Distribution Watch: Tech Data, Arrow Electronics, Ingram Micro May 2014

Happy Friday friends, and welcome back to Distribution Watch. The VAR Guy has been travelling a lot this week, from Orlando to Chicago and many places in between, but he still loves to catch up with his favorite distributors at least once a week. Read on for updates on the distributors that popped up on our radar, including Tech Data (TECD), Arrow Electronics (ARW) and Ingram Micro (IM).

Tech Data: Tech Data is partnering with business management platform provider ConnectWise on a new distribution agreement to provide software solutions to its channel resellers via TDCloud’s Solutions Store. Tech Data says that the partnership will allow its reseller partners to offer an integrated platform for business communications and connections to their end user customers.

"We are excited to announce our strategic partnership with Tech Data," said Jason Magee, vice president, Worldwide Channels & Alliances at ConnectWise. "ConnectWise will enable customers with a full business management platform that will allow them to organize all their business processes under one unified solution, resulting in a more profitable business. We continuously strive to extend our platform by offering the most comprehensive solutions for our partners and for our newest distribution partner, Tech Data."

Arrow Electronics: Circuit fuse provider Littelfuse recently named Arrow Electronics 2013’s Volume Distributor of the Year, during the 2014 Electronic Distibution Show (EDS) in Las Vegas. Arrow took home this year’s prize for its overall sales growth and focus product sales, as well as the number of design registrations and design wins from the previous year.

“Arrow Electronics delivered outstanding sales growth for Littelfuse in 2013,” said Gordon Hunter, president and CEO of Littelfuse. “As one of our most strategic channel partners, we consider Arrow Electronics crucial to our ongoing success. This award recognized the exceptional service and value they deliver to Littelfuse customers around the world.”

Ingram Micro: The distribution giant gave back to a local New Orleans neighborhood last week as part of the 2014 Spring IMOne Gives Back project, a new initiative for the company’s semi-annual IMOne conference. Ingram Micro and more than 400 volunteers helped to beautiful the Freret Neighborhood of the city with street cleanups, yard improvement projects and more.

"At Ingram Micro, we strive to give back to the communities in which we work, and this effort is a reflection of that," said Paul Bay, senior executive vice president and president of Ingram Micro North America. "With our inaugural IMOne event taking place in New Orleans, it was a perfect opportunity to work with our partners to serve this community.

That's it for this week, folks. We hope you enjoyed the ride and we'll be looking for you on our next scheduled trip to DistributionLand. Thanks for flying with The VAR Guy, and have a great weekend.