Access Distribution, BEA Ink Deal

The Westminster, Colo.-based distributor signed a deal with BEA last week to become the third distributor of its enterprise infrastructure software, according to the companies.

"As we look for a place to launch application infrastructure, BEA becomes the foundation. It's a logical fit for us. We expect this to positively impact our current solution providers and we expect to add new resellers," said Grant Hunter, vice president of Enterprise Solutions at Access Distribution.

Access Distribution will offer BEA's WebLogic Enterprise Platform and related maintenance, service and education programs, Hunter said.

BEA, San Jose, Calif., signed Agilysys as its first distribution partner in March and signed Arrow Electronics in October. The vendor's previous channel strategy consisted mainly of direct relationships with systems integrators and ISVs, but the company now wants to reach more midmarket customers through solution providers, said Beth Vanni, senior director of channel strategy and planning at BEA.

"As Web infrastructure software becomes more prevalent and the category becomes more widely embraced, the midmarket is a sweet spot for us, as is state and local government, health care, retail. That's not been our legacy customer. There are a whole set of verticals that we have very little coverage in," she said.

FusionStorm, a San Francisco solution provider, has done one-off deals with BEA over the past year, but BEA's products will likely become a more regular part of its solution stack, said John Varel, chairman and CEO of FusionStorm. "BEA has got such a broad market coverage at this point, and finally they have a channel. Now we have an opportunity to work with them and get into customer accounts, where we would not have had that visibility with them before," he said.