Synnex Launches Partner Initiatives

Synnex launched separate initiatives to team its solution providers with ISVs and service providers.

The new programs are aimed at assisting Synnex VARs in driving more solution sales, said Synnex President and CEO Bob Huang.

“These are solutions we need to provide. Very often hardware is one piece of the puzzle, so we need to bring the ISV in to solve the entire business puzzle,” Huang said.

Bill Howatineck, a Synnex business development manager, is overseeing the initiatives. “Synnex does not see itself as a traditional pick, pack and ship distributor, but as a partner to help our resellers create new solutions,” Howatineck said. “We are not expecting our resellers to change their stripes. We are just trying to leverage the relationships they have with their customers.”

The first ISV that Synnex has signed is Gillani, a Richardson, Texas-based IBM Premier Business Partner with an ERP software solution for small and midsize businesses.

Mark Feldman, a Gillani senior sales executive, said the company’s ERP solution can scale from a five-user system starting at about $40,000 up to a 1,000-user system priced roughly at $1 million.

Under the ISV initiative, Gillani will pay Synnex solution providers a finder’s fee for any deals they bring forward, Feldman said. In addition, solution providers would get the revenue from any IBM hardware and middleware products attached to the sale, he said.

Synnex’s BSA Logistics telemarketing company is conducting a campaign to drive deals for Gillani and Synnex partners.

Solution providers applauded the initiatives, but noted it is important for Synnex to continue providing in-depth service as it adds to its line card.

“As long as they continue to have an open ear and listen to customers, they will continue to grow,” said Eydie Worley, marketing director of PC Universe, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based solution provider.

Meanwhile, Synnex has tapped its first two service providers to help Synnex solution providers with systems integration skills around the ISV solutions: S & P Solutions, Cleveland, and Database Integrators, Baltimore.

The service provider network is aimed at assisting solution providers with complex integration jobs, according to Howatineck.

The ISVs and service providers are required to sign noncompete clauses in order to assure Synnex’s solution provider partners that they will not lose out on business opportunities, said Howatineck, who is eyeing deals with nine service providers.

“This is going to be very select and specific to provide skills in the database arena, Web applications arena around Lotus and Tivoli products for IBM,” he said.

Synnex is taking a very measured approach to its new ISV and service provider initiatives, Huang said.

“We are the type of company [that] when we say we are going to do it, we build gradually,” he said. “It is not something we throw tons of money at from day one and then hope that the strategy would work. That is not how we do it.

“We always make sure there are some pilots and make sure the business model works from the marketing perspective all the way to the implementation so we will not be disappointed,” Huang said.

The new Synnex initiatives come as the Fremont, Calif.-based distributor is stepping up its enterprise business by considering adding a new business-continuity software vendor, a new NAS or SAN switch provider, a new firewall appliance vendor, a Linux operating system vendor such as Novell Suse or Red Hat, and a Unix server vendor, said Harry Edwards, senior vice president of Synnex’s enterprise business unit.

Edwards said Synnex is being positively received by vendors because of the distributor’s sharp focus on assisting its VARs in closing deals in the field. Synnex has hired eight field sales reps in the enterprise division as part of a no-nonsense tactic to help solution providers execute.

“There is a gap in moving from the lunch and learn [with resellers] to the business order,” Edwards said. “Our job is to build that bridge and to leave the VAR with more than just cold pizza.”

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