Avnet Service, Order Tools Set For Ignition

The Tempe, Ariz.-based distributor also has enhanced its order management service to assist solution providers with bid certification and has teamed with Texas A&M University to develop open standards education, said Nicole Enright, director of operational excellence at Avnet Partner Solutions.

The new services tool is part of Avnet&'s Channel Connection initiative to help partners ensure they&'re not missing potential rebates, services contract renewals and more, Enright said.

“We&'re trying to fuel profitable growth for both Avnet and its partners. By facilitating more operational excellence, we can both better serve our customers,” she said.

The tool includes a new rebate management system that tracks targets and attainment levels for each solution provider. “What we have had only has about 25 percent of all rebate incentives by IBM and none by other suppliers such as HP, Oracle, EMC, NetApp, etc.,” Enright said. “One of the challenges is that each supplier has different rules. IBM has at least 15 different incentives and rules that change on a regular basis. From a systems perspective, it was difficult to program it in.”

Avnet invested in a new rules engine that identifies incentives and their rules from multiple suppliers. “It allows our resellers to maximize their earnings potential,” Enright said. “[Rebates] are a significant contributor to the profitability of our partners. It&'s in their best interest to attain as many as they can.”

Besides including multiple suppliers, the new tool lets Avnet make incentive changes almost simultaneously, she added. “If I&'m a reseller and I see I&'m close to hitting my target on this incentive, and I see I need to convince one customer to buy this quarter, that can have a significant impact on gross profits for the quarter.”

The enhancements to the order management tool enable users to see how many requests they have submitted, what percentage have been converted to quotes and orders, and how many deals have attached services, leasing or other programs.

“If you haven&'t been profitable closing items, this will tell them proactively,” Enright said. “Additionally, we track how long it takes us to complete a request. We time- and date-stamp everything and provide a summary report of how long it takes us to turn around a configuration, quote and order. Are we at Avnet doing a good enough job? We will know if we can do better.”

Avnet also plans to provide subject-matter expertise, hardware and software to Texas A&M to ensure that students are trained on the most up-to-date, open-standards solutions.

“It&'s a struggle to keep up with the pace of technology. Lots of students are graduating without a grasp of current technology. We are working on IBM&'s initiative to improve the skills of future technology workers, especially those that focus on open standards,” Enright said. “It&'s not our primary goal, but there is a logical opportunity to use this as a recruitment effort. We also are looking at other universities going forward. [Texas] A&M is known for its solid software engineering program, and IBM had already started down the path with them.”