07.899 –> 00:42:08.199
Roddy: Right?

00:42:08.199 –> 00:42:10.759
Roddy: And then they would look at each other and they’re like, man, you’re really strange.

00:42:10.759 –> 00:42:11.739
Roddy: Like, I don’t know what you do.

00:42:11.739 –> 00:42:12.379
Roddy: I don’t know what you do.

00:42:12.379 –> 00:42:13.799
Roddy: It all looked foreign to them.

00:42:13.959 –> 00:42:17.259
Roddy: But I’ve seen over time that they have been moving together.

00:42:17.379 –> 00:42:19.659
Roddy: And I’m not saying they’re completely intertwined now.

00:42:19.919 –> 00:42:24.839
Roddy: But boy, do we have a lot of RSPA VARs who act a lot like MSPs.

00:42:24.999 –> 00:42:28.359
Roddy: And we have a lot of MSPs now who used to be afraid of point of sale.

00:42:28.359 –> 00:42:32.679
Roddy: But now that they’re like, hey, it’s an iPad on a network and all that other stuff.

00:42:32.759 –> 00:42:35.339
Roddy: That’s a lot of what I’m able to do.

00:42:35.379 –> 00:42:39.579
Roddy: And so that seems to be a tier point of where you could have silos before.

00:42:39.799 –> 00:42:42.539
Roddy: Now everything is kind of mixed together.

00:42:42.539 –> 00:42:43.699
Roddy: It’s harder for an organization.

00:42:43.699 –> 00:42:44.919
Roddy: It would be harder for a magazine.

00:42:44.919 –> 00:42:46.679
Roddy: It’s harder for the distributor to organize.

00:42:46.739 –> 00:42:49.239
Roddy: But that’s really the reality where we are.

00:42:49.239 –> 00:42:51.879
Roddy: And it seems like it’s not going back to where it was.

00:42:51.879 –> 00:42:53.439
Roddy: So that was like more of a statement.

00:42:53.579 –> 00:42:55.099
Roddy: But do you agree with that?

00:42:55.099 –> 00:42:56.539
Roddy: What’s your perspective on that?

00:42:56.819 –> 00:42:58.779
Morgan: Oh, I 100% agree with that.

00:42:59.379 –> 00:43:04.099
Morgan: It should get back to when Greg Dixon was talking about the retail managed solution.

00:43:05.419 –> 00:43:11.759
Morgan: We were thinking about we need to be able to do that and enable our partners to do that in 2008 and 2009.

00:43:12.359 –> 00:43:16.959
Morgan: Now it’s come to fruition, but not the way we thought it would.

00:43:17.079 –> 00:43:17.899
Roddy: Right, right.

00:43:18.559 –> 00:43:23.399
Morgan: Because I think software for a while was eating hardware.

00:43:23.399 –> 00:43:25.819
Morgan: I think AI is starting to eat hardware.

00:43:28.079 –> 00:43:30.779
Morgan: But here’s a good example.

00:43:30.779 –> 00:43:42.899
Morgan: Mike and President of Intellisys and myself were in Northern California meeting with one of the big CX providers, meeting with CEO and his executive team.

00:43:44.539 –> 00:43:50.199
Morgan: I know a lot of point-of-sale providers don’t think that, why would I even think about Cloud Voice?

00:43:50.199 –> 00:43:58.159
Morgan: Well, when you look at the people that are coming into the business, it’s software companies that are running Voice now.

00:43:59.559 –> 00:44:15.039
Morgan: The CX side, if a contact center application is running on a mobile device, a ruggedized mobile device, then you have to look at what are my options to do more in that store, in that store that I’ve been supporting all these years.

00:44:15.419 –> 00:44:23.279
Morgan: When we were in Northern California, some of the really cool things that we saw is, this one company, it’s a household name.

00:44:23.279 –> 00:44:35.519
Morgan: I’m not going to use it, at least in an industry perspective it is, but they’ve got some really cool AI capabilities that is targeted at retail.

00:44:38.539 –> 00:44:53.259
Morgan: There’s so many things that, there’s so many opportunities today for RSPA members to do more than they’re doing today, and probably not as much as they realize.

00:44:54.899 –> 00:45:34.859
Morgan: I like to think about, and a lot of people laugh at me inside the building about, there’s a legendary story about Instacart, but when COVID hit, we still used Instacart today because of when my wife is using it back during COVID, but if you think about Instacart and how many different technologies are involved there, I mean, there’s chat, there’s texting, there’s Google Maps, there’s network, there’s scanning applications, there’s all these different things that are going on with a person that’s pulling into the parking lot and chooses to go pick your order.

00:45:35.939 –> 00:45:44.879
Morgan: And so I think you’re going to see more and more of those type of, I don’t want to say invasive, but just potentially disrupted things happening.

