Avnet To Offer Content, Doc Management Products

Avnet Technology Solutions is expanding its stable of products and services for its solution providers, including new document and content management solutions, new training for partners looking to do more in the government market, and a new partnering network.

The Phoenix-based distributor plans to roll out document and content management offerings to its solution providers within the next six months with a full range of training and marketing support based on its acquisition last December of the IT Solutions Division of U.K.-based Acal.

John Paget, president of Avnet Technology Solutions, told solution providers at his company's annual Enterprise Software and Storage partner summit this week in Scottsdale, Ariz., that it is important for distributors to continually look for new solutions for its VAR partners.

For document and content management, Avnet looked to the U.K. for a tried-and-true program, Paget said. Acal is the second-largest document and content management distributor in Europe, and its solution providers are getting 30-percent margins, he said.

"It gives VARs huge opportunities for new services," he said. "Services are 30 percent to 40 percent of the total solution."

Bob Guilbert, managing director of EzeCastle Integration, a Boston-based solution provider specializing in servicing hedge fund operators, said he is curious to see what products Avnet brings to the market.

"There are already many vendors selling document management into the hedge fund market," Guilbert said. "I see this as an opportunity for us."

Also on the way from Avnet is the addition of a course on how to do business with the government as a part of the Avnet University program.

The program, to be rolled out in the next 30 to 60 days, will include two days of high-level training along with a third day of vendor-specific training, said Tony Vottima, vice president of vertical market solutions for the distributor.

Avnet is currently offering such training on a one-to-one basis, Vottima said. "But now we want to do it in more of a university format," he said.

Avnet University, which currently offers similar courses for the healthcare market, was started to help partners expand into markets they might not have considered before, Vottima said. "We want to help partners understand the new market so they can walk in to a customer and be accepted," he said. "We also help them know who to contact. It's not always the CIO."

Hope Hayes, president of Alliance Technology Group, a Hanover, Md.-based solution provider which currently counts the federal government a one of its customers, said she will be interested in learning more about the new training as it is rolled out.

However, Hayes said, there are a lot of companies out there claiming to be able to help expand into government but who cannot deliver on their promises.

"I get at least one e-mail a day from someone telling me what I need to do to get into government," she said. "They all say the same thing. And they're all wrong. It's all stupid stuff. You got to get a contract. You got to get a team. Duh. Are they going to tell you it takes 18 months just to get started?"

Vottima also said that Avnet will shortly introduce a new partner network aimed at helping solution providers connect with ISVs.

"It will be a formal structure," he said. "We already have ISVs who serve the healthcare community. And their customers ask for solutions, so they are looking to partner with VARs. The ISVs' customers no longer have time to do the integration themselves. They're looking for partners to help them across a broad spectrum of solutions."