Avnet Creates Financial, Energy, Retail Vertical Market Groups

The additions will be up and running by the end of the year and will complement and be modeled after Avnet’s existing HealthPath and GovPath initiatives for VARS selling into the health care and government markets.

To lead the programs, Avnet has hired Mike Houghton as vice president of vertical market solutions for Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. Houghton joins Avnet from Direct Alliance, a business process outsourcing provider.

Avnet hopes to replicate the success of HealthPath and GovPath, which have historical growth rates of at least 10 percent every year since they were started, said Tony Vottima, senior vice president of solutions marketing and development at Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas.

“As our partners continue to enable themselves around the data center and technology areas in high-growth areas, they’re figuring out how to differentiate themselves by taking that technical skill set and working knowledge of vertical markets to drive success,” Vottima said.

Avnet isn’t sure how many of its VARs currently sell into banking, energy and retail, but Vottima said even VARs that view themselves as experienced in those markets likely can still improve their practices.

“It’s just like when we started [HealthPath]. A lot of VARs were selling into health care, they just didn’t know health care. Those partners learn more about the customers they serve and it helps them grow their business,” Vottima said. “We know we’re selling into banking, retail and utility markets today, but how many partners have an intimate knowledge of those industries, I don’t know if we know that. They will by the time we’re done working with them.”

Avnet plans to brand each of the new verticals, likely with a “Path” name, but it hasn’t selected the names yet, Vottima said.

“We’ll follow SolutionsPath in that we’ll have university [training sessions] and white papers and an enablement piece and subject matter experts on Avnet’s team,” Vottima said.

The three vertical markets are growing, with large opportunities for VARs, said Avnet’s Houghton. Gartner estimates that North American technology sales for banking will reach $54 billion for the banking industry this year, $20 billion for energy/utilities and $40.1 billion for retail.

“My goal is to replicate what success we have seen in the other two verticals, expand it to these three verticals,” Houghton said. “Research shows that the size of these markets, with CAGR over 5 percent, represents an opportunity that our partners want to take advantage of.”