Westcon Seminars Aim To Help VARs Crack The Stimulus Code

Westcon Group this week launched a series of online educational seminars devoted to helping its VAR partners better understand the opportunities that exist thanks to the federal stimulus package.

While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 presents a number of potential plays for resellers, seeing the dollar amounts of stimulus allocation and understanding how to reap the opportunities created by those dollars are two very different things, the distributor said.

"You see this money, but how do you understand what grants are going where? Where do you make calls? Where do you look for deals, especially locally?" said Ronald Sheps, Westcon Group's vertical markets manager, in a ChannelWeb interview. "What are the specific technology solutions in demand, and in which vertical markets? That's what we're looking at."

The first seminar, sponsored by Cisco Systems, was held Thursday and examined the stimulus dollars from a long view. The next three seminars are devoted to specific verticals and take place over the next two weeks: a session for state and local government resellers on Tuesday, March 3, a session for health-care resellers on Wednesday, March 4, and a session for federal resellers on Tuesday, March 10.

Outside consultants and various members of Westcon Group's executive team, including Sheps, will be presenting during the sessions and hoping to give Westcon's partners a clear understanding of where they can grab hold of stimulus-driven opportunities.

Despite the recession, many solution providers told ChannelWeb in the 2009 Growth Study that they're projecting moderate growth—at least 4 percent—in the next 12 months. The federal stimulus means specific growth opportunities in federal, SLED and health-care markets, with energy opportunities, electronic medical record (EMR) opportunities and transportation plays expected to dominate the conversation.

Sheps said that Westcon Group would be looking at opportunities for solution providers beyond federal, SLED and health care and that its educational seminars would expand to other topics and other potentially lucrative vertical markets. He recommended solution providers follow the stimulus news on www.grants.gov, where the federal government lists new grant opportunities and, Sheps said, is a good reference for stimulus-related information.

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