Distributors are struggling to remain profitable (relevant?) in the internet age of procurement. Not only do they have difficulty justifying value to their customer resellers, but some actually directly compete for the same business.
As we covered here, Amazon is reselling labor. Not directly, but with a network of approved subcontractors they pre-screen. Amazon gets up to 20% of the invoiced labor total, and their total revenues get a bump. - a welcome wrinkle for many (struggling) distributors.
What if Security Distributors followed? What if distributors like ADI, Anixter/ Tri-ED, or ScanSource started (or openly continued) selling end users directly, but referred 'labor-only' projects to channel resellers?
Would the existing reseller channel revolt?