GTDC APJ Summit: AI and sustainability goals are the future of distribution

Sustainability and AI highlighted the 2^nd GTDC APJ Summit as vendors and distributors look at how they can work together to achieve better outcomes.

The 2nd GTDC APJ Summit brought together representatives from the various vendors and distributors in the Asian region as well as those from around the world to network and discuss all the important issues that is impacting them as well as the potential opportunities in the region.

Since launching a year ago, GTDC APJ has not only grown the number of vendors in its council for the region but also created a more impactful avenue for both vendors and distributors.

This year, the summit focused on the future of distribution, with the Asia Pacific region being one of the most highly impacted region in their distribution network as they continue to deal with supply chain constraints, tariffs and geopolitical issues.

As GTDC's primary role is to educate the market on the role and value of IT distributors, Frank Vitagliano, CEO of GTDC said the 23 members in the global distributor council currently represent nearly US$200 billion in annual revenue.

“Our primary constituency and messaging are geared to the vendor supplier community. Within the supplier community, there’s new folks coming in all the time. They don’t really understand all the players and distribution. They can’t count all the emerging technologies out there. We speak to vendors about what distributors do,” said Vitagliano in his keynote address.

Given the need to continuously educate and guide vendors as well as distributors on how they can work together, GTDC has also released several reports and guides to enable this. The next guide to be released will focus on building an optimal distribution strategy for vendors.

Specifically, the guide will focus on three distribution scenarios. First, it’s how vendors create a new channel program as they look to scale beyond direct sales or move into new markets. Second, the focus will be on how they can expand the channel, especially when partner productivity stagnates, and third would be on rationalizing channels when excess capabilities erode margins.

"Distributors must continually evaluate the needs of their collective IT ecosystems and innovate to provide even greater value to their vendor and solution provider partners. Our research shows that those investments are paying off as distributors evolve their capabilities to meet the future needs of channel organizations and the customers they support, especially with increasing complexities with AI and cybersecurity,” he added.

For Ananth Lazarus, Managing Director of APJ for GTDC, technology distributors are force multipliers for vendors and solution providers, scaling sales and partner communities and overcoming regional and in-country challenges.

"Their enablement programs and alliance development and integration capabilities provide strategic value that ensures success across diverse markets,” he said.

Vendors and distributor roles in ESG

The two-day summit also featured several panel discussions and presentations. On the first day, the summit also featured an insightful session on sustainability, with both vendors and distributors discussing how they can manage their ESG initiatives better and also how they can work together to achieve greater sustainability goals. The session included some hands-on discussion, whereby all attendees were given scenarios and discussed how they would deal with sustainability issues.

Dominique Deklerck of GTDC shared updates on sustainability-related topics in a pre-day session at Summit APJ. The discussion covered recent regulatory changes and best practices for adapting to the circular economy, in addition to insight on the Digital Product Passport (DPP), EPEAT, CSRD and other related topics.

Nigel Landon, Global Business Director at Enviro Solutions & Consulting, shared in his presentation the growing concerns of e-waste in the region and the strong need to tackle the situation before it becomes even more complicated. There was also a panel discussion on how sustainability issues can be addressed in the region.

From tariffs to AI

On the second day, Alex Holmes, Regional director, Asia-Pacific, EIU presented findings on the impact of tariffs on the region. He stressed that while emerging market opportunities and technical innovation are creating strong opportunities for the industry, executives should pay attention to potential shifts in monetary and fiscal policies and currency fluctuations that may impact those positive trends.

Holmes' presentation revealed that the goods trade is going to slow markedly as a result of frontloaded demand in 2025. However, he believes domestic demand should hold up across most of Asia while the underlying medium-term trend in global trade is not all bleak with technological trends offering a mixture of risk and opportunity in 2026.

Also presenting was Sandra Ng, Group Vice President and General Manager, IDC. Ng shared findings from IDC’s FutureScape predictions report, which highlights the continuous impact and opportunity of AI in shaping leadership and growth from 2026 to 2030. According to the findings, 66% of APJ CEOs believe that AI will offer their organization a chance to reinvent the business models in the next 3 to 5 years.

As such, the new growth model by 2026 will see 40% of 1000 CEOs focus AI ROI on growth, driving C-suite efforts to boost revenue and reinvent business models without growing headcount. The ten predictions shared will also be seen as the tech buyer blueprint for the agentic future.

CRN Asia moderated a session on how to build a successful AI strategy. The panellists addressed key elements of having the right AI strategy, including setting expectations, overcoming challenges and collaborating on new opportunities with Corrie Briscoe of Amazon Web Services, Joseph Turner with CONTEXT, SS Lim of PTC System (S) Pte Ltd and Debdut Maiti from Lenovo.

The panelists shared how they are working with distributors in the region, especially in helping customers in their AI journey. All four panelists also agreed that it's important for distributors to start leveraging AI themselves as they look to be subject matter experts to their customers.

The final panel discussion was moderated by Vitagliano who led an insightful "view from the top" conversation with senior distribution executives, including V.S. Hariharan, Redington Limited; Luis Lourenco, Ingram Micro; Jaideep Malhotra, TD SYNNEX; and Patrick Aronson, Westcon-Comstor. Panelists discussed investments in digital platforms and enabling innovative technologies, as well as optimizing go-to-market strategies and business operations.

The two-day summit ended with the APJ Vendor Advisory Council Meeting.