Black Box Networks has extended Canadian and U.S. agreements with Ingram Micro and Synnex.
These two deals furthers Black Box, a solution provider that specializes in building, managing and securing IT infrastructures, plan to drive more sales in the channel that includes partnerships with other resellers.
Jay Jenkins, Black Box’ strategic account manager for distribution, told CDN the company has had a long history of going direct to end user manufacturer and customers, but as the marketplace evolved from mainframe to distributed computing the shift saw system integrators and VARs becoming more relevant.
“We are a billion dollar organization and the focus is to expand now with channel partners and grow revenue through indirect channels. The sheer volume form distributors are far more than on a direct basis. That is really what it is and our next big thing is with distribution and leverage that breath,” Jenkins said.
Black Box has developed a video wall technology that features HDMI over IP on a network. Jenkins said that this product is able to scale a large amount of video without crushing the bandwidth and media centre.
The company believes this type of technology offers a unique opportunity to the reseller channel to not just sell but also propose other software, hardware and content development solutions.
“We want to work with resellers to help them engage with users and do pilots and after the sale work with the end user for the life of the product,” he added.
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According to Jenkins, the Black Box solution has data analytics built-in. Another differentiator is that the data can be separated and presented in context.
“Think about the base level product that develops multi-channel content that changes during the day for breakfast, lunch and mid-afternoon or evening menus? And, that can be controlled by corporate and they can be able to sell ad space for Coke as an example. It can do that as well as report back to Coke on what the ad impressions have done,” Jenkins said.
Both Ingram and Synnex bring a lot to the table for Black Box. Jenkins said that Ingram has breath and reach, while with Synnex they have the Solv programs that can drill down deeper. The two distributors also plan to support Black Box with marketing efforts, order to shipping logistics, credit lines, and financing to help resellers scale.
New Black Box leadership appointments
Black Box announced the appointment of Rick Gannon to vice president of operations NACS. Gannon was promoted from regional vice president.
In addition, Julie Lyda will continue in her role as vice president, strategic initiatives, and will be responsible for sales, marketing and solutions management for NACS.
Hans-Peter Kuhnert was appointed vice president of sales for the EMEA region for Black Box, while Koichiro Fukumoto was appointed Country Manager for Black Box Japan.