Avnet Beefs Up Its Vendor Linecard

Avnet Partner Solutions has been churning out new initiatives and vendor linecard additions in the first few months that Fred Cuen took over as president of Avnet Technology Solutions Americas. Cuen, a popular figure with Avnet solution providers, recently talked with CMP Vice President/ Editor Heather Clancy and Distribution Editor Scott Campbell about several trends in the channel and what to expect from the Tempe, Ariz.-based distributor. The following are excerpts from the conversation:

CRN: Several vendors, including Hewlett-Packard and IBM, are introducing programs to reward solution providers for selling their brand. How do programs such as HP’s AttachPlus affect you? Does it change how you deal with particular vendors?

CUEN: What we do with them is focus on how to grow their businesses. That’s what distributors are in business for. In this case, [HP] is looking for their partners to sell a total solution. It creates a win-win situation for the manufacturer and the partner at the end of the day, which hopefully ends up with a great solution for the customer.

CRN: In addition to IBM and HP, you also sell Oracle and StorageTek. How do you market those vendors when IBM and HP want you to sell more of their products?

CUEN: Through our second quarter, we have been able to grow the businesses for all our major manufacturers. I think there is a balance and there is specific enablement that we provide to all our manufacturers. The example of Oracle is a good one. I think they’re a complementary solution to all manufacturers. CRN: Do you have to place more resources or train more employees to help vendors reach their goals?

CUEN: For [HP’s AttachPlus], we have people in place today focused on storage. We conduct a number of enablement activities that include sales and technical training. Ultimately, we link the supplier and the partner on opportunities to close that business.

CRN: What do you do when for every partner that says we want to be loyal to one vendor, there’s another partner that says if they walked into a customer with just one vendor they’d be shown the door immediately? They need products that may compete with an HP product to show that he is a total solution provider.

CUEN: We live in a solution-based environment today. The end-user customer wants the products, services and software that will best bring them back a solution or the ROI required for their business. The solution provider has to be able to position a solution to provide ROI for that customer, whether that is through all the products of a particular vendor or portions from various vendors.

CRN: It seems like it would be a difficult balance to strike. If your HP business grows faster than your IBM business, does IBM say, ‘Why aren’t you growing our business more?’

CUEN: If someone else’s business is growing faster than yours, you probably [should] start to pay attention to what is going on. It could be a variety of things—service, software, programs, compensation—that would enable that to happen. [Vendors] are in tune to what is going on. If they don’t see sales making progress, they are willing to work with us.

CRN: Sun Microsystems is planning changes with StorageTek that will have more of an effect in 2006. What are you doing to keep that business?

CUEN: Our sales momentum with this particular brand has not decelerated. We have gotten great compliments from Sun and StorageTek. There are two methods of growing business. One is the continuing enablement of existing partners. Second, there is ongoing pursuit of new customers. Areas in which we may find partners are vertical markets such as health care.

CRN: Do you now have more of a focus on solution selling because of the changes with Sun and StorageTek?

CUEN: No. Solution selling is something we have been doing for a long period of time. We’re constantly looking at what technology, what trends, what vertical markets are growing so that we’re able to bridge software services and hardware together for partners. We do that for all the brands.

CRN: What are some of the most important vertical markets you’re looking at?

CUEN: We have an entre into health care. We are looking at where the markets are spending money going forward. Health care is a dominant environment. There’s a lot of solution sets there. We’re combining solutions with ISVs and companies such as Symbol and Intermec to provide comprehensive solutions in that environment. We could announce another vertical [focus] in the near future.

CRN: What other areas of technology are you looking at?

CUEN: We’re looking at networking and mobility, which are high-growth areas. I would say stay tuned. We need to be able to offer additional solutions on the networking side. [Solution providers] are asking us for it. It’s also complementary to products we sell today. When you think of Avnet, we want you to think solution sets that solve customer problems.