|
Arrow ECS Helps Resellers Grow Their Services Business
According to IDC, the run-rate business of services to support the information technology needs of companies has the potential to double in the coming years. To help resellers capitalize on this flourishing market, Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions is expanding its services portfolio.
Arrow ECS serves as a global aggregator to help service providers efficiently and effectively reach new markets, while also providing resellers and their customers with services that bring value. The distributor works with service providers to develop and manage their route to market using the same distribution model that has made Arrow ECS effective in bringing technology products to customers around the world.
Resellers benefit from having the ability to serve as a trusted advisor to their customers by providing industry-leading services solutions, without having to select, engage and manage the service providers.
Demonstrating its commitment to the services market, Arrow ECS recently appointed Joe Burke to the newly created position of vice president of worldwide services. Burke is charged with building strategic partnerships that increase the breadth of Arrow ECS' services portfolio and bring a full suite of services to resellers and their customers around the world.
"As demonstrated by the recent growth in hardware-as-a-service (HaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud computing, the delivery model for suppliers is changing," said Burke. "Arrow ECS is working to increase our participation in these new models and how we support resellers in these areas."
To achieve this objective, Burke is working to identify strengths within its operations that can be extended to other regions, expand and strengthen the distributor's services portfolio, and establish a managed services offering for Arrow ECS.
"Arrow ECS is carefully assessing additions and enhancements to our services portfolio that align with our value model and are scalable," said Burke. "Overall we are attempting to grow all of these segments organically and are opportunistic when it comes to acquisition possibilities."
Arrow ECS' services business in 2008 totaled more than $1 billion. Its existing service offerings that Burke is seeking to expand and enhance include:
- Financial services, such as leasing programs, that connect resellers to lenders that offer flexible programs, low rates and a variety of payment terms. As a $16.8 billion company, Arrow is better positioned to negotiate lower rates and offer more creative solutions than resellers typically can do on their own.
- On-site and remote professional services, such as training and education, support services and engineering assistance. Professional services enable resellers to augment or outsource assistance to customers when resellers' resources are tapped or while they are building their expertise in these areas.
Arrow ECS feels that its professional services are exceptionally strong within its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, where it provides educational services for lines such as VMware and Citrix, and provides on-site engineering support to resellers and their customers. Earlier this year, Arrow ECS' DNS Arrow group in the United Kingdom was named the best VMware Authorized Training Center in the Northern EMEA and was recognized for "Excellence in Training 2006-2008" by Juniper Networks and the "Top Performing Authorized Training Center for 2008 in EMEA" by Check Point.
"Our Alternative Technology Group has built a strong professional services program in North America as well, providing services such as vendor-authorized training, on-site security assessments, engineering services and 24-hour technical support for both resellers and their customers," said Burke. "In the coming months, we will be making these services available to all North American resellers that work with Arrow ECS."
- Supplier services, such as maintenance and warranty support, sold on behalf of suppliers. Arrow ECS offers deep support in assisting resellers with capturing revenue through supplier services. For instance, it tracks service contract renewal deadlines for resellers and, with resellers' permission, negotiates contract renewals for them.
Several enhancements to these service areas have been made already. Earlier this year, Arrow ECS became authorized to provide training for Novell, lead Oracle boot camps and provide Microsoft Learning Solutions courses in North America. In addition, it became a NetApp Authorized Professional Service Partner in Denmark, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It also expanded its certified BlueTouch support for Blue Coat products beyond North America to include the United Kingdom, and added social networking and online community services available through Igloo to its portfolio.
Arrow ECS' strategy with establishing a managed service business is to serve as an aggregator for companies that have a significant HaaS or SaaS offering that is available through remote access and support the distributor's key offerings in storage, software, enterprise infrastructure, security and virtualization.
"Many of our technology product suppliers are grappling with the delivery of their own managed service offerings and we are committed to helping them deliver their services more efficiently," said Burke. "We're also looking at adding best-in-class managed services providers to our portfolio. Our role will be to recruit, ramp and retain companies with managed services that support our growth markets to help resellers win business on a solution-based model and grow their profits."
Managed services that Arrow ECS is considering include those that support IT needs such as e-mail defense, hosting, network management and security, among others. As a first step, security and hosting services were added earlier this summer, with others to follow. "Several resellers have already responded to these initial offerings with specific opportunities they are immediately interested in pursuing," said Burke.
A Web defense and archiving product from MX Logic that is sold on a referral basis, as well as an offering from Verio which involves security, hosting and network-management products, are currently being piloted. "This segment is growing and we are experimenting with ways we can be more directly involved in the value chain," said Burke.
# # #
|
