Arrow and IBM to Chase Deals Together in Poland

Published: September 15, 2008

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Server maker IBM and one of its two key master resellers, Arrow Electronics, have joined forces to try to take a concerted effort to push servers and storage into SMB shops into Poland.

The deal, which involves the Enterprise Computing Solutions group at Arrow and IBM's Power Systems division, allows Arrow ESC to peddle the full Power Systems i Edition and AIX and Linux Edition machines, as well as their System i and System p predecessors (which is important for upgrade deals) into Poland through a reseller channel. Arrow, you will remember, significantly expanded its presence in Europe back in March when it acquired the Logix Group subsidiary of French IT distributor and consultancy Groupe Open; Logix has about 6,500 customers in Europe.

Both Arrow and its main IT distribution rival, Avnet, have been buying up distributors and resellers in North America and Europe as those companies have sought to cash out of distribution and focus on higher-margin solutions and services sales in the IT area. Arrow and Avnet have been particularly keen on making deals in Europe, which has decent growth, particularly in Eastern Europe.

Arrow ECS distributes IBM systems in Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, and now Poland through Logix Group. Arrow ECS is based in Englewood, Colorado, and had sales of $4.8 billion in 2007.

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