RIGHT ON TARGET

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Updated : December 28, 2014 00:45  am,
By R. Narayan
img52Arrow offers an extensive portfolio of products and solutions from leading technology suppliers, complemented with industry-leading resources, tools and service support. The distributor is further consolidating its channel Business in the region

Arrow Electronics has been strengthening its business in the region over the past year since it completed the acquisition of Computerlinks. The company has since then gone about adding vendor partnerships in the region and is poised to have a significant say in the regional marketplace.

The distributor see itself as an aggregator, an enabler and an ecosystem builder who can anticipate market momentum, technology demands and adoption patterns. Accordingly, the distributor is building its focus and capabilities that meet the requirements in the fast evolving marketplace.

Jean-Loup Desamaison-Cognet, VP, CEEMEA and APAC regions for Arrow’s enterprise computing solutions segment says, “With each passing day, IT is shifting more and more towards SMAC (social, mobility, analytics, cloud) and security.  This entails more integration requirements as each function enables another to maximize their effect. We are focusing on the datacenter requirements and see our role as a VAD to be significant. We have been strengthening our capabilities around each strategic pillar – security, storage, networking, virtualization etc which are the building blocks for these emerging areas.”

He adds that the company is for instance the largest VMware distributor in the world at the moment. In addition, the distributor offers technologies from leading vendors including EMC, VCE, McAfee, F5, and RSA amongst others.

Jean-Loup comments, “We can aggregate all of that expertise together to build software defined networks, virtualized environments, database analytics etc. This is where we bring a lot of value to our partners and of course we provide training, professional services etc in addition.”

The distributor also offers ArrowSphere, a cloud services partner aggregation platform, which has not yet been introduced in the region but Jean says the company will be looking into that as cloud services see increased demand.

ArrowSphere is a multi-module platform that enables the channel ecosystem (MSPs, solution providers, independent software vendors) to enter into the cloud services business in the most efficient, seamless and cost-effective way. ArrowSphere enables the channel community to either build or resell cloud services for the benefit of their customers.

Jean-Loup says, “ArrowSphere is our cloud strategy – it is an aggregation platform where we can add services of telcos and MSPs and sell it through partners. We can provide MSPs services they don’t have. If you are a reseller, you can use this as your own brand of cloud services as it is a white brand service. If you are an MSP already, you can aggregate services from the platform and resell to customers.”

The company also has another service for MSPS – ArrowSphere xSP Central, an online module launched last year that enables the managed service provider community to forecast and report on various service provider license agreements in one central platform. A key feature of the tool is the ability to simulate and predict the total cost of operating a particular cloud service for the end customer. The platform includes metering and reporting capabilities and provides MSPs with a centralized online dashboard to generate pricing models, evaluate vendor program options, automate monthly reports and perform various analyses, such as profit threshold and capacity planning.

“In the context of all these various value propositions that we offer, the role we play as distributor has only become more critical and we are well positioned to meet the needs of our partners in an industry where transformation is happening every day. We are always looking at new vendors and Technologies to address the challenges of the data center and making sure that we can bring this to our partners so that they are staying relevant to their customers,” comments Jean-Loup.

He believes that there is a significant opportunity for the channel in deploying cloud services. However, while the cloud is gaining interest, it needs better traction.

“Everyone is believing more in the cloud but it needs to take off with greater momentum. The good part for our partners is that the cloud is available through the channel,” says Jean-Loup.

The distributor is also strengthening its portfolio around data analytics.

“Social Media has an impact on the data center performance in terms of networking and optimization. It impacts analytics and mobility. Analytics is a significant opportunity. We have signed up SAS in many countries already for instance,” adds Jean-Loup.

The company is keen on strengthening its applications portfolio including cloud based models and believes this can be a good opportunity for the distribution and channel Business where it can add value. He says there will in all likelihood be more firm developments in this direction soon enough.

The acquisition of Computerlinks has helped Arrow to size up its security and data center solutions portfolio considerably, especially across the markets including this region. Arrow was already a strong security distributor prior to the acquisition but this helped it assert pre-eminence in the security distribution market.

“We were number 2 in terms of Checkpoint distribution. We were already strong on the security front for virtualization because of our strengths as the world foremost VMware distributor. However, we wanted to consolidate the security portfolio further and hence the acquisition. Today, after the acquisition, we are the largest security distributor in the world,” says Jean-Loup.

In the aftermath of the acquisition, the strategy has been to bring to market a full data center portfolio with strong specializations in skills, pre-sales, post sales, training etc.

Jean-Loup elaborates, “Channel enablement is a key focus and part of our company’s DNA. We do that promptly. Training them and helping them to see and support them later. We coach them to install and grow them so that they are fast in including new Technologies and they take opportunities.”

In addition, the company brought in shared best practices to augment the profile in the region where it sees strong growth potential.

Jean-Loup comments, “This is a growing market and the growth has been positive. We want to grow our Business here. We will now keep adding services, extend the portfolio and bring in sharing of best practices. Historically, we have always grown faster than the simple addition of the revenues of acquisition.”
The distributor has a tie-up with Oracle in its sights for this region since it already has Oracle distribution rights in several markets globally.

“We are the largest Oracle distributor in the world. We are hoping to sign with Oracle for this region as well as we quite familiar with the vendor’s portfolio.  Of course they have an existing distribution set-up for the region, so we will see what further value we can add,” says Jean-Loup.

The distributor has decided to build an office at the earliest possible instance in KSA with staff. It is also exploring the need for local office in other countries as well. This it hopes will help it provide professional services, provide training effectively and be closer to partners in those markets.