German business software vendor SAG AG is continuing its embrace of the channel through an expanded distribution agreement with value-added distributor Avnet Technology Solutions that targets the popular trend of big data and analytics.
SAP has already been working with Avnet in several Asian countries, and the new agreement adds Canada and the U.S. to the countries where Avnet will distribute SAP’s analytics, database and technology, and enterprise mobility offerings to its channel partners. The offerings include the in-memory SAP Hana platform and the SAP Afaria mobile device management solution, as well as SAP Lumira, SAP Sybase, and solutions from SAP Business Objects and SAP Crystal.
“Enterprise software is predicted to be the fastest growing segment of the worldwide IT market in the coming year, and Avnet expects that our relationship with SAP in the U.S. and Canada will help our channel partners capitalize on the opportunity this presents,” said Jeff Bawol, president, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, in a statement. “With our proven solutions distribution methodology, Avnet plans to rapidly educate and enable a community of partners on the industry, sales and technical skills they need to help solve their customers’ business challenges with enterprise software. Our partners will be able to further differentiate themselves with an in-depth understanding of the crucial role services and hardware play in ensuring the success of enterprise software deployments.”
Avnet will provide assistance to its partners to help them become authorized SAP resellers, targeted data mining to help identify sales opportunities, reference architectures for converged infrastructure solutions, sales and technical training and demand generation programs.
“The channel is a vital part of SAP’s long-term growth strategy and will help us solve customers’ business challenges related to analytics, big data, converged infrastructure, enterprise mobility and beyond,” said John Graham, head of ecosystem and channels for SAP Americas, in a statement. “Avnet has proven expertise in quickly recruiting, educating and enabling a highly-skilled channel partner community that understands how to serve as an extension of our sales force. We believe Avnet and its partner community will be an impactful addition to our team. In cooperation with our channel partners and distributors like Avnet, SAP can further help our customers become better run businesses.”