Dive Brief:
- ScanSource appointed Mark Morgan as president of specialty technologies amid a larger push to drive bundled technology sales, the IT distributor announced March 5.
- Morgan, a 23-year veteran of the IT distributor and an architect behind the company’s acquisitions of Intelisys and Resourcive, has long focused on projects to push value-added resellers in ScanSource’s specialty segment beyond hardware sales into recurring revenue.
- “[Mark] brings together strategy, sales and operational strength in a way that makes him the right leader for our Specialty Technologies business,” said ScanSource Chairman and CEO Mike Baur, who thanked Morgan’s predecessor, Tony Sorrentino, for 26 years with the company. “Mark’s perspective and leadership will help us continue delivering a more connected sales experience for our partners across hardware, cloud and services.”
Dive Insight:
ScanSource enlisted a seasoned veteran to help its hardware reseller partners sell bundled, cloud-attached deals.
Morgan takes over a specialty segment that, despite years of declining communications equipment revenue, grew 2.5% year over year to $741.5 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31. He knows the challenge well, having led the company’s former communications segment from 2012 to 2015. Baur deputized Morgan to search the market for cloud- and MRR-friendly businesses to acquire, which led ScanSource to buy tech services distributor Intelisys.
"We wanted to build or acquire the capabilities that enable our core VAR channel to transition to a recurring revenue model with limited disruption to their core business,” Morgan said.
A portion of ScanSource’s VARs have adopted Intelisys’ cloud-based portfolio. Partners associated with the specialty segment contribute to a third of Intelisys’ top line revenue today, Morgan said.
He said hardware remains a healthy business for the distributor, but VARs of the future will sell converged solutions.
“Refresh rates are becoming shorter and shorter. Some companies that aren't refreshing hardware are looking for software applications that extend the value of that device,” Morgan told Channel Dive. “There’s also a lot of suppliers out there that have standalone products that require other devices or other applications to make their product whole, or to be part of the solution.”
In 2024, ScanSource introduced its integrated solutions and services group, which now comprises two of its mobility-focused acquisitions. This year, the company launched an integrated team that will compensate sales reps from specialty and Intelisys for selling the other segment’s communications portfolio.
“I hate the term ecosystem, but it really is becoming an ecosystem. In a nonlinear world, you've got to be able to bring different capabilities to bear that help bring a solution together,” Morgan said. “We're playing a big role in that. Some people call it orchestration. I hate that word, too.”
Morgan said his segment will hire “a significant number” of sellers over the next six months.
“The biggest change is just bringing it all together and executing at scale now,” he said.
Morgan most recently led ScanSource Advisors, a direct selling agency business that the company spun up through the 2024 acquisition of Resourcive.
Morgan said Sorrentino had decided to step away. ScanSource on March 16 announced that Michael Webb would be senior EVP and chief human resources officer.