00:45:45.219 –> 00:45:57.819
Morgan: And if you’ve got a customer that is the ideal customer, that’s relying on you for information and advice and basically the vision of how can I continue to grow?

00:45:58.259 –> 00:46:01.799
Morgan: Because end customers are competing with the algorithm just as we are.

00:46:02.179 –> 00:46:13.459
Morgan: And there’s so many things that we do today, and there’s so many things that your membership can do now that were kind of unreachable or unthinkable.

00:46:14.139 –> 00:46:18.259
Morgan: Five, even five or 10 years, at least 10 years ago, but even five years ago.

00:46:20.019 –> 00:46:29.319
Morgan: But I think that’s the thing, is you have to keep looking down the road, you have to keep looking for partners that can help you do more.

00:46:29.799 –> 00:46:36.579
Morgan: And that’s what excites me, because there’s no doubt that Greg and I were intentional about anything that we do.

00:46:36.579 –> 00:46:50.679
Morgan: It’s got to be about the channel, it’s got to be about helping our partners do more, and that’s where when I say, I’ve got unfinished business, is I want to really accelerate people understanding how we can help them do more.

00:46:50.839 –> 00:46:59.779
Morgan: Because if the channel grows, we grow up, and nothing happens unless we help somebody sell something.

00:47:03.039 –> 00:47:07.259
Morgan: That’s the one thing that’s never changed over the past 30 years.

00:47:07.619 –> 00:47:08.099
Roddy: Yes.

00:47:08.939 –> 00:47:09.259
Roddy: Amen.

00:47:09.839 –> 00:47:13.579
Roddy: We have a guideline at the RSPA, we don’t just say, hey, we have 750 members.

00:47:13.639 –> 00:47:23.959
Roddy: We’re looking for hungry, high-initiative, growth-oriented, because that’s what’s going to make everything work together, not necessarily somebody who’s just, I’m not looking to do anything different.

00:47:24.079 –> 00:47:26.299
Roddy: Mark, we’ve only got about five minutes left.

00:47:26.559 –> 00:47:29.279
Roddy: I want to talk about your personal leadership transition.

00:47:29.399 –> 00:47:33.899
Roddy: What do you see as your top leadership challenges in this new role that you have?

00:47:37.359 –> 00:47:38.559
Morgan: That’s a great question.

00:47:43.839 –> 00:47:46.799
Morgan: I think one of the biggest challenges I have is.

00:47:51.959 –> 00:47:54.239
Morgan: It’s an internal and an external challenge.

00:47:54.519 –> 00:48:00.519
Morgan: It’s how do we help our people understand that we can do more for our partners than we’re doing today?

00:48:01.279 –> 00:48:05.879
Morgan: And how do we quickly drive that message into the channel?

00:48:08.519 –> 00:48:10.119
Morgan: And help the channel take advantage of it?

00:48:10.119 –> 00:48:16.359
Morgan: I mean, I think anything that’s negatively impacts our partners impacts us.

00:48:16.539 –> 00:48:18.979
Morgan: There’s a lot of industry consolidation.

00:48:20.359 –> 00:48:27.839
Morgan: There’s a lot of competitors for the channel that are this happening through roll-ups, you got people getting larger.

00:48:28.819 –> 00:48:34.399
Morgan: If you go back to the early 2000s, what was the channel concerned most about?

00:48:34.479 –> 00:48:38.919
Morgan: E-tailers and the big e-tailers.

00:48:39.619 –> 00:48:40.499
Morgan: That was the word.

00:48:40.499 –> 00:48:42.959
Morgan: They weren’t calling it direct marketers back then.

00:48:44.519 –> 00:48:46.319
Morgan: I think that’s still a challenge.

00:48:47.619 –> 00:48:52.659
Morgan: We worked hard back then to make sure that suppliers rewarded value.

00:48:55.819 –> 00:49:03.939
Morgan: I still think that we’re at a moment in time to where suppliers are going to reward the partners that are providing more value than they are today.

00:49:04.579 –> 00:49:14.119
Morgan: There’s so many devices in the channel today that rely on something else to help those things enhance the value of the solution.

00:49:14.119 –> 00:49:18.519
Morgan: So it is about solutions and doing more.

00:49:18.639 –> 00:49:24.239
Morgan: I think that’s the biggest challenge, but it’s more of an opportunity than it is a challenge.

00:49:24.239 –> 00:49:29.359
Morgan: We’ve got all the pieces and we just got to make it clear.

00:49:29.379 –> 00:49:35.999
Morgan: We’ve got to make the transaction feel familiar for our suppliers and our partners and go out and execute it.

00:49:36.259 –> 00:49:48.639
Morgan: And that’s, I might be, I lost a lot of hair over the years, but I still got the energy that I had when I was 30 or 35 years old.

00:49:48.979 –> 00:49:50.739
Morgan: And I love what I do.

