Tech Data: Don't Sell 'Em A Printer, Sell 'Em A Solution

The Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor will also leverage resources from its printing solutions specialized business unit to help resellers provide automated metering, reporting and consumbable and service alerts, said Wendy Linsky, vice president of peripherals product marketing at Tech Data.

"Our printing solutions SBU really has been working on a managed services strategy to bring to the reseller community. This is our first managed print service offering. We're really excited about our opportunity to bring print solutions as opposed to just a commodity product sale to the market," Linsky said.

FMAudit's managed print services tools, including Rapid Print Assessment, are vendor agnostic, which allows solution providers to offer a flexible solution, she said.

"Many vendor partners have their own managed services strategy. But most end users today manage a fleet of printers from two or three different manufacturers. What's happened is manufacturers are coming in with services, but their proprietary offering has become very limited," Linsky said. "Now we can bring manufacturers into the solution sale with Tech Data and the reseller and build the relationship that helps make them a better reseller."

FMAudit has relationships with solution providers on its own, but Tech Data is its first distribution partner, Linsky said.

Tech Data chose FMAudit following the recommendation of several VARs focused in the printing solutions space, Linky said.

"[Printing] assessment services have been the main demand from our resellers. They wanted an an assessment tool that helps them maintain a stream of products and services," she said.

Tech Data's print managed services offering continues its strategy of offering managed services through third-party relationships. Last May, the distributor announced partnerships with remote monitoring and management software vendor N-able Technologies and professional services automation vendor ConnectWise.