Access Distribution: OneTech Services For All

Access Distribution's OneTech initially provided first- and second-tier technical support for solution providers regarding a number of manufacturers but has expanded the offerings to include:

Integration services through Access Disttribution's integration center in Livermore, Calif., to deliver fully loaded and tested systems to end users.

Increased support services such as help-desk resources so that solution providers do not have to add IT staff or infrastructure.

Professional services such as on-site or remote installation, product training, technology evaluations and data center assessments.

IT analytics, which offers the infrastructure to break into managed services through a partnership unveiled last month with Klir Technologies.

"If there's one thing we want to accomplish with the OneTech suite, it's to lower the financial barriers for solution providers to enter into some of these technological offerings. We also want to drive toward a clear, concise engagement model for all our partner community," said Chuck Scalia, director of IT service solutions at Access Distribution, Westminster, Colo.

For example, Access Distribution performs thousands of integration events each month on behalf of solution providers, but there was no simple way to navigate the process, Scalia said.

"We have a concise package of offerings now, instead of 'Here's one offering that we did over here and here's another over there' that a group of customers may not have been familiar with," he said.

Access Distribution is marketing the services toward resellers that have not made investments in the areas that OneTech covers, but also to those that already have some of the expertise, Scalia said.

"Resellers may already have a help desk in place, but what's expensive is the weekend and overnight support. We can deliver that. Resellers may elect to take tier-one or tier-two calls Monday through Friday until 5 p.m. and then we take over," he said.

The managed services offering enables Access Distribution to offer the IT Analytics platform from Seattle-based Klir as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model that will help eliminate a solution provider's up-front capital investment, Scalia told CRN last month.

Klir's IT Analytics platform delivers realtime visibility of the performance of end users' applications, bandwidth, networks and servers, he said. Solution providers can use the Klir tools to peer into core network systems and plot performance measures. Application monitoring, audits and follow-up analysis of IT infrastructure and applications can also be performed using the platform, according to Scalia.