Avnet Hall-Mark resellers will be getting some helpful warnings from the distributor in a bid to increase their services revenue, the company has announced.
The Tempe, Ariz.-based company says its Channel Connections portal will now include a section called Renewal Portfolios which will show
when client hardware and software service contracts are coming due. An e-mail warning will also be sent so resellers will be able to follow up with customers to sell renewals or equipment upgrades.
“”We are without question ahead of the rest of the distribution market with the tools we are delivering,”” said Rodger Arndt, vice-president of product and customer marketing for Avnet Hall-Mark.
Such contracts are a “”very good margin business,”” said Arndt, one which will be scooped up by hardware manufacturers like IBM if resellers don’t capitalize on them first.
“”The whole objective is putting resellers in the right place at the right time.””
The company is the reseller division of Avnet Inc.
Arndt estimated it has 50 resellers in Canada doing about $135 million in business with it a year.
The portal will give 90 days warning on service contracts and up to 18 months on leasing expirations, he said.
For those VARs who don’t do service renewals Avnet has an aftermarket service which partners can sell and let the distributor do the business.
The company also announced the merger of all of its partner education portals and programs into what it calls the Partner Academy, a single umbrella under which resellers can find learning material.
The distributor is divided into divisions based on manufacturers (such as IBM and HP), with each having its own education packages.
“”Because many of our VARs buy from each of these divisions we felt it would be much smarter if we put an umbrella over that to make it easier for them,”” said Arndt.
“”That way if we’re doing a storage training session we can provide cross-vendor training.””