Monday Morning Impact – February 23

Published On: February 23, 2015Categories: Buzz, Uncategorized

By Ken Presti, Senior Consultant, Channel Impact

Tech Data Strikes New Mobility Agreement with AT&T

Tech Data has expanded its carrier portfolio through a Master Solution Provider (MSP) agreement through AT&T’s Channel Alliance Program.

Tech Data will act as an agent for AT&T, offering a broad portfolio of mobile activations, products and solutions in the United States via its Tech Data Mobile Solutions division. The strategy includes a focus on bundled solutions for key vertical markets to be delivered by Tech Data’s allied channel partners who will be eligible for product access, training and incentives.

“We are excited about the recent growth of the AT&T Alliance Channel Program and are thrilled to have Tech Data Mobile Solutions join us,” said Ben Ho, executive sales director of the AT&T Alliance Channel Program.

Tech Data Mobile Solutions has strategic agreements with four major carriers in the United States. The distributor claims a network of 115,000 resellers in more than 100 countries. The company generated $26.8 billion in net sales for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2014.

Channel Impact:
The move brings a lot of feet on the street for AT&T, while also helping Tech Data to leverage expanding markets in areas beyond hardware. It also gives them an opportunity to extend their footing with related channel partners.

FinancialForce.com Launches Rebate Revenue Management for Partners

FinancialForce.com, a San Francisco-based cloud ERP provider, has announced general availability of Rebate Revenue Management in FinancialForce Supply Chain Management (SCM), an application that manages the entire supply chain process from quote to fulfillment, and procurement to inventory, in a closed loop process.

The system issues notification of available rebates at the quote level, as well as tracking available rebate programs from manufacturers and capturing rebate revenue for more accurate forecasting. Additionally, the new capability flows seamlessly across procure to pay processes, allowing visibility of current rebate levels, enabling distributors and resellers to make procurement decisions at levels to trigger rebates.

“Distributors and resellers today are, at best, estimating revenue from rebates,” said Mike Flanagan, general manager of SCM applications at FinancialForce.com. “It is a long known issue in the channel as existing rebate management solutions only tackle the problem from the manufacturer’s perspective. By adding Rebate Revenue Management to FinancialForce SCM, we are allowing distributors and resellers to reclaim lost revenue by enabling real-time visibility of rebates for sales, procurement and the reconciliation process.”

Channel Impact:
Manufacturer rebates have become a key revenue stream and profit source for distributors and resellers, especially in circumstances where profit margins are squeezed. Many manufacturers are slow to deliver rebate to their partners, or fail to do so in an automated way. Capabilities such as this one can help simplify the processes and uncover greater profitability for partners.

Datapipe to Offer Managed Services for Microsoft Azure Customers

Datapipe, which specializes in enterprise-grade hybrid IT solutions for the enterprise, has announced managed services support for the Azure public cloud.

Datapipe Managed Cloud for Azure utilizes the cloud platform and Datapipe’s suite of managed services and tools to help facilitate quick, secure and effective deployment of new Azure environments from a single pane of glass.

“These new services will enable Datapipe customers to more effectively plan, build and run enterprise applications on Azure,” said Robb Allen, CEO of Datapipe.

Benefits include 24x7x365 monitoring, alerts, response and resolution, unified management of applications across Azure and Hybrid environments, architecture planning, implementation, migration, operation and optimization, and customized governance and data policy management.

“Datapipe’s capabilities to manage hybrid environments and ability to incorporate Microsoft infrastructure into hosted private clouds as well as integrate with Azure’s public cloud environments make the company a natural fit to work with Azure,” said Aziz Benmalek, general manager Hosting Service Providers Business at Microsoft.

The announcement comes on the heels of Datapipe’s acquisition of GoGrid, bringing proprietary orchestration and automation technologies and 1-Button deployment for Big Data solutions to the company’s global client base.

Channel Impact:
The managed services space is all about efficient delivery of capability to the desktop while minimizing migration and operational issues, as well as cost. This announcement brings to the table a key player in this field, which is likely to gain momentum with specific targeted classes of customers.

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