For months IT resellers and solution providers have been looking for
answers about how to access economic stimulus funds available as part
of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to help pay for IT
projects at client sites.
In answer to that, several vendors and distributors have been working
on programs to help their IT reseller and solution provider channel
partners get access to the right information and agencies. Distributor
Tech Data released Economic Stimulus Watch, an initiative that the
company says will help resellers track the billions of dollars in IT
spending available for IT projects starting as early as this summer.
Tech Data says that its Economic Stimulus Watch Web resource center
aggregate Tech Data’s product knowledge, technical expertise and
public-sector sales support. In addition, it will provide an
interactive forum in which resellers can post questions and comments,
as well as communicate with Tech Data systems engineers, credit
specialists and other members of the team for bid and pricing support.
Tech Data says this resource center also will include the updates on
ARRA, links to federal and state government procurement Websites,
whitepapers for in-demand solutions and Webinars and podcasts, plus
advice for writing grant proposals, building bids and responding to
RFPs.
"The total economic stimulus package is expected to top $780 billion,
and undoubtedly that will create tens if not hundreds of billions of
dollars in IT spending,” says Ken Lamneck, Tech Data’s Americas
president, in a prepared statement. But questions remain, and Tech Data
says it intends to provide the answers to IT reseller and solution
provider questions about how to tap into the economic stimulus package.