Azlan aims to emulate IBM Software success in France, Switzerland and Germany across Europe
Munich, Germany - March 20th, 2009 - Azlan, the enterprise networking and mid-range systems business of Tech Data, is planning to expand its business with IBM Software in Europe having delivered exceptional results in France, Germany and Switzerland during 2008, after outperforming market growth rates.
In recognition of their success with VARs, Azlan was named as the best-performing IBM value-added distributor in the SMB market for IBM Software's Integrated Operating Team (IOT) for the South West (France) and North East (Switzerland) territories for 2008. This underlines Azlan's position as the leading VAD for IBM Software in Europe. Azlan's overall performance and growth with IBM Software in the SMB market has also been impressive. In Q4 2008, it achieved 130 percent of its initial target. Overall growth for the full year was more than 40 per cent.
In an additional honor, IBM Software has named Azlan Germany as the winner of the VAD Distributor Award of the Year for great performance in general business revenue growth within mature markets in EMEA.
Ruediger Gunther, Director of Mid Range Systems for Azlan comments that "IBM Partners have responded very positively to the close engagement which Azlan has made available. Azlan and IBM Software have formed a highly effective partnership that is delivering clear benefits and tangible results for value-added resellers. We have some ambitious go-to-market plans and the new IBM Software products which are expected to be released, are expected to fuel even further growth."
Commenting on behalf of IBM Software Group, Aurore Achour, EMEA Distribution Sales and Program Manager, says: "Azlan has made significant progress with its business development plans in Switzerland and France over the past year, also winning the 2008 European Distributors contest for best achievement on SMB sales in these countries. Germany continued to deliver a fantastic performance in 2008 in a difficult economic environment. I expect Azlan to be a key asset in accelerating the success of the IBM Software brands through 2009 again."
"In tough times it becomes imperative to support and enable our reseller partners into the growth segments" states Sean Kendrick, Azlan's European Director for Marketing and SMB. "Azlan continues to take a long term view on partner relationships, which translates into investment in the types of vendor programs, training & skills support and services that make it easier for our resellers to maximize upon available market opportunities and prepare them to accelerate growth when the market rebounds."
Building on its success in France, Germany and Switzerland, Azlan is opening up its enablement program to new value-added resellers and expects to grow the IBM's Partner Network. It will place a special focus on addressing opportunities in the SMB market. Asked how he saw 2009, Gunther replied: "We've been able to build on the several years of success in Germany and take a tremendous leap forward in our IBM Software business in France and Switzerland during 2008. It reinforces our belief that a highly pro-active and focused approach can deliver excellent results both for IBM and its VAR partners. We now plan to emulate that success in other countries with the strategic objective of firmly establishing Azlan as the number one partner for IBM Software in Europe."
IBM Software is expected to make significant additions to this product range in 2009. In both France and Switzerland, Azlan carries the full portfolio of IBM Software solutions including the Lotus, WebSphere, Rational, Tivoli and Information Management product ranges. Dedicated teams provide expert pre-sales account management and marketing support for accredited IBM Software Partners.
Azlan is also an established distribution partner for IBM Software in the UK and accredited as a distributor in Austria, Sweden and Norway last year. It plans to continue to invest in the recruitment, enablement and activation of IBM SMB partners throughout 2009, working pro-actively with both vendor and reseller partners on demand-generating activity to stimulate further business growth.
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. 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.
Azlan Press contact:
Azlan Europe
Sean Kendrick,
Director Marketing & SMB
Azlan Europe
Mobile: +49 (0)175 7270 143
Email: sean.kendrick"@"azlan.com
Twitter: seankendrick
