Azlan Appoints Experienced Team Members To Key European Roles

Munich, Germany – September 30th, 2008 Azlan, the enterprise networking and mid-range systems business of Tech Data, has appointed two experienced members of its management team to key strategic roles. Sean Kendrick has been appointed Director European Marketing and SMB Activation and Uwe Stein has taken up the role of Director Software and Solutions Europe.

Kendrick was previously Azlan’s Cisco European Business Development Manager responsible for SMB. Stein has moved into his newly-created role having previously held the post of Director, Enterprise Solutions Marketing Europe.

Both appointments underline Azlan’s commitment to further investment and long-term development of its value-added software and solutions business.

Commenting on his new role, Kendrick states: “Azlan is committed to assisting our vendor and reseller partners to accelerate their growth, particularly within in the SMB segment.  By working closely with our vendors and leveraging proven successes from across our European operations, Azlan aims to develop the type of training and growth programs which make business easier and more profitable for SMB focussed resellers.”

Stein says that his primary objective in his new position will be to establish a clear and coherent strategy that will enable Azlan to support VARs as they look to develop their solutions and services-based business. “The dynamics of the enterprise solutions and services market are changing and opening up new potential for value-added resellers and integrators. We have been watching this area carefully and formulating our strategy and approach. We now feel that the time is right for us to provide the additional focus and resource to help our partners move towards new and more profitable business models that rely much more on the provision of services and solutions than on product sales.”

Key areas of focus for Azlan will include virtualization, unified communications, business intelligence and document and content management, says Stein. A broad-ranging series of measures will be put in place to support resellers that are committed to developing their solutions and services business in partnership with Azlan.

These new appointments have been made to provide Azlan with increased focus and resource on key areas of activity throughout Europe says Simon England, Vice President Enterprise and Managing Director of Azlan. “These appointments will ensure that the value Azlan is creating is being recognised in the marketplace and generating new opportunities for our local teams. We will do this by implementing a creative and differentiating strategy and by working closer with partners to turn competitor challenges into Azlan opportunities.”

In his new position, Kendrick will be responsible for reinforcing Azlan’s unique brand identity as a value-creating distributor and developing programs which help educate and develop SMB focussed resellers.

Kendrick believes that the experience gained in his previous role will lend considerable value to his new position. “The level of commitment and interaction towards accelerating SMB growth which we’ve experienced with Cisco over the last 18 months has been incredible and produced significant ROI.  It proves just how effective Azlan can be in developing SMB business when supported by a consistent Vendor strategy.  We will be looking to replicate this model of growing the business across Europe by making it available to all of our key partners.”

Stein says that key areas of focus for Azlan in the software market will include virtualization, unified communications, business intelligence and document and content management. A series of measures will be put in place to support resellers that are committed to developing their solutions and services business in partnership with Azlan.

“We will be bringing forward extensive training and education programs as well as sales and marketing and promotional and incentive schemes that will enable resellers to develop their knowledge and capabilities and drive new business opportunities with key vendors”, he states. “Our aim is to make it as easy as possible for partners to enter the market and to gain an early competitive advantage as quickly and easily as possible.”

Azlan has already achieved significant successes with Oracle and VMWare in Europe through highly effective channel campaigns such as the Go and Grow and Go Virtual initiatives. It is also a key partner in Europe for SAP, IBM Software, Vasco, Microsoft, HP, Red Hat and a number of other enterprise software vendors. More programs that focus on driving high-margin opportunities for resellers around software solutions and services are planned for the next 12 months, says Stein. 

About Azlan:

Azlan, Tech Data Corporation’s Enterprise business unit in Europe, is one of the region’s leading value-added distributor of networking, communications and midrange solutions. In addition to enabling fast, cost-effective pan-European distribution of products & solutions for major manufacturers and publishers including Cisco Systems, HP and IBM, Azlan provides a variety of other value creating services including marketing & sales support, extensive vendor training and certification programs. Azlan continues to build on its history of excellence over the past two decades, now as part of Tech Data, which acquired Azlan in March 2003.

Tech Data Corporation (NASDAQ GS:TECD) is one of the world's largest distributors of technology products from leading IT hardware and software producers. Tech Data serves more than 100,000 IT solution providers in over 100 countries. Every day, these value-added resellers depend on Tech Data to cost-effectively support the technology needs of end users, including small and medium businesses (SMBs), large enterprises and government agencies. Ranked 105th on the FORTUNE 500(R), Tech Data generated $23.4 billion in net sales for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2008. To learn more, visit www.techdata.com.

Press contact:

Azlan Europe
Sean Kendrick,
Director Marketing & SMB
Azlan Europe
Mobile: +49 (0)175 7270 143
Email: sean.kendrick"@"azlan.com
Twitter: seankendrick