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Tech Data U.S. Establishes IBM One Team; IT Products Distributor Utilizes New Efficiencies to Enhance Support of IBM Resellers and Bring New Products to Channel

Posted on: Monday, 15 May 2006, 09:01 CDT

IT resellers nationwide can now leverage Tech Data Corporation's (NASDAQ:TECD) recently established IBM One Team to quickly develop, sell and support a broad range of IBM solutions. The distributor's IBM One Team comprises dedicated sales representatives, product specialists and systems engineers all cross-trained to support IBM's extensive hardware, software and services offerings.

"Tech Data's IBM One Team will help resellers conduct business more efficiently and profitably by providing a single point of contact for all their IBM solutions selling needs," said Pete Peterson, Tech Data's vice president, Systems Product Marketing. "By consolidating our IBM sales, marketing and technical support, the IBM One Team also enables Tech Data to quickly respond to the latest market trends. The team will work closely with IBM and our customers to identify new revenue opportunities and implement the business-building channel programs resellers can leverage to increase sales and margins."

The IBM One Team offers resellers dedicated pre- and post-sales support for IBM servers, storage, workstations, accessories and software applications. Additional IBM One Team services include:

-- IBM Channel Program Education ensures resellers are aware of all the manufacturer's channel programs established to help them grow their businesses. These include new end-user recruitment rebates, competitively priced server and storage products aimed at the mid-market, and financial rewards for incorporating IBM middleware into software solutions.

-- Margin Enhancement Support aids resellers in identifying the latest margin-building opportunities such as exclusive IBM incentives for increasing product attach rates, rebates on select products based on quarterly goal attainment, and discounts for software sales to new end users.

-- Demand Connection Activities provide lead generation and business-development support to help resellers uncover new revenue opportunities within their current customer accounts, as well as assist them in leveraging their existing expertise to penetrate new vertical markets.

-- Specialized IBM Trainings conducted in Tech Data's 4,500-square-foot TDSolutions Center introduce resellers and their end-user customers to the latest IBM solutions demonstrated in a real-world, hands-on environment.

"The opportunity to have a single point of contact for our IBM hardware and software purchases is a tremendous advantage," said Al Marshall, product marketing and vendor relations manager for PC Universe. "IBM One will save us time and help us focus more attention on selling and building our business, increasing our confidence that we're taking advantage of all the programs, incentives and rebates available to us as an IBM reseller."

"IBM and Tech Data are both committed to establishing the channel programs and services our reseller customers can leverage to grow their businesses and profitably deploy the increasingly complex solutions the market demands," said Towney G. Kennard Jr., vice president, business partners, IBM Americas. "The IBM One Team does just that by combining Tech Data's extensive IBM hardware, software and services expertise to help resellers more effectively capitalize on the latest IT trends."

Ensuring IBM resellers have access to the latest IT solutions, Tech Data's IBM One Team will support the new Open Stack Appliance Bundle comprised of an IBM BladeCenter LS20 Blade Server powered by AMD Opteron(TM) processors and utilizing Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server V9 and IBM's WebSphere Application Server Community Edition. The bundle is designed to help resellers deliver an integrated solution that enables quick development and deployment of custom applications for open-source environments.

"AMD, working in conjunction with IBM, Novell and Tech Data, continues to bring to market innovative solutions based on AMD Opteron processors with industry-leading performance per-watt-per-dollar," said Kevin Knox, vice president, Commercial Business, AMD. "The combination of AMD Opteron processor-based blades and open-source software preinstalled by Tech Data and supported by its new IBM One Team offers a cost-effective, scalable turnkey platform uniquely tailored for the developer community."

To learn more, contact Tech Data's IBM One Team at (800) 237-8931, ext. 83426, or visit techdata.com.

About Tech Data

Founded in 1974, Tech Data Corporation (NASDAQ:TECD) is a leading distributor of IT products, with more than 90,000 customers in over 100 countries. The company's business model enables technology solution providers, manufacturers and publishers to cost-effectively sell to and support end users ranging from small-to-midsize businesses (SMB) to large enterprises. Ranked 107th on the FORTUNE 500(R), Tech Data generated $20.5 billion in sales for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2006. For more information, visit http://www.techdata.com.

Source: Business Wire

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