Tech Data has introduced Tech Data Coaches, a new platform for connecting channel professionals with virtual mentors and other supports within the distributor, and eventually, in the broader community. 

Coaches is a new site operated by the distributor and accessible to all of its solution provider customers in Canada and the U.S., that connects people at solution providers using to build skills with people who have the needed skill at the distributor. According to the distributor, coaches from within the company are available to help solution providers with topics ranging from the specifics of building a business around next-generation technologies like cloud or IoT, to helping people build or refine their skills in business topics like marketing and sales.

The Coaches platform connects resellers interested in building skills with the people at the distributor who can help them build those skills, and facilitates initial contact, said Stacy Nethercoat, senior vice president of cloud solutions for the Americas at Tech Data.

The program is not directly a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the cancellation of so many channel events this year has no doubt helped to make the platform “super relevant right now,” Nethercoat said. Part of the thinking that led to the launch of Coaches was the realization that for many partners, much of the value of attending industry events is around the ability to meet and exchange thoughts with subject matter experts in technology or business fields.

“But even when times are good, you can only travel so much for those kinds of things,” Nethercoat said. “So we saw this as an opportunity to create a very interactive virtual experience, and to connect people virtually.”

Because the distributor is a large organization that covers so many different product lines and technology areas, it found that it has “a lot of really great experts” in many aspects of business and technology, making it a natural starting point for finding those people. And if solution provider owners and executives can only attend a certain number of conferences, that number is even lower for people in the field or in the office for channel companies. Coaches has the ability to help those people, who typically don’t get to attend thought leadership conferences in person, access to the right people to help them build their skills or their business.

Coaches set aside time for virtual sessions, and at the end of a session, the next steps are available — for example, another session with the same coach, or building on either the same subject or a different point of interest or curiosity with another coach.

The Coaches system is currently available in North America, and the distributor will look to take it out to its various regions around the world over the coming months. Tech Data will also be looking for ways to expand the Coaches engine outside its own walls, allowing for third party coaches to make connections with solution providers over the platform.

“Tech Data Coaches is a great way to reduce the time it takes to find somebody who has the skill sets [a partner is] looking for,” Nethercoat said. “It’s a great resource not just at the executive level, but it’s a resource the entire team can use.”