(NOTE: This article was originally posted to CRN.com Oct. 12.)

Master agent Intelisys is reassuring its partners that its recent acquisition by ScanSource will VAR and agent partners grow.

At Intelisys' largest partner event of the year, in Napa, Calif., execitives with both companies said Wednesday expressed confidence that the merger will create opportuities for partners.

ScanSource's CEO Mike Baur took the stage at the Channel Connect event by telling partners why the 24-year-old IT distributor made its most expensive acquisition to date. With 24 acquisitions under its belt, ScanSource sees that services and solution selling are becoming the most lucrative businesses and the VAR and agent partner channel models are converging.

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Intelisys To Address Impact Of ScanSource Acquisition, New Opportunities For Partners At Channel Connect 2016]

Greenville, S.C.-based ScanSource has a community of over 500 supplier partners and over 3,600 reseller partners, but the company saw an opportunity to get into recurring connectivity and telecom solution selling. That's where Intelisys and its partner community come in, Baur said.  

"We feel confident this is going to be successful. This is a big bet for ScanSource," he said.

VARs are pivoting to recurring revenue quickly, and agent partners see opportunities in selling hardware. In a few years, there won't be a difference between VARs or telecom agents, according to Andrew Pryfogle, senior vice president of cloud transformation for Petaluma, Calif.-based Intelisys, who spoke first on the keynote stage Wednesday.

"It's two people eating from opposite sides of the same apple. This is creating enormous opportunities for partners," Pryfogle said.

The partnership between the distributor and the master agent will be particularly useful in closing this gap. The ScanSource-Intelisys deal will let partners talk about solutions with their customers, instead of focusing on one area of technology, according to Joe Monaco, CEO of The Monaco Group, a Boca Raton, Florida-based solution provider and Intelisys partner.

"Having that breadth of products and scale will be a big addition to our portfolio of products, and much more impactful to put in front of a customer. It's a great marriage," Monaco said.

The acquisition means more credibility for Intelisys, too, he added.

Pryfogle said that Intelisys plans to "protect what it has built," and Baur assured partners that the Intelisys brand isn't going away. Combined, the two companies will have more scale, and Intelisys partners will have access to ScanSource's scale and financial resources, Baur said.