GTDC Guide Offers Best Practices in 2026 IT Distribution

The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) has published a new industry study to help technology vendors refine their go-to-market strategies and strengthen channel performance.

Report outlines the key considerations technology suppliers have for their distribution relationships

Released December 2, “Building the Optimal Distribution Strategy” outlines best practices and key considerations for determining the right mix of distribution partnerships in an increasingly competitive technology landscape.

Developed by longtime channel executive and former global channel chief Donna Grothjan, the report draws on her experience designing and managing worldwide distribution frameworks, as well as insights from seasoned channel leaders and subject-matter experts across the industry. 

The guide is designed to help suppliers evaluate market coverage needs, align partner capabilities with business goals, and optimize investment across their channel ecosystems.

“One of the most critical responsibilities of a channel leader is ensuring their company achieves strong and profitable sales growth and building an optimal distribution coverage plan should be a key focus of their overall business strategy,” Grothjan said in a statement. “Successful channel vendors regularly evaluate their objectives, company characteristics, and market maturity, and then match those variables to each current and potential distributor’s unique value proposition and capabilities to ensure resilient, scalable outcomes.”

Why vendors need to rationalize ecosystems while leveraging the scale of distribution

According to GTDC, distribution remains the most cost-effective route to market for technology suppliers. That value continues to scale as emerging technologies and changing buying habits impact traditional models. 

Even still, determining how many distributors to engage and what roles they should play remains a common challenge for suppliers of all sizes. Suppliers and vendors may seek multiple outcomes when pursuing distribution, including new or expanded routes to market, partner recruitment and development, credit capacity, and others.

The GTDC guide aims to simplify and guide suppliers through those challenges.

Some of those recommendations include:

• Focus on strategic alignment: The report says coverage must support an organization’s overall goals, including capacity management and providing distributors enough margin to invest in partner expansion. Overextended capacity can reduce prices, margins, and investment in growth-related activities. 
• Do not overpopulate: Excess capacity creates internal competition and reduces vendor profitability. 
• Distributors are strategic partners: GTDC asserts that modern IT distribution is more than logistics—these orchestrators provide technical enablement, market development, financing, and digital transformation support. They are force multipliers that help vendors scale and innovate. 
• Digital platforms create new channel opportunities: GTDC advises that vendors should consider both existing platforms they are familiar with and emerging or new-to-them partners. Leveraging established relationships can reduce risk and improve onboarding efficiencies, but new distribution alliances could broaden market coverage. 
• Tailor strategies to your needs and market maturity: Each strategy should reflect the company’s offerings and the maturity level of the channel partners for these solutions. Tactics may vary by region, specialization, and acquisition situation.

The full report includes several example scenarios and potential strategies for suppliers to consider as they weigh options heading into 2026.

GTDC continues to meet the needs of members while broadening general understanding of the IT channel

GTDC CEO Frank Vitagliano noted that distributors have become even more critical as vendors compete in fast-growth sectors such as cloud, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. 

“Distributors have become an even more vital component of IT suppliers’ market and sales expansion objectives in recent years,” he said in a statement. 

We spoke with Vitagliano in July at GTIA’s ChannelCon event in Nashville. At that point, GTDC had just released another of its guides focused on vendor onboarding best practices.

He emphasized GTDC’s mission to educate the broader ecosystem on the value of distribution in the modern IT industry.

“Our focus has really shifted to one of educating the IT marketplace, but primarily the vendor community, on the role and the value of distribution,” Vitagliano told us at the time. “The role that a distributor plays can easily be underestimated for a couple of reasons.”

GTDC represents many of the world’s largest IT distributors, collectively driving more than $180 billion in annual global sales across products, services, and solutions. The entire “Building the Optimal Distribution Strategy” report is now available in the GTDC Knowledge Hub.