Monday Morning Impact – November 30

IBM Expands U.S. Federal Cloud Ecosystem with Five New Partners

IBM announced alliances with Arrow, Avnet Government Solutions, Ingram Micro, Tech Data Corporation and ViON, bundling various solution sets with IBM Cloud for increased penetration of the Federal market, which has often been perceived as slow to embrace cloud and hybrid models. The announcement quotes market research estimating that only six percent of federal applications currently run in the cloud. Meanwhile, the proposed fiscal 2016 budget estimates that about $7.3 billion will be spent on cloud, indicating that a unique opportunity may be unfolding.

Related offerings and business units include IBM’s Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform and SoftLayer Federal Cloud offering, Arrow’s federally-focused immixGroup organization, Avnet Government Solutions and the company’s new Cloud Marketplace, the Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace, Tech Data’s product access and logistical capabilities, and ViON’s on-premise IaaS offering.

Under terms of their agreements, the five new partners will resell and market IBM Cloud Services with a focus on implementing hybrid solutions where some applications and data remain on premise but can easily integrate with systems moved to the cloud and new services launched on the cloud. They also have access to Bluemix, IBM’s Cloud platform; and IBM’s Software as a Service portfolio. IBM also offers a portfolio of FedRAMP compliant services.

Channel Impact
The federal government has clearly been reluctant to embrace the cloud for security and other reasons. Bringing together strong brands such as these may help to move that needle.

PCM Announces Key Acquisition

PCM, Inc. and Systemax Inc. announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which PCM will acquire the Systemax TigerDirect brand and related assets for $14 million.

“Systemax has built a strong, talented and productive B2B technology sales team and we look forward to bringing them into the PCM family and providing this significant number of acquired B2B customers with outstanding service and an expanded set of IT solutions to help them succeed,” said Frank Khulusi, PCM’s chairman and CEO. “Furthermore, the Canadian assets will nicely complement our very recent Acrodex acquisition, which is more concentrated on the Enterprise and Government side of the market, and the combination creates a broad-spectrum full-service market solution for vendors and customers in Canada.”

Through the contract, PCM receives the right to hire approximately 400 B2B sales representatives located across the United States and Canada, the B2B customer list, certain B2B customer and vendor contracts, trademarks and other intellectual property rights including the TigerDirect brand, and certain fixed assets and equipment.

PCM will not acquire cash, accounts receivable, inventory or trade payables in connection with the transaction. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close on December 1, 2015.

Channel Impact
This move is likely to strengthen PCM’s position in the SMB space, as well as gov/ed.

Ingram Micro Expands Education Program

Ingram Micro announced a strategic alliance with University of Phoenix to provide channel partners with training on critical business skills.

“The IT industry is constantly innovating and changing course. In order to thrive, channel partners must be focused, opportunistic and geared for growth,” said Greg Richey, director, Professional Services and Training, Ingram Micro. “They have to stay a step ahead of the trends and technologies, and seek out new ways to attract, retain and develop the best talent.”

The new education services will be available to all Ingram Micro channel partners in the U.S., and are part of the IT business leader’s fast-growing Professional Services organization.

Channel Impact
Training and education is an area where distributors are in a position to add value and to build differentiation.