Certification Solution

The theory is that solution providers would take one test for multiple certifications, allowing them to focus on finding sales opportunities, said Arrow executives.

Arrow's Enterprise Storage Solutions group has contracted training group Infinity I/O, Half Moon Bay, Calif., to provide the training and hopes to convince the vendors that a single course will benefit them as well.

"If resellers have more than one relationship, you end up repeating coursework. You're out of the field, and it can be very costly," said Lance Sedlak, director of marketing for Arrow's Enterprise Storage Solutions division, Chanhassen, Minn. "Our objective is to give the reseller back time and billable hours."

No vendors have committed to the plan, Sedlak said, but they are interested.

At the opening of the distributor's Universal Enterprise Storage Solutions Lab here last week, a majority of solution providers said they favored the idea. The lab allows solution providers to build and test storage solutions from almost 20 vendor partners.

"The whole process of SAN and NAS is supposed to be that vendors are willing to work together to create the whole solution. It's not there. Each manufacturer has its own certification. You find yourself trying to [sell yourself as a multivendor solution provider, but you can't really deliver that," said Craig Thornton, president of Norcross, Ga.-based Cnetics Technologies. "You can build a complete solution, but then two of the four vendors say your tech isn't certified and you're not authorized to sell their product, even though you know the solution works," he said.

In such situations, solution providers end up selling shrink-wrapped--and often incomplete--solutions, Thornton said.

"Manufacturers who want to be their own island are cutting themselves off from working with more deals," he said.

Arrow also is exploring the idea of securing vendor certifications on behalf of solution providers, said Mike Long, president of Arrow's North American Computer Products division. In that scenario, Arrow would serve as an agent and solution providers would not need to be certified.

"The resellers get to keep doing what they do best: bringing in business," Long said. "They bring us the opportunity, we get on the phone with the customer and help them configure the solution and make sure everything is correct."

Patrick Eitenbichler, North America director of marketing for network storage at Hewlett-Packard, said HP would consider such a proposition. "Many resellers are spread too thin and need a value distributor to help them," Eitenbichler said.