GE Access To Resell StorageTek Professional Services

The professional services SKUs can help solution providers fill gaps in their coverage and could be used when developing large storage solutions, said George Karabatsos, vice president of reseller channel sales at StorageTek, at GE Access' New Frontiers Conference in Keystone, Colo.

"They can sell the whole story, from up-front services for infrastructure design to implementation," Karabatsos said. "All of a sudden, they have a whole team of StorageTek folks to help them construct the ROI story."

In particular, StorageTek Professional Services can help sell the Louisville, Colo.-based company's Information Lifecycle Management strategy, which details effective storage consolidation solutions, he said.

"Solution providers can't just sell hardware or just sell software. They have to provide solutions," Karabatsos said. "The trick becomes recognizing and dealing with the fact that all data is not equal. Some information is less significant than others. Having the right tools to store and manage that data becomes key. That's where you can show end users how they can see increased productivity and reduced costs. The partner can add real value."

Will Sumners, vice president of enterprise solutions, logistics and integration at GE Access, said selling StorageTek Professional Services is part of the Westminster, Colo.-based distriubtor's focus on increasing its services portfolio available to solution providers.

"We are creating a services vertical," Sumners said. "We're grown our Sun services business and we are extending that to other products we carry. I suspect you will continue to see an expansion of our services offerings with all our vendor partners."

Al Gnuse, manager of Maryville Technologies, a St. Louis-based solution provider, said he will utilize his own company's professional services staff first before looking to resell a vendor's services.

"But we may need to look at [the StorageTek services] because we might not have the right skill set in a particular situation," Gnuse said.