It’s a great deal for Ingram’s stockholders — which include many of their channel partners. But for their businesses, will it be business as usual.
IBM will turn to distributors to help it build custom bundles of its Power-based servers with Linux and top ISV offerings for the channel.
Tech Data Canada president Rick Reid on the year that was 2015, and what the distributor is expecting for 2016.
Avnet Technology Solutions’ Michael Stephens weighs in with ways solution providers can be successful in the growing market for digitalization in the healthcare field.
Stacy Nethercoat, vice president of Tech Data’s TDCloud division, was in the Toronto area on Wednesday to visit Tech Data Canada’s offices, and took some time to speak with ChannelBuzz about the distributor’s cloud strategy, cloud progress, and how it all rolls out in the Canadian market.
Lenovo channel chief Sammy Kinlaw said raising System x server sales is his top priority for the year, as some partners still don’t sell these at all.
While Avaya is not contemplating adding or dropping any distribution partners, it is working on restructuring their compensation model, to encourage them to fulfil the role Avaya wants them to play in their new go-to-market strategy.
Santiago Aguirre, who adds Canada to his Caribbean and Latin American responsibilities, says this will leverage regional strength to strengthen Avaya in Canada, and that he won’t be disrupting Auld’s work in Canada.
Westcon’s Comstor group teams with Polycom to offer cloud-based video-as-a-service that solution providers can offer under its GoldSeal services label.
RingCentral already has a diverse go-to-market strategy which includes several top technology distributors, but they see additional benefits in adding Westcon to the mix.
The acquisition expands Avnet’s line card, adding training authorization for some vendors who they already carried. It also will strengthen them in new solution areas, and in the government space.
Ingram buys the software it had been licensing since 2013, and in addition gets around 500 skilled Odin employees and greater exposure to telco and carrier channels.
With the new Avnet Knowledge Network, the distributor is aiming to bring all of its support and training offerings under the same roof.
ChannelBuzz has learned that Lenovo, which has been assessing its distribution options for its commercial Motorola business, since it acquired the mobility vendor a year ago, has decided on SYNNEX for its U.S distribution. The deal does not apply to Canada, and Lenovo said it has no comment on Canadian distribution plans at this time.…
Tech Data also sees the agreement, which fills an admitted gap in their line card, as very likely to open up Cisco technology to a large class of smaller customers who have not been buying Cisco to date.
ForeScout has shown strong recent growth that has begun to strain its old policy of dealing directly with its partners, so it has signed North American deals with the two VADs which best complement their product set. The company is already fairly strong in Canada, and is looking to distribution to strengthen Canadian presence further.
Ingram Micro has significantly expanded their relationship with Acronis, but only part of the deal is relevant to the Canadian market.
Avnet Technology Solutions makes its debut in the growing field of distribution cloud marketplaces, offering bundled cloud solutions and self-service Web stores for partners.
The final T to be crossed is deciding how the premium offer Dell extended to U.S.-based SYNNEX Varnex members at this year’s spring Varnex will be rolled out in Canada, and that will be decided by, and likely announced at, the fall Varnex event coming up.
Greg Peterson, Avnet Technology Solutions’ HP business for the Americas, and Geeman Yip, CEO of BitTitan, on this edition of the ChannelBuzz.ca Podcast.
