The distributor's new team will unite sales representatives, product specialists and systems engineers to encourage cross-selling and help VARs provide IBM solutions.Distributor Tech Data has launched IBM One Team, a single point of contact for its IBM units and VARs, to encourage cross-selling and higher attach rates across the IBM portfolio, Tech Data officials announced the week of May 15.
IBM One Team will aggregate all Tech Data's IBM sales, marketing and technical support under one umbrella to drive more product into the solution, said Pete Peterson, Tech Data's vice president of Systems Product Marketing, in Clearwater, Fla.
The team is made up of dedicated sales representatives, product specialists and systems engineers cross-trained to sell and support IBM's hardware, software and services, to help VARs fulfill end-to-end IBM solutions and not just move product, Peterson said.
"Our business is about attach rates," Peterson said. "We succeed by building more product into the solution."
Cisco has plans to leverage Tech Data's support and third-party application relations to take SAN (storage area network) technology to market. Click here to read more.
Currently the organization has product champions, but they represent the interests of particular products, Peterson said.
IBM aims blade servers at SMBs (small and midsize businesses.) Read more here.
"These guys go out on a storage call, but they're not thinking about the server opportunity or the software opportunity involved," he said. "Broader knowledge of the product portfolio across the staff will encourage entangling solutions whenever possible."
"It's not our job to create demand for the products," he said, "but to create a connection between the manufacturer and the opportunity."
The move marks a step up for the distributor to more solution-driven strategies, Peterson said.
VAR to VAR 
