The North American operations of Avnet Inc.’s reseller division is sporting a new moniker.
Avnet Hall-Mark has been renamed Avnet Partner Solutions (APS) to better reflect the division’s shift from selling boxes to delivering services to value-added resellers, system integrators and independent
software vendors.
“”I believe the name has caught up with the change we’ve seen over the last couple of years,”” said Roger Arndt, vice-president of product and customer marketing for APS’ IBM Americas group.
The name change also puts the division in line with units of the company outside North America who also bear the Avnet Partner Solutions name.
Avnet Inc. is a Tempe, Ariz.-based IT sales and marketing group with divisions in countries around the world. The Technology Solutions division, which includes APS, pulls in US$4 billion a year according to the company.
Arndt didn’t have figures for all of APS’ Canadian operations. But he said the IBM group alone does over US$100 million in business in Canada through just under 100 partners.
APS partners range from large system integrators such as NexInnovations and Xwave to small VARs.
“”A lot of the IBM partners knew Avnet but weren’t as familiar with the Hall-Mark division,”” Arndt noted. When it became a separate operating unit at the beginning of the year the company thought it might be time to change the name.
“”The conclusion we came to was that the business had changed thought the years and they type of partners we dealt with had expanded. We used to work with resellers. Now we work with system builders, ISVs. Our services are more than delivery of a product: We do a lot more integration support, we work with ISVs to help them build a channel. So we felt it was time to re-identify ourselves.””
Meanwhile, the name change has no effect of APS’ ambitious goals for this country. “”We have seen good growth in Canada,”” said Arndt, “”and have aggressive growth objectives for the coming year.””