D&H Distributing announced that it has launched new subscription-based Managed Support Services (MSS) and is now carrying Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) data center solutions. The announcements were made in conjunction with D&H’s first U.S. THREAD Technology Conference of 2023, taking place on June 14 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey, Pa.
The new MSS offerings include help desk as-a-service, remote monitoring and management (RMM), patching, security incident and event management (SIEM) services, security operations center (SOC) data center services, network operations center services (NOC), and backup and disaster recovery (BDR).
D&H’s new MSS portfolio is part of a growing roster of professional services the distributor is delivering through its Modern Solutions Business Unit, which launched in 2022.
“The team has done a great job to package these [services] so they’re easy to attach,” says Jason Bystrak, D&H’s vice president, Modern Solutions. “They’re all sold as a subscription service. They’re transacted through the D&H cloud marketplace, which is our platform to handle easy purchasing, subscription management, and invoicing,”
These services can be managed either by D&H, the partner, or the end-user company, accommodating a range of models, all delivered on a monthly subscription basis, with no annual commitment required. Bystrak says partners can also utilize a shared services model, with D&H managing a portion of their customer base and the partner managing the rest.
If a partner is a VAR, for instance, “maybe they don’t do managed services today. We might become their outsourced managed service provider for them. Or maybe they are a very successful MSP—there’s still opportunities where we can do a shared service delivery to give them additional scale or reduce some costs.”
According to the company, one of D&H’s goals for this year is to train its account representatives to assess and identify areas where MSPs and VARs can attach more profitable, high-margin services to both existing and new business projects. D&H’s account reps can then prescribe a custom service offering that is tailored to the partner’s requirements based on their level of maturity in their own managed services practice.
Regarding the expanded relationship with Lenovo, it’s something D&H is “really excited” about, Bystrak says. To date, D&H has offered Lenovo’s Intelligent Device Group (IDG) client device portfolio. Now, with the ISG data center solutions included in the Modern Solutions offering, D&H can better support the Lenovo 360 Global Channel Framework, a formalized structure that gives channel partners greater access to this manufacturer’s infrastructure, devices, services, and solutions. Through this framework, Lenovo also offers richer incentives to partners who sell a fully integrated, all-Lenovo solution, combining computing devices plus services like cloud data storage.
“We’ve had a long history with Lenovo, a great relationship on the client side of the IDG part of the business. And Lenovo has launched what they call their 360 initiative … so we’re real excited to be able to launch the ISG product line, their data center products, so we can help partners earn more from Lenovo and work with them to sell the total solution end to end. So that’s really what’s driving that piece of it, and Lenovo is very excited to have us on board to be able to do that as well.”
The ISG product line will be managed within the D&H Modern Solutions organization, Bystrak says. “The reason for that is a lot more data center business is becoming more of a hybrid model. We now have one team that they can call. We talk [with partners] about how they want to go and deliver the solution. Do you want this on premises? Do you want this as a service? Do you want this as a hybrid cloud? So we’re able to work with them to put together a Lenovo-powered solution that accomplishes all of that, with all those components as well as the services.”
Earlier in the week, D&H announced the appointment of channel and distribution marketing veteran Anthony Graziano to senior vice president of marketing. Graziano was formerly worldwide head of channel marketing at Logitech, a current D&H manufacturing partner, where he oversaw this vendor’s marketing strategies, partner alliances, and channel events.
D&H’s THREAD conference featured more than 80 manufacturer partners and included seminars, panel discussions, and educational sessions. Keynote speaker Jay Baer, a customer experience guru, presented on “The Time to Win,” which addressed challenges and opportunity for MSPs and VARs in the current marketplace.
Image: Courtesy of D&H
