Arrow Electronics' Support Net Launches Smart Shuffle iSeries Reseller Plan

Published: January 23, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Arrow Electronics is one of the largest distributors of servers in the world, and is one of the three key master distributors of IBM's eServer product lines. The other two master distributors are also "A" companies, specifically Avnet and Agilysys. And all three companies are very competitive, and they want their downstream resellers to sell as much IBM iron as they can.

That's why Arrow's Support Net division has launched the Smart Shuffle program, which is a business development effort that seeks to help Arrow resellers peddle more iSeries iron and expand the solutions that these resellers can bring to market. Smart Shuffle is an adjunct development and marketing campaign to IBM's own iSeries Innovation Initiative, which was launched last year to pump up the iSeries platform and to get new solutions on the box. The idea is to get Arrow resellers certified to sell more solutions, which broadens their value-added status with IBM. Value-added enhancements, or VAEs, are the name of the game in the iSeries market. To be involved in an iSeries deal, you can't just sell an iSeries box, you have to add value to it in some way. But beyond that, the Smart Shuffle program seeks to educate resellers that even without IBM's rules, the more VAEs you have, the more potential that you have to win deals at either existing customers or--and this is the important thing--at new ones. Arrow is acting as a liason between ISVs and their channel development programs and its own resellers to get the right people working with each other.

"The Smart Shuffle program is another example of how we provide clear and actionable business development programs to our resellers," explained Eric Williams, vice president of the Support Net division. "We are helping our resellers increase their capacity to deliver IBM solutions to their customers and subsequently, increase their revenues."