Distribution Watch: Ingram Micro, D&H, Avnet, ScanSource, GCI

Zoinks! Like, its time for another edition of Distribution Watch, your favorite buffet of all-you-can-eat news from distributors large and small. This week, we’ve got the top news from Ingram Micro (IM), D&H Distributing, Avnet (AVT), ScanSource (SCSC) and Global Convergence Inc. So pile into the Mystery Machine, and let’s get going!

Ingram Micro: The global distribution giant has entered into a distribution agreement with India-based Sapience Analytics to bring the company’s enterprise effort and time productivity software to a wider market.

The eponymous software was designed to increase organizational productivity and increase profitability, and has been popular among Indian enterprises for several years, according to the company.

D&H Distributing: D&H is expanding its longstanding agreement with Sophos to offer the Sophos Unified Threat Management (UTM) network security software.

According to the distributor, the expansion will increase opportunities for VARs to gain new business. It plans to offer resources such as an online training series and marketing templates to help resellers profit from the expanded offering.

"We see a window here for solution providers to possibly increase revenues through a managed services offering. We will work to provide as much resources as possible to optimize that opportunity for our VARs," said Jeff Davis, senior vice president of Sales at D&H Distributing, in a statement. "It's a notable occasion when a vendor decides to forgo direct sales and move to a pure distribution model, so we are happy to support them in their efforts to leverage our customer base and more fully utilize the channel."

Avnet: Avnet has been named as one of the Ethisphere Institute’s 2014 World’s Most Ethical Companies, one of only five companies in the electronics industry to receive the honor this year. The award was given to companies who “continue to raise the bar on ethical leadership and corporate behavior,” according to the press release.

“Integrity is not just included in Avnet’s core values, it is our No. 1 core value,” said Rick Hamada, chief executive officer of Avnet, in a statement. “This recognition from the Ethisphere Institute validates what our employees around the world demonstrate every day—that integrity matters and is a critical part of what makes Avnet a truly premier global business partner, employer and industry leader.”

ScanSource: Green Cloud Technologies is partnering with Scansourceon a new distribution deal to make Green Cloud a provider of cloud-based solutions to ScanSource’s reseller partners.

Under the terms of the agreement, ScanSource will offer Green Cloud’s disaster recovery and virtual server solutions.

“The market for cloud-based solutions continues to grow and afford resellers new revenue-generating opportunities,” said Mike Burns, president of ScanSource Services Group, in a statement. “Resellers are seeing their business move from hardware-only to software and services, meaning cloud solutions will continue to become even more attractive to resellers and their end user customers.  We look forward to offering Green Cloud’s solutions to our partners across all of ScanSource’s U.S. business units.”

Global Convergence Inc: GCI is integrating its services infrastructure with Interlink Communication Systems to form a new organization that will provide “a converged distribution portfolio supporting all phases of the sales cycle, from solutions selling and technical support to project design and implementation,” according to the press release. The new entity will take the Global Convergence moniker.

“We’ve enhanced the same great IT distribution foundation we built as Interlink with channel-centric services that go well beyond previous industry standards,” said Global Convergence President and COO Joe Serra in a statement. “We recognize the IT landscape shifts quickly toward newer technologies, and high-end, complex services are needed to support those solutions. We also know that solution providers can’t do everything themselves. That was the seed we planted at GCI and what you see today is the result of careful, managed cultivation of that vision.”

That’s all for this week’s groovy edition of Distribution Watch. Give yourself a Scooby Snack for making it through another long week, and make sure to join us next week for more news from throughout the channel. And as always, keep on reselling.