Jessica McDowell has spent 17 years at TD SYNNEX, moving from the healthcare team to running security and networking before stepping into her current role as senior vice president of North America marketing and digital customer success. In that time, partner needs have shifted and continue to do so. As a result, her team is focused on giving MSPs the skills, insights, and tools to keep pace.
McDowell sat down with ChannelPro during the TD SYNNEX Inspire event in Greenville, SC. There, she shared how TD SYNNEX is helping partners prepare for the future.
Building Skills for the AI Era
McDowell pointed to TD SYNNEX’s latest Direction of Technology report, which named AI and specialization as top growth drivers. Her advice to MSPs: Focus on people first.
“Invest in skills, training, and enablement courses to make sure that they understand how to take things to market, how to build,” she said. Programs like TD SYNNEX’s AI Accelerator, part of Destination AI, were built to help partners be “AI ready, no matter what that means for them.”
Helping MSPs Stand Out
With competition fierce, TD SYNNEX’s role is to help MSPs stay relevant in the eyes of customers, McDowell said.
“We are making sure that they have the tools to be relevant, making sure that they know how to speak to their end customers and assess those types of environments,” she explained. “We are investing in the specialization on our side so that we can be that augmenter for the MSPs.”
Jessica McDowell
Digital Customer Success
McDowell’s team also oversees digital customer success, which she described as rethinking the buyer journey.
“It’s all about making sure that we are creating a smooth and seamless experience for our partners, and subsequently their end users, when we think about how people procure technology,” McDowell shared. That means automation, low-touch interactions, and real-time analytics to put better decisions in partners’ hands.
Marketing Tools for MSPs
One area McDowell believes is underutilized is Partner Health and Fitness, a data analytics tool that shows partners where gaps and opportunities exist. The company then helps them act on those insights.
She also highlighted TD SYNNEX’s new Marketing as a Service program. “We provide the tools that our vendors have been loving for so long, like demand generation and all kinds of automated marketing outputs,” she explained. “We’re delivering that to partners in a packaged way so they can leverage our marketing capabilities for themselves.”
Partner Priorities in the Year Ahead
As MSPs are in planning mode for 2026, McDowell said she expects that growth in service offerings will be a major focus. “If somebody is offering only the same services that they offered even this year, three years ago, it’s going to become obsolete quickly.”
Along with that, she shared her top takeaways from the TD SYNNEX technology report:
- AI readiness. 75% of the respondents said AI is critical, but only half of them are offering AI solutions today.
- Cybersecurity. Still fundamental, with 80% of partners selling solutions. However, complacency is a risk.
- Specialization. End users are more likely to work with a specialized partner than one who simply offers the lowest price.
Record-breaking Inspire
McDowell ended on a celebratory note, pointing to the record turnout of more than 2,000 attendees at the Inspire event in Greenville, SC. “If you didn’t make it this year, sign up for next year. It’s going to be right back here in Greenville, and we’d love to host you.”
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Featured image: TD SYNNEX
