Huawei Enterprise Signs TigerDirect, Looks To Help TigerDirect's B2B Offering

Huawei Enterprise USA, the U.S. office of China-based technology supplier Huawei, this week said TigerDirect has joined the Huawei enterprise channel program, and will resell Huawei solutions via its business-to-business sales team.

Miami-based TigerDirect, best known as one of the largest online resellers of IT equipment to business and end-user customers, is bringing on Huawei's server, storage and networking lines as a way to expand its business-to-business offerings, said Vincent Lombard, divisional merchandising manager.

TigerDirect's B2B push is one that has been in play since before Lombard joined the company 18 months ago.

[Related: Huawei Enterprise USA Gets New Channel Chief, Goes After Cisco, Juniper With Discount Offer]

"In the last couple of years, TigerDirect has aggressively gone after the B2B business, especially after Adam Shaffer joined as executive vice president of merchandising," he said. "He has really accelerated our move."

TigerDirect does not have a large in-house services capability, but is instead working with third-party service providers worldwide, Lombard said.

Lionel Garcia, vice president of merchandising for TigerDirect, said his company in January was introduced to Huawei by its distributor ASI at the CES conference.

"We believed the commercial side of our business could use some new alternatives," Garcia said. "We've even had requests from customers for Huawei technology."

For Huawei, the new partnership means more than just another channel partner, said Jane Li, COO of Huawei Enterprise USA.

"We now have an additional 500 salespeople on the street selling our product," Li said, referring to the number of sales reps employed by TigerDirect.

Huawei, which this week is holding its annual Huawei Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen, China, has of late been focusing on building its SMB business, Li said.

"TigerDirect has been very successful in the SMB market, and is looking to expand," she said. "We have the right portfolio. So it's a natural fit."

PUBLISHED APRIL 24, 2014