SYNNEX Corp. has deepened its alliances with Google, Aerohive Networks Inc., and Brocade Communications Systems Inc., and introduced a new virtual sales management program.
The Greenville, S.C.-based distributor made all four announcements during the spring meeting of its Varnex partner community and the 2017 edition of its Red, White & You government industry partner conference, both of which took place this week in Austin, Texas.
Under the new agreement with Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, SYNNEX is now authorized to offer the G Suite collection of cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications through its North American reseller channel.
Those systems will be delivered by SYNNEX’s CLOUDSolv online application marketplace, which already provides Google Chrome Device Management services. The addition of G Suite to the CLOUDSolv portfolio as well equips partners to build and deliver more complete Google solutions to their customers.
The expanded partnership with Aerohive makes SYNNEX’s Greenville headquarters the Milpitas-based Wi-Fi vendor’s first authorized training center. Resellers will have access to instruction from both SYNNEX and Aerohive engineers on best practices for designing, deploying, managing, and supporting Aerohive-based networks.
SYNNEX unveiled a “Wireless-as-a-Service” offering that combines access points, hosted W-Fi services, and traffic analytics from Aerohive with optional configuration, management, and onsite access point deployment services from SYNNEX at its fall 2016 Varnex meeting in Las Vegas.
“This kind of expanded relationship with Aerohive is a key to making sure our community of resellers has the full spectrum of products and solutions for wireless networks,” said Peter Larocque, SYNNEX’s president of North American Technology Solutions, in a press statement. “We are pleased to be the exclusive provider of training that helps resellers become stronger service providers while building their own expertise and profitability.”
In a further broadening of its networking product family, SYNNEX has added Brocade Ruckus ICX campus switches to its line card. Delivered through SYNNEX’s CONVERGESolv Advanced Technologies platform, the new offerings build on an existing relationship between SYNNEX and the former Ruckus Wireless. San Jose, Calif.-based Brocade acquired Ruckus in May of last year.
In addition to the switches themselves, CONVERGESolv will offer wireless surveys, network and security assessments, onsite installation, ongoing managed services, training, and more to resellers of Brocade systems.
“SYNNEX is pleased to offer our customers a complete wired and wireless networking solution to become and remain competitive in an increasingly integrated technology landscape,” said Larocque in prepared remarks. “Brocade’s innovative networking portfolio further enhances the broad range of options available through our CONVERGESolv solutions platform.”
Available exclusively to Varnex members, the new SYNNEX Virtual Sales Manager (VSM) offering lets channel pros outsource all or some sales training and mentorship functions to the distributor’s in-house experts.
Account managers enrolled in the program, which costs $500 per participant per month with a 12-month minimum, receive instruction in building and maintaining a sales pipeline, developing leads, cross selling, and forecasting revenue. According to SYNNEX, a 9-month pilot of the new service involving 125 sales reps at 8 companies resulted in a pipeline of over 110 active deals with a forecast value of $2.5 million, plus a doubling of the number of weekly outbound prospecting calls per rep, on average.
“As a historically engineering-focused company trying to grow and develop our sales team, the VSM program has been immensely helpful. Our reps now have more confidence when talking to customers, and our overall revenue has increased,” said Julie Allen, inside sales manager for Cary, N.C.-based solution provider Carolina Advanced Digital Inc., in comments sent by SYNNEX to ChannelPro.
The latest supplements to SYNNEX’s North American offerings arrive as the SMB portion of the distributor’s channel is swelling in size and sales value. According to associate vice president of SMB sales John Phillips, SYNNEX grew its SMB channel by 14 percent last year and saw SMB revenue climb a record-setting 17 percent.