00:49:50.739 –> 00:49:53.619
Morgan: I love supporting, I love the channel.

00:49:53.619 –> 00:50:01.639
Morgan: It’s gonna be, I’ve seen a lot of familiar faces that I haven’t talked to you over in quite a while.

00:50:01.639 –> 00:50:09.359
Morgan: And I’m really excited and looking forward to re-engaging everybody.

00:50:09.979 –> 00:50:11.179
Roddy: We’re excited to have you back.

00:50:11.179 –> 00:50:13.719
Roddy: And it seems to build upon that challenge that you mentioned.

00:50:13.799 –> 00:50:16.739
Roddy: It’s do more, but then there’s more what, right?

00:50:16.739 –> 00:50:18.999
Roddy: It’s not just one or two options out there.

00:50:19.059 –> 00:50:21.419
Roddy: There’s a thousand options, right?

00:50:21.459 –> 00:50:25.519
Roddy: Of what direction a VAR or a solution provider can go.

00:50:25.519 –> 00:50:32.639
Roddy: And that kind of sounds like what you’re saying is, you have to be helping kind of interpret or steer your partners in the right direction.

00:50:33.039 –> 00:50:37.859
Roddy: They’ve got to move forward and do something, but it’s more what and help them make those choices.

00:50:37.859 –> 00:50:43.079
Morgan: I’m glad you brought that up because Mike and I were talking about this yesterday.

00:50:44.659 –> 00:50:53.079
Morgan: You know, we’re going to re-engage the RSPA channel from the perspective of being an inch wide and a mile deep.

00:50:53.079 –> 00:51:05.019
Morgan: With everything that we’ve learned and everything that we’ve acquired over the years, you know, we’re going to invest in people and tools and processes that help us to not just talk about it.

00:51:05.019 –> 00:51:06.539
Morgan: Say, hey, why aren’t you doing this?

00:51:06.639 –> 00:51:14.619
Morgan: No, we want to be able to sit down and build business plans, you know, align our resources that we have.

00:51:14.619 –> 00:51:19.639
Morgan: We have a ton of resources that need to be realigned around this group.

00:51:20.079 –> 00:51:23.719
Morgan: And we’re definitely going to do that.

00:51:23.719 –> 00:51:26.079
Morgan: Brenda McCurry was in here right before this call.

00:51:27.579 –> 00:51:30.499
Morgan: And, you know, we’re doubling down on…

00:51:31.459 –> 00:51:34.939
Morgan: We’re reigniting and doubling down on the RSPA channel.

00:51:35.019 –> 00:51:36.119
Morgan: We definitely are.

00:51:36.119 –> 00:51:38.759
Morgan: So we’re looking forward to doing that.

00:51:39.259 –> 00:51:43.939
Roddy: And we look forward to working with you on it, because, again, I know you haven’t been to RetailNOW in a bit.

00:51:43.939 –> 00:51:49.099
Roddy: I think you’re going to find a very interesting, like I said, that hungry, high-initiative, growth-oriented.

00:51:49.339 –> 00:51:55.979
Roddy: There was the old, you know, oh, there’s the POS guy who just, you know, sells the one thing, and it’s the same thing over and over.

00:51:57.499 –> 00:52:00.659
Roddy: Very, very few, if any of those exist anymore, right?

00:52:00.659 –> 00:52:04.679
Roddy: It’s very much high-initiative, growth-oriented and innovative as well, right?

00:52:04.679 –> 00:52:09.759
Roddy: We see a lot of folks who are developing their own software, or putting together these very interesting solutions.

00:52:09.759 –> 00:52:10.959
Roddy: So I look forward to that.

00:52:11.779 –> 00:52:12.519
Morgan: Same here.

00:52:13.559 –> 00:52:14.019
Roddy: Excellent.

00:52:14.019 –> 00:52:16.399
Roddy: Well, that does it for this episode of The Trusted Advisor.

00:52:16.459 –> 00:52:23.479
Roddy: If you enjoyed our discussion, be sure to subscribe to the RSPA YouTube channel and The Trusted Advisor podcast, so you never miss an episode.

00:52:23.519 –> 00:52:27.499
Roddy: Before we go, big thanks again to Mark Morgan for sharing his wisdom with us today.

00:52:27.699 –> 00:52:36.339
Roddy: Thanks also to RSPA Marketing Director, Chris Arnold for his production work, Joseph McDade for our music, and last but not least, thanks so much to you for listening.

00:52:36.439 –> 00:52:43.859
Roddy: Our goal at the RSPA is to accelerate the success of our members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections.

00:52:43.899 –> 00:52:47.399
Roddy: For more information, please visit our website at gorspa.org.

00:52:47.999 –> 00:52:51.619
Roddy: Thanks for listening and goodbye, everybody.