Monday Morning Impact – May 11
By Ken Presti, Senior Consultant, Channel Impact
New Ingram Micro Service Helps Channel Partners with Government Contracts
Ingram Micro has announced a new sales, service and support program designed to help channel partners pursue the Federal marketplace. Available now as part of the Ingram Micro Federal Advantage Program, the new Contract Management Service provides the contract management and support services channel partners need in order to compete, win and properly manage large, long-term government IT service contracts.
“The Federal market is fiercely competitive and demands a much higher touch from channel partners on the front and backend of the deal in order to win and maintain these strategic, high-value contracts,” said Tony Vottima, executive director, Ingram Micro. “Our new Federal Advantage Program and Contract Management Service simplify the sale and success by giving channel partners the advantage when selling to and supporting the Federal market.”
The program’s features include a new contract bid desk that aggregates and tracks business opportunities, as well as provide assistance with the creation of compelling bids that meet stringent demands around technology, compliance and service level agreements (SLAs). The service also includes a support team as well as TAA-compliant product information, and depth and breadth cataloging to help them achieve and maintain contract requirements.
Channel partners actively involved in the Ingram Micro Public Sector Elite community receive discounted access to the new Contract Management Service. Other business-building services within the Federal Advantage Program are offered at no additional cost to community members.
Channel Impact
Doing business with the federal government, including the related “hoop-jumping,” has always been challenging to the channel. Services like this one go a long way towards opening new business and avenues of profitability for partners.
Avnet Now Offers CenturyLink Cloud
Avnet Technology Solutions announced that CenturyLink Cloud, CenturyLink’s public cloud platform, is available through its U.S. and Canada value-added reseller (VAR) partners through Avnet Cloud Solutions.
“The addition of CenturyLink Cloud to Avnet Cloud Solutions’ portfolio further strengthens the ability of Avnet partners to deliver essential cloud IT services that help customers enhance business agility and improve time to market,” said Tim FitzGerald, vice president of cloud solutions at Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. “It complements Avnet’s approach to solving today’s business-to-business cloud computing challenges.”
Participating partners will receive access to the Avnet Cloud Toolset (ACT) to help them efficiently manage, govern, consolidate and track their customers’ cloud accounts across multiple cloud providers. ACT features cloud usage tracking and consumption-based invoicing for workloads running on CenturyLink Cloud coupled with subscription-based workloads.
Partners can also become members of the CenturyLink Cloud Reseller Program, which provides technical resources, account provisioning support and monthly reports. In addition, Avnet’s partners will own customer billing and relationships and have the option to do so under their respective brands with the CenturyLink Cloud Reseller Program.
Channel Impact
One of the key roles of the channel in the new world of cloud computing involves helping customers pick the cloud service that best meets their needs. This “cloud aggregator” model is contingent upon partners having a wide variety of services from which to choose. Avnet’s new alliance with CenturyLink helps to increase those options, and, thereby expand the value of the partners.
Tech Data’s TechSelect Community Introduces Loyalty Program
Tech Data has rolled out its new TechSelect Loyalty Program, which provides training credits for North American solution providers who are members of the Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor’s TechSelect program, and also focused on the SMB market segment.
The initiative involves a point-based system that tracks year-over-year growth percentage with Tech Data, percentage of revenue with sponsoring TechSelect vendor partners, the number of TechSelect events attended and market share with Tech Data.
“Our new TechSelect Loyalty program is aligned with TechSelect’s goal of creating a level playing field for our members, regardless of the size of their business,” said Kaye McMillan, director, Sales Planning and TechSelect at Tech Data. “We are proud to reward our members with educational and training opportunities based on their commitment to the TechSelect community.”
Members can achieve loyalty status of Platinum, Gold, and Silver, which dictates the level of benefits for training as well as travel credits to TechSelect events. Currently, there are 10 Platinum members, 20 Gold Members, and 40 Silver members out of the community’s more than 400 members in the United States.
Channel Impact
Facilitating partner training is one of the cornerstones of modern-day distribution. However, distributors are also looking for ways to ensure that their investments are spent on partners who are most likely to bring them additional business.
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