Synnex Varnex Day 2 Recap

The second day of Synnex‘s spring Varnex 2014 semi-annual SMB partner conference in Orlando was as chock full of useful information for attendees as day one. Here are a few takeaways from the event.

General Session
Bob Stegner, SVP of Marketing for North America, gave a recap of the first day’s events and showed off some of the features of the updated Synnex CloudSolv portal. Stegner also detailed Synnex’s new partner website, which will allow Varnex members to access educational materials, share documents and information, and learn more about the community. Currently, only 53 percent of partners actively use the Varnex website—a number Stegner hopes will increase with the release of the new site.

After showing off the details of the new website, Stegner encouraged the audience to stay in contact with each other and to get involved with the Varnex community. He said that by working together, the resellers can make this “The year of Varnex.”

SVP of Commercial Sales Steve Jow was next on stage, where he gave an update on Synnex’s sales arm. This segment was closed to the press.

Avaya’s vice president of Worldwide Distribution and Commercial Segment Chris Jones took the lead next, speaking briefly about the company’s focus on partnering with resellers amid the changing IT landscape. He touched upon the importance of BYOD and mobility in the channel, and discussed what he called “The new Avaya,” with an emphasis on midmarket businesses and the company’s five-pillared strategy centered on partner value:

Jeffrey Gitomer: Real World Examples
Professional speaker Jeffrey Gitomer worked up the crowd and ended the second part of the general session with a very profound talk about the importance of customer loyalty for businesses, and how to succeed by leveraging business social media.

Eddie Franklin, VP of Sales
Eddie Franklin sat down with The VAR Guy to discuss Synnex’s recent deal with Google (GOOG) to distribute the Chrome management console in the K-12 educational market. Synnex currently has 175 authorized U.S. resellers and an additional nine resellers in Canada, all of which were required to pass a rigorous chrome certification module, he said.

Synnex also signed a deal with Google for Google Play for Education, which will allow school administrators to control and manage the apps used on student devices. Google’s suite of educational technology is becoming increasingly important to engage with students who are growing up with an arsenal of technology at their fingertips, Franklin noted, and is also important in satisfying the new common core curriculum in the public school system.

Jon Allen, VP of Cloud
In a private interview with The VAR Guy, Synnex’s Jon Allen outlined the company’s strategy for private cloud offerings, reiterating CEO Kevin Murai’s point that Synnex is focused on developing and nurturing strong personal relationships with its resellers.

Allen stressed that Synnex is focused on helping its SMB resellers to expand their business into the cloud sphere with hybrid cloud solutions delivered with a personal touch. In this way, Synnex hopes to build customer loyalty and buyer retention, he said.

Breakout Session: How to make serious money from low-cost cloud services
In this breakout session, Mark S.A. Smith, co-founder of Outsource Channel Executives, showed resellers how to make money from cloud services without actually selling the cloud itself. According to Smith, cloud services have been around for nearly two decades (in the form of APIs and telephony services) and the best way to profit from these virtualized offerings is to sell the outcome of what customers are looking for; in other words, what the customer understands as business value. Smith also told audience members to make cloud recommendations to meet their specific objectives, and to look for ways that the specific cloud solution provides a positive outcome.

That’s it for spring Varnex. For those of you who attended, what did you think? Let us know in the comments and make sure to tell us what you think should be included in the next conference later this year. Keep on reselling.