It’s been a busy week for Tech Data (NASDAQ: TECD).
In Canada, the distie announced the latest addition to its lineup of marketing programs: Solutions for SMB. This is geared to vendors, rather than resellers, to help them target that elusive SMB market and provide resources to market SMB products to resellers across Canada. Resources include a year-long reseller promotion, direct mail campaigns, quarterly e-newsletter and dedicated Web resource centre.
While the program is designed specifically for vendors, resellers will benefit by having additional resources at their fingertips to target their small and mid-tier customers – something that vendors have traditionally struggled with.
And earlier this week, the distie launched another new program – this one targeted at open source ISVs and solution providers. The Open Tech program has initially been introduced to about 250 TechSelect solution providers.
Perhaps it’s the economy (as businesses and IT departments attempt to do more with less), but there’s been an increased interest in open source these days. Problem is, distributors haven’t always done the best job of addressing this market with complete solutions. And many of the niche players that are well known – and well established – in the open source space have never gone through distribution.
Distribution, of course, can help them expand their reach. This is where the Open Tech program comes in – the idea is to expand vendor line-card services and support into the open source market.
While Tech Data carries Red Hat and Novell – the two big guys in this space that are particularly strong in the data centre – the distie hasn’t traditionally carried ISV applications to round out a complete solution. To add to the mix, there are also tier-one players that offer open-source SKUs, such as Microsoft, Oracle and Symantec. And since there’s a growing demand for open source, the distie is attempting to step it up a notch.
Tech Data says it has about 1,400 solution providers that are actively buying open source applications. So it’s in talks to bring 12 to 15 open source ISVs on board in areas such as content management, business intelligence and collaboration. These ISVs have VARs but have never gone through distribution – yet.
Earlier this week, Tech Data also launched its first Specialized Business Unit focused on healthcare – at least in the U.S. The plan is to develop repeatable solutions for electronic medical records, as well as solutions around mobility, content management and digital signage, and so far it has about 10 vendors on board. The distie will start small with a group of about 500 healthcare solution providers and go from there.
Healthcare, like open source, is somewhat immune to the effects of the recession.
And it seems distributors like Tech Data are increasingly focusing their efforts on markets with such immunity.