Stimulus Smarts: Scenes From Tech Data's Public Sector Soiree

About 265 VARs with stimulus and public sector business on the brain gathered in Arlington, Va., last week for Tech Data's Tech EDG and Technology Solutions Tour -- a two-and-a-half day conference geared specifically to VARs, public sector spending and trends in software, networking and SMB.

Joe Quaglia, Tech Data's senior vice president of U.S. Marketing, urged VARs to make the most of their Tech Data relationships and look to the distributor to help it reap public sector dollars in the year of the stimulus. In an interview with Channelweb.com, Quaglia said VARs would find the best stimulus opportunities in SLED and health care -- and they needed to specialize in particular public sector areas and particular technologies as much as possible to win the business.





"If you're going after this, you have to put an expert in place. In your organization, designate what I'd call a 'stimulus czar' -- someone to uncover and peel back the layers to see exactly how to manage opportunities and become the trusted adviser, as many of these VARs have become, to local end users," Quaglia said. "The way I'm advising customers today is to narrow things down as far as possible -- specialize in a few particular technologies and verticals."

An exhibit hall afforded Tech Data vendor partners the opportunity to get in front of current and potential VAR partners. Earlier in the day, analysts and vendor representatives such as Mike Humke, vice president of Public Sector for Hewlett-Packard's Solution Partners Organization (SPO), had offered some words of wisdom to help VARs adjust their mind-set to the current public sector spending climate, especially in SLED.



Humke himself told VARs to view the stimulus as one piece of the overall puzzle -- not necessarily the main focus. "The stimulus is not what's going to win you business," Humke said. "It's only one piece of the total picture. Don't lead with just a stimulus message. Show them how to change their business and understand why it needs to change."

HP's table was one of the many that kept busy throughout the Technology Showcase.

John O'Shea, Tech Data's vice president for Networking Product Marketing, reiterated the distributor's commitment to networking VARs and discussed the impact of networking both in government and as part of the greater trend toward data center convergence.

Scott Tillesen, Tech Data's director of credit -- SMB accounts, told VARs that they needed to be as open and honest as possible with their creditors in a difficult climate such as the present one.



"Bad news is better than no news to a creditor," he said. "If it's bad news, and you tell us that and say, 'Hey, here's what we're going to do about it,' that's a lot better than making us guess."

Following his presentation to VARs, Tillesen said he saw at least one silver lining in the economic downturn: disciplined best practices.



"They're [VARs] asking us for the same thing they've always asked for: extended terms," he said. "But if you enable someone to pay you slowly, there's strong evidence to suggest their ability to collect bills will deteriorate. If you keep on them, they learn to stick to a standard and use better business management."

Raritan had a message for VARs stressed out about stimulus and storage.

Barb Miller, Tech Data's vice president for Government, Technical and Integration Services, took a few minutes out of a busy evening to visit with, well ... the president and first lady.

Alison Reeley, Tech Data's senior marketing planner, was on hand to answer VARs' questions about TDAgency, the distributor's marketing services arm.

Tech Data VAR attendees were given tickets in hope they'd walk away as winners of some pretty cool prizes. Hmmm ... we could use a new GPS ...

James Robinson, CEO of Asyncrob, snagged a free Toshiba notebook. He and Tech Data's Director of Marketing Services Pat Olson (left) look pretty psyched to us.

Representatives from TechEDG, TDAgency, Credit and other services arms of Tech Data were on hand with good advice.

Alex Hart, a former director of public sector channel sales at Symantec, who at TechEDG described himself as an independent IT consultant, issued a familiar refrain to VARs: "Don't sell stuff. Solve problems."



Hart listed virtualization, information security, green IT, electronic medical records, oversight and transparency, e-mail and content management, consolidation and shared services, and data center efficiency as some of the most bankable technology categories for public sector.



VAR sales to the public sector, he advised, are "like taking an open-book test where all of the answers are in the back of the book. One caveat: The answers are in Greek."

Axis Communications set up TVs and a video feed so you could see all the card table action without ever having to ante up.

The final night of Tech EDG and the Technology Solutions Tour gathered VARs for dinner and a casino night. A roll of the dice lasts one fun evening, but VARs who hope to capitalize on federal stimulus money and public sector opportunities had better be in it for the long haul.