BMC, Avnet/Hall-Mark Ink Distribution Deal

BMC Avnet/Hall-Mark

The deal, to be announced next week, will make BMC's Oracle tools available to an array of Oracle and Veritas solution providers.

BMC, based here, has focused in high-end enterprise and database tools, but mostly via direct sales.

"In the last 18 months we've invested heavily on the distributed side, taken our flagship tools to that environment, selling through our direct-sales force and systems management partners and resellers. . . . But we realized as the markets mature, there are two camps, systems management people who look at the whole enterprise and DBAs [database administrators who are primarily interested in the database. We want to improve our relationship with the DBAs, become the DBA's best friend," said William Donahoo, vice president of business development at BMC.

Tempe, Ariz.-based Avnet/Hall-Mark "is a value-added distributor. . . . They fulfill but do so in a value-added way . . . with a plethora of marketing, support and financial services to resellers. . . . The fact that they happen to have a great Oracle business makes them perfect for us," Donahoo said.

George Brookler, senior vice president of software and services at Avnet/Hall-Mark, said the companies are a good match.

"We see the BMC offering--not just the data products but the whole line--as being valuable to our VAR community," Brookler said.

One East Coast Oracle reseller, who requested anonymity, was bullish on the prospect. "Having a one-stop shop for both the databases and relevant tools helps us. The BMC tool complements the solutions we offer."

Last month, BMC said it was moving its Oracle DBA tools over to IBM's DB2 as well. The company is striving to position itself as a provider of performance management, administration and recovery tools for all the major databases Oracle, DB2 and Microsoft SQL Server.