Arrow MOCA Unveils Storage Lead Generation Program

Under the distributor's Make the Sale program, qualified end-user leads are identified by the MOCA Division from its database of over 30,000 potential clients and passed to the appropriate solution provider based on geographic location of the lead, said Laura Schurr, director of marketing services.

Leads will come from both Solaris and non-Solaris clients with revenue between $75 million and $2 billion, company officials said.

Solution providers attending Arrow's 2003 Net@Work Partner Forum, held here this week, said they are excited about the new program.

Richard Taylor, president and CEO of Longwood, Fla.-based Argenta Technologies Group, which three months ago was formed from the commercial and education business units of another Sun channel partner, AISG, said Make the Sale will help his company focus its resources on its core business.

"It's always difficult to decide where to maximize your resources," Taylor said. "You need to look at how to maintain and grow your sales base. A salesperson might cost $100,000 a year, and it's hard to invest that kind of resource in cold-calling. This program provides us with an entree into qualified leads. ... it shows that MOCA is sincere in its investment in us."

The Make the Sale program lets solution providers offload marketing efforts in order to work on other opportunities, said Pat Edwards, vice president of sales at Alliance Technology Group, a Hanover, Md.-based solution provider which recently signed on with Sun.

"I'm a data storage integrator without a separate marketing department," Edwards said. "I need to leverage these opportunities. Since MOCA does this on behalf of many partners, it's cost effective for them. And the more opportunities I get, the more I can close on, and the more the opportunities for Sun and its channel."

Arrow has already signed up 16 partners for the program, including Argenta and Alliance, and expects a minimum of 25 to eventually sign up, Schurr said. It is open to Sun's Storage Elite partners and those who have not yet qualified for elite status, she said.

The program is totally funded by Arrow with a budget of $50,000 to $100,000, said Schurr. It will continue to run in its present form until early December, at which time it will be re-evaluated for its return-on-investment prior to relaunch in January, she said.