Arrow Aims For Seamless KeyLink Integration, Execs Say

Arrow expects to close the $485 million acquisition, announced in early January, within the next couple of months. Cleveland-based KeyLink, a distributor of enterprise IBM and Hewlett-Packard products, has about 500 employees and sells to approximately 800 solution providers.

"We always take the time so that our suppliers and our customers are not injured in these deals," said Catherine Morris, co-president of Arrow ECS.

"We'll leave the Agilysys IT system up for 12 months to make sure we understand all of the capabilities," she said. "We have integration teams for each one of the businesses that are co-led by an Agilysys and an Arrow senior leader. They'll be collectively coming up with right decisions as to what's best for the future of ECS."

The KeyLink acquisition was Arrow's third in three months. In December, Arrow agreed to buy U.K.-based InTechnology, a distributor of storage and security, and Arrow completed its purchase of Alternative Technology, an Englewood, Colo.-based specialty distributor, in November.

Morris and Kevin Gilroy, most recently CEO of OnForce and a longtime Hewlett-Packard channel executive, are serving as co-presidents of the ECS group. They assumed their roles on Jan. 2.

Gilroy said that having two executives in the president's role enables him and Morris to represent the Melville, N.Y., distributor at simultaneous meetings -- internally and with vendors and customers -- as it moves forward with the integration of the three companies.

"I think it's key for us at Arrow to understand exactly the pain points and agendas of our suppliers, because they're a constituent of ours, but also to understand what the VARs need and the customers need," he said.

Arrow expects the acquisition of InTechnology to grow Arrow ECS' European market share to 7 percent and to represent about 20 percent of the distributor's ECS business. Arrow plans to focus on building up its European and North American businesses before looking to expand into other regions, Morris said.