LAS VEGAS – It’s been a short four years for the VARnex community in the channel. But in that time, the reseller buying group from Synnex has accomplished more than a billion dollars in sales for the distributor. That is a 28 per cent year-over-year growth.
Peter Larocque, the Canadian born President, North American distribution for Synnex, said “VARnex moves the dial for us.”
Currently there are 87 Canadian members of VARnex and 327 members in the U.S. Last year, VARnex Canada had 82 members, while the U.S. group was at 315. Overall membership grew by 15 per cent, according to Larocque.
Some of the new Canadian members are: Bay St. Business Systems of Toronto, PA Software Inc. of Prince Albert, Sask., Momentis Systems of Ville Mont Royal, Que., and Groupe DL Solutions Informatics of Maniwaki, Que.
One of the key areas of focus that VARnex provides Synnex is that it helps the distributor managed the unmanaged space for its top line vendors. Synnex Canada president Mitchell Martin told CDN that the unmanaged space was a priority when forming VARnex and it has met all objectives so far.
Martin added that VARnex Canada will always hover around 90 members. Some will drop out after finding out it’s not for them, but Synnex will recruit others to fill their places, he said.
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Larocque added that the VARnex bench has now surpassed 53,000 associates.
And, this group while focused on the SMB market is cloud savvy, as Larocque reported a 300 per cent growth through CloudSolv for VARnex members. Approximately 70 per cent of that growth came from Microsoft cloud services and infrastructure.
In the mobile space, more than 30,000 activations became a reality because of VARnex solution providers in North America.
One of the new things Synnex has done is worked with the VARnex Advisory Council members to redesign the Web site.
Synnex also handed out awards called Signature Awards at the VARNex Fall Conference in Las Vegas. The VARnex Canada Partner of the Year West was Netlink Computers Inc. of Richmond, B.C. The VARnex Canada Partner of the Year Central was Powerland Computers of Winnipeg and the VARnex Canada Partner of the Year East winner was Solutions Informatique INSO of Montreal.
One quick hit before I go. Wireless networking services provider Velocitel Kevin G. Hostetler as its new CEO. Hostetler was with Ingersoll-Rand. Out-going CEO James Estes is now the Chairman of the Board.