Specialty Distributors Jump-Start Businesses

Guardian Technologies, a Chicago-based security integrator formed less than two months ago, could never have hit the market as quickly as it did without the help of GE Access, said Jason Prost, Guardian's president and CEO.

"In our original model, we felt we would not be able to go out and sell products for at least 12 months, and we were looking at small companies as partners," he said. "GE Access gives us the ability to partner with large, established companies."

Working with such specialty distributors gives solution providers access to marketing campaigns, demand-generation programs, test facilities and channel support that might otherwise be unattainable, said Kip Lindberg, vice president of enterprise sales at Ncell Systems, a Minnetonka, Minn.-based Sun Microsystems solution provider.

One Ncell client, for example, wanted to migrate a 180 million-record, 400 million-row database from an IBM mainframe,where it takes 20 days to load,to a faster operation, Lindberg said. But because GE Access had a 64-way Sun Starfire E10K server in its Advanced Computing Center, Ncell was able to prove that the database could be downloaded in less than 24 hours, he said.

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"Once we knew it was a viable solution, we could move forward," Lindberg said.

Solution providers need solutions, not just bundles, said Michael Minard, executive vice president at Boulder, Colo.-based GE Access. Besides testing and benchmarking facilities, the distributor offers predefined solutions via its Solutions Development Lab and preconfigured products through a 16,000-square-foot integration center, he said. Other programs include OpenLink, in which GE Access offers qualified end users 30-day terms on purchases made through solution providers, with the distributor handling credit applications and billing.

San Jose, Calif.-based Bell Microproducts is zeroed in on helping small solution providers bring advanced solutions to storage-hungry clients, said Phil Roussey, executive vice president of enterprise solutions at the distributor. "If the general VAR population tried to go to the vendors directly, they wouldn't get through the firewall," Roussey said. "Only the biggest get that opportunity."

Bell Microproducts offers three levels of partner support, ranging from novice storage solution providers to those that have steady customers but still need assistance, Roussey said. Resources include product training, concept training, supplier initiatives, online white papers and training videos.

"We enable them to go with confidence and say, 'Mr. Data Center, you should use remote storage to back up your data to another data center, just like you put insurance on your house,' " Roussey said. "Or to say, 'Mr. Customer, you have six servers. One is maxed out, and the rest have only 20 percent utilization. Here's how to put a piece of software on top to migrate your servers and storage to better utilize your existing equipment.' "