Azlan to offer Cisco Smart Care Service to SME resellers across Europe

Munich, Germany - October 1st, 2009 - Azlan, Europe's leading distributor of enterprise networking, server, storage and enterprise software solutions, today announced it will offer Cisco Smart Care Service to partners across the European region. Through this agreement, Azlan will be driving an channel program around Cisco Smart Care Service that will enable partners to enter the market swiftly and decisively. This is aimed at opening the potential for more Cisco Channel Partners to offer Smart Care Service as part of their added-value portfolio and to provide Smart Care discovery, assessment and proactive support services to their end-user customers.

Cisco Smart Care Service is a 'game-changing' proposition for Cisco resellers. It enables Cisco Smart Care Registered Partners to provide customers with ongoing remote monitoring, proactive network maintenance and comprehensive technical support for the entire Cisco voice and data network in a single contract. By giving Cisco Certified Partners access to Cisco award-winning technical support and intellectual property through a unique set of proactive tools and processes, Smart Care Service provides resellers with the opportunity to offer a service-led proposition to SME customers and, with the support of Cisco, to compete for services businesses with larger players in the market. In addition, resellers can wrap their own services propositions around Smart Care Service to enhance its value, differentiate their business and meet specific customer needs.

There will be three key elements to Azlan’s Smart Care Service programme:

Smart Care Discovery and Assessment Accelerator - Azlan is providing a limited number of Discovery and Assessment services free of charge.
Obsolescence Opportunity Management - Azlan is providing an online platform to enable partners to systemically identify and manage the upgrade opportunity within their installed base.
Installed Base Lifecycle Management - Azlan is providing partners with systems to wrap around services to proactively manage their customers' network.

David Harvey, director of Cisco business for Azlan Europe, says that the appointment of Azlan to offer Cisco Smart Care Service gives Cisco resellers full access to the potential of the service and represents a step-change in the way that Cisco and Azlan work with partners to deliver service to end user customers.

"Smart Care presents Cisco Certified Partners with a tremendous opportunity to lead with a services proposition and utilise the full power of the Cisco brand. They can very easily wrap their own services and value around the Smart Care proposition and thus differentiate their business from the competition and deliver extra value to the customer. Azlan's ability to support resellers in developing and growing a service-led business will be truly unique."

Commenting for Cisco, Debbie Hick, director of Collaborative Smart Services, global, says: "Azlan is taking an innovative approach by bringing Cisco Smart Care Service to market alongside a range of complementary programs and services that add further value to its overall proposition. In doing so, Azlan will help Cisco Channel Partners to broaden their services offerings, open up new opportunities to drive their business forward and create profitable, sustainable, long-term business around Cisco solutions and technologies."

Earlier this year, Tech Data was presented with the Cisco Worldwide Services Innovator of Year award in recognition of the significant progress it has made in driving partner enablement and growth. The contribution made by Azlan to this achievement was highly significant. Over the past year, Azlan has successfully launched and executed a number of initiatives aimed at driving business development with Cisco partners, including the first implementation of its Cisco Services Renewals solution, which tracks and generates quotes for expiring services contracts.

About Azlan

Azlan, the Enterprise Division of Tech Data Corporation, is a leading value-added distributor of networking, communications, midrange enterprise server, storage and software solutions in Europe. We enable fast, cost-effective pan-European distribution of products and solutions for market leaders such as Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), IBM (NYSE: IBM), HP (NYSE: HP), VMware (NYSE: VMW) and Oracle (NasdaqGS: ORCL). Azlan provides a variety of other value creating services including channel development, marketing and sales support, training and certification, and finance programs designed to assist vendor and reseller partners in developing their SME and mid market opportunities. www.azlan.com
Azlan continues to build on its 25 year history of excellence, now as part of Tech Data, which acquired Azlan in March 2003. Tech Data generated $24.1 billion in net sales for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2009. Founded in 1974, Tech Data (NASDAQ:TECD) is a leading distributor of IT products, with more than 100,000 customers in over 100 countries. www.techdata.com

Press contacts:

Azlan Europe

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