Bell Micro Extends Reach, Adds Intel

Intel products are a new area for Bell Microproducts, but executives at the storage-focused distributor said Intel will quickly become one of its biggest partners.

"We are training our technical people on Intel. We have commercial and OEM industrial sales forces to sell it. We're adding a marketing manager this week," said Hank O'Hara, vice president of semiconductor marketing at Bell Microproducts, San Jose. "We feel this will be a major product line in the next couple of years."

Starting this week, the distributor will carry Intel server motherboards and processors, as well as connectivity products including the Intel Pro 1000 and 100 adapters for Ethernet, iSCSi and RAID and the full line of Intel's Compact-PCI family.

Intel could not be reached for comment.

"I like that [Bell Microproducts is expanding [its product line. This is very cool," said Veronica Mendell, business development manager at Sigmanet, a Diamond Bar, Calif.-based Bell Microproducts solution provider. "They've started a solutions team to provide smaller resellers with SAN support. This will help round it out."

Margins for solution providers will vary greatly on the Intel products, according to Bell Microproducts' O'Hara.

"A lot depends on the solution provider; it depends on how much value they add. The more application levels you add, the higher the perceived value," he said. "If you simply put Office on something, you're not adding much value. But if you're adding a doctor's office application, that's different. For example, Intel has wireless devices to enter information into the system, so the margins become a different ball game," he said.

The Intel line will allow the distributor to offer more complete solutions, including services, to solution providers, said Rocco Ciesco, Bell Microproducts' business development manager for Intel.

"For enterprise-level resellers, we'll take our position in the storage world and the engine will be Intel, especially on the connectivity side," Ciesco said. "Our focus is on the connectivity point with the ability to share storage over a wide area. Intel is the No. 1 provider of Gigabit Ethernet, and this provides us with the platforms."

The Intel products available from Bell Microproducts are designed to be part of larger solutions, Ciesco said. Bell Microproducts' interoperability center in Minneapolis will serve as a hub for multiplatform testing of servers and storage solutions, he added.