Distribution Watch: Westcon-Comstor, SYNNEX and Avnet

Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Distribution Watch. This week we’ve brought you the latest from Weston-Comstor, SYNNEX (SNX) and Avnet (AVT).

Weston-Comstor: Weston-Constor has expanded its distribution agreement to include cloud software solutions from Five9, Inc. (FIVN). Five9 provides products that empower the enterprise contact center market, including phone, web, chat, email, mobile apps and social media. The Five9 software enhances Weston-Comstor’s established unified communications and collaborations solutions business unit.

“Westcon-Comstor is uniquely qualified to deliver and integrate complex unified communications, network infrastructure, data center and security solutions. As a value-added distributor, we are focused on creating the programs and support that accelerate the business of our partners and we are pleased Five9 has become one of those partners,” said Barat Dickman, vice president and general manager of the Westcon-Comstor Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions Practice. “Our UC practice, supported by technologies like the Five9 cloud-based contact center solution, helps enable our resellers to receive the most business value possible.”

SYNNEX (SNX): SYNNEX Corp. reported second quarter earnings that beat analyst expectations. The distributor’s second quarter revenues increased 3.9 percent year-over-year to $3.38 billion. Revenue from SYNNEX’s Concentrix division decreased 1.7 percent, but was up 4.5 percent for its Technology Solutions business unit. This indicates a slight decline in business services, but shows strong growth in supplementary IT solutions designed to enable VARs and SYNNEX’s other channel partners.

"During our second quarter, we achieved sales and profit results above our expectations." stated Kevin Murai, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our efficient operating model delivered another strong quarter of positive operating cash flow, double digit adjusted ROIC and, we believe, positions us well for growth in the second half of 2016."

Avnet (AVT): Avnet Technology Solutions has appointed former Dimension Data solutions director Danny Yeowell to head up its security and networking business unit in the UK. The division has seen double-digit growth in the last year, and Yeowell will be expected to put his expertise in networking, security, collaboration, data center technology and end user computing to work in bolstering that growth even further.

“Danny has considerable experience in an area of the market that presents significant opportunity and where we have high ambitions to accelerate growth for our partners and suppliers,” said Christian Curtis, sales director, Avnet Technology Solutions, UK. “Over the last few years we’ve invested heavily in building out a security centre of excellence, which has enabled us to deliver significant value to our partners and reaped rewards for all concerned. We will continue to invest in this important area.”