Intelisys, a ScanSource company, named Pisteyo its Top Engineering Team at Channel Connect 2026 in Austin.
Plenty of awards are decided by a panel reading submissions.
This one was decided by people who have put their own client relationships on the line for us.
What happened at Intelisys Channel Connect 2026?
On November 3, Intelisys, a ScanSource company, handed out its supplier awards at the Channel Connect Awards Dinner in Austin, Texas.
Winners were chosen based on feedback from Intelisys sales partners and staff.
We took home Top Engineering Team.
If you have not crossed paths with Intelisys, they sit between technology suppliers and the advisors who sell them: the agents, MSPs, and integrators that mid-sized companies call when they need something bought or built.
Channel Connect is their annual gathering, held in Austin this year: four days, more than 100 suppliers, and the top-performing partners.
Look at who has won this category before. Last year it went to Massive IT, a managed IT provider. The year before, SilverSky, a cybersecurity company. Most of that room sells connectivity, cloud, or security.
We sell AI strategy and the execution behind it.
Being voted the engineering team in that room tells you where AI work has moved: out of the lab and into the same conversations where a partner used to talk about circuits and seats.
Why does it matter who voted for this award?
Because a referral partner has more to lose than a judge.
When an Intelisys partner brings us into a client's AI conversation, they are lending us trust they spent years earning.
If we scope it badly, overpromise, or disappear once the roadmap is done, the partner wears it. So a vote from that group is a vote with something at stake.
A partner also sees things a buyer cannot see yet.
They are in the first meeting when the client asks what this will cost and what happens if it does not work. They notice when we tell a client not to build something.
And they know whether we were still around three months later, or whether the client's own team ended up running the thing.
Those are the same questions leaders type into the chat on our website: how are you different, how much of your work actually reaches production, how do you measure that. A partner has already asked them on your behalf.
That is the whole job. Be worth the introduction.
What were Intelisys partners actually judging?
Four things: growth, innovation, channel focus, and support. Here is what each one looks like from the two chairs that matter, the partner's and the client's.
| Criterion | What a partner sees | What a client gets |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | More partners bringing us in, and bringing us back | A firm being re-recommended, not just recommended |
| Innovation | New capability, not new slides: agents, data enablement, products from our Innovation Labs | Methods tested on our own operations before they reach yours |
| Channel focus | The partner stays in the room from first call through delivery | One accountable team, with no gap between advisor and builder |
| Support | An engineering team that answers when something breaks in production | A solution your people can run without us, which is where every engagement ends |
Our Innovation Labs built Leonidus, a compliance platform that scans every code commit, and Zandy, the sales and marketing platform behind our own CRM and the assistant on our website.
We run our own tools every day, and most of what we believe about adoption comes from that.
What does an engineering award mean for a consulting firm?
We call ourselves a management consulting firm built by former operators. Intelisys called us an engineering team.
Both are true, and the gap between those two descriptions is where most AI projects stall.
Strategy without engineering is a roadmap nobody ships. Engineering without strategy makes a bad process faster.
We have written about the five pillars every engagement runs through, which we call SCALE℠, and the six steps that take one opportunity into production, which we call PROPEL℠.
SCALE creates the conditions. PROPEL turns them into outcomes.
The award is for the half that ships.
That half is not glamorous.
It is acceptance criteria set before the build, proof that it works and creates value before it expands, and a handoff that comes with training, documentation, and governance. It is also the part a partner's client remembers.
What changes at Pisteyo now?
Very little, and that is the point. The next morning's standups looked like any other day's.
The claims engine for a healthcare client is still in delivery. The phone agents are still answering calls.
An award is a lagging indicator. It tells you what the last year of work added up to. It does not do next year's.
So, thank you to Intelisys and ScanSource for the recognition and a great night in Austin. Thank you to the partners who put their names next to ours.
And to our engineers in Denver, Bogotá, and Hyderabad: the award has your name on it for a reason. You build the unglamorous half, you pick up when something breaks in production, and your work is what a client remembers. This one is yours.
Now, back to work
The record gets a shelf. The work does not wait for it.
If you want to see what the half that ships actually looks like, start with SCALE, the five pillars every engagement runs through, then PROPEL, the six steps that take one opportunity from the backlog to something a client runs without us.