Two reseller partners of Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions (ECS) – Champion Solutions Group and CDW Berbee – were selected as the second-place winners of IBM’s “$100,000 Business Partner Enablement Challenge,” a worldwide competition among IBM business partners to recognize sales enablement excellence.

The $50,000 first place prize went to Germany-based Horizon Enterprise Systems. Champion and CDW Berbee tied for second in the competition and were both awarded $30,000.

The resellers were evaluated on sales enablement approaches that help drive IBM systems, servers and storage business through marketing, lead generation and opportunity identification programs. Strong business effectiveness, creativity, repeatability and quick return on investment were among the criteria used to determine the winners.

The resellers were among the top-placing companies from a pool of more than 100 entries in 23 countries.

“I congratulate these partners on this prestigious and distinguished recognition,” said Eric Williams, vice president of Arrow ECS’ IBM Group. “Clearly, these companies recognize the value of effective marketing and have outstanding, comprehensive programs in place. Arrow ECS is proud to support these partners and their marketing programs.”

As a value-added distributor providing comprehensive products, services and solutions to help its partners grow faster than the market, Arrow ECS offers a range of marketing, lead generation and enablement services to partners. It provides both strategic counsel and planning expertise as well as step-by-step tactical assistance and support.

Champion’s marketing efforts have included high-level symposiums, senior-level roundtables, summits and seminars, as well as campaigns with coordinating phone scripts, letters of introduction and confirmation letters. Its marketing efforts led to $10 million in incremental sales at more than 20-percent gross margins in nearly all IBM product and service areas.

CDW Berbee developed a repeatable server consolidation assessment using the IBM CDAT toolset to open the door into new system x, BladeCenter and VMware opportunities. Although CDW Berbee used CDAT as the data-gathering tool, they have developed their own methodology around server consolidation which rivals competitive tools on the market, with a concise set of deliverables that allow customers to make educated decisions about implementing a server consolidation project.

Arrow ECS congratulates these resellers on their outstanding achievement.

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