Tech Data President: Buying Avnet TS Gives Us Best Security, Hyperconverged Portfolio Of Any Distributor

Tech Data Americas President Joe Quaglia said no one can beat the breadth of the distributor's security and hyper-converged offering after buying Avnet Technology Solutions.

The Clearwater, Fla.-based company now has the biggest endpoint and perimeter security portfolio, as well as the strongest position around hyper-converged infrastructure of any distributor, after combining its traditional broadline capability with Avnet TS's strength around specialty offerings, Quaglia said Tuesday during the TechSelect Spring 2017 Partner Conference.

Legacy Tech Data partners for the first time have access to leading data center vendors such as NetApp, F5 Networks, Riverbed Technology, Hitachi, Nutanix and Nimble, Quaglia said. Most of the channel growth in the next decade will be around emerging, next-generation technologies, and Quaglia said the Technology Solutions deal allowed Tech Data to rapidly skill up and help partners win in the market.

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"With forethought and strategy and $2.6 billion, we went all in on creating the world's premier IT global distributor," Quaglia told more than 300 TechSelect attendees at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa. "The collaboration has been outstanding."

A lot of collaboration will be needed between the Tech Data and Technology Solutions teams since the two organizations will be operating on separate enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for another six to twelve months, Quaglia said.

Although both Tech Data and Technology Solutions ran SAP applications, Quaglia said the two organizations were on different versions, meaning that a process must be undertaken to merge the two systems together.

As a result, a legacy Tech Data solution provider looking to buy Nutanix today would be manually referred by their Tech Data rep to a Technology Solutions rep to complete the transaction. Despite the manual nature of the engagement, Quaglia said 500 leads were generated and passed between Tech Data and Technology Solutions in the month following the acquisition's late February closing.

"It's manual, but I've got to tell you, it's been working really well," Quaglia said. "So bring your requests forward, and we'll make sure to connect the dots on them."

The acquisition also greatly boosted Tech Data's capacity to support channel partners, Quaglia said, doubling the size of the distributor's sales organization and technical workforce and tripling the number of systems engineers on the payroll. This will provide partners with a faster, easier and higher-quality experience from both an inside or outside sales perspective, Quaglia said.

From a security perspective, Quaglia said legacy Tech Data partners can tap into the Recon managed security services offering available through Technology Solutions that provides around-the-clock, cloud-based network monitoring for hackers, malware and other threats.

Technology Solutions partners using Recon have obtained an additional 20 points of monthly recurring revenue, Quaglia said, and have enjoyed more success in up-selling customers on additional security tools. Quaglia also urged partners to conduct more security assessments, arguing that partners are typically able to turn a client worksite assessment into additional security business.

"We're going deep on security," Quaglia said. "It's the gift that keeps on giving."

Tech Data is additionally the only IT distributor carrying all seven hyper-converged infrastructure vendors classified as "leaders" by market research firm Gartner, Quaglia said. The hyper-converged sector is the fastest-growing part of the data center with compound annual growth rates of 29 percent, Quaglia said, and Tech Data has the skilled labor needed to help with integrations.

"The Technology Solutions assets put us in a position to really, really help you grow," Quaglia said. "This is where we're placing bets and making significant investments."

Novacoast likes to source as many vendors as possible through Tech Data, but had until now been forced to procure F5 Networks through another distributor since it didn't appear on Tech Data's line card, said Inside Sales Manager Rick Cox.

The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based company, No. 316 on the CRN Solution Provider 500, said Technology Solutions' security capabilities are probably the most significant enhancements since Novacoast is heavily focused on internet security, Cox said.

Cox said he plans to spend time at TechSelect talking to, and learning more about, the new vendors Tech Data has procured through the Technology Solutions acquisition.