CRN Network, Sept. 11 2008, 1300 hrs
IBM has appointed Avnet Technology Solutions as its value-added distributor. Through this collaborative partnership, Avnet’s Partner Solutions division will work with partners throughout India to drive enablement and lead generation for IBM products and solutions in markets.
“Avnet understands that our channel initiatives are based on collaboration and enablement, and with its value-added distribution model, we believe it will help us to reach out to the growing channel market,” said Mukul Mathur, Director Channel and Marketing, Business Partner Organization, IBM India.
“With this partnership, we aim to provide the right combination of resources to help bring more solutions, educate and enable more business partners on IBM solutions. Our goal is to make a difference in today's highly competitive marketplace and enable customers to lower costs, increase efficiency and achieve significant return-on-investment,” said G Balakrishnan, Managing Director, Avnet Technology Solutions, Partner Solutions Division.
It may be recalled that Avnet Technology Solutions set up its Indian arm recently by acquiring system integrator Ontrack Solutions for an undisclosed amount.
Avnet has two divisions worldwide—Electronics Marketing which focuses on electronic and component distribution; and Technology Solutions which is into value-added IT distribution. So far, Avnet was only active with its component distribution business but with the acquisition it is looking at building its Technology Solutions business.
According to Bala, Avnet has lined up six more vendor tie-ups which will be announced in the coming month. “We are looking at building a strong enterprise portfolio with servers, storage, software, security etc. We don’t see ourselves doing PCs. Even today many so-called value-added distributors are merely box pushing. Avnet, by harnessing Ontrack’s skill-sets, will redefine value-added distribution where partners get strong pre-sales and post-sales support essential to deploy comprehensive enterprise solutions. Currently no distributor is doing that,” added Bala. |