I’m Joe Delgado, director of Avnet’s RetailPath™ retail IT solutions practice. I recently read a blog post that talked about technology has impacted our personal lives and how it has addressed our need for technology that’s both simple and seamless. Advances in technology—both personal and in business—have been occurring rapidly in recent years, and our connection to technology is particularly apparent in the retail marketplace.

Lesley Norris, vice president of IBM Global Business Partners, recently posted a guest blog on Fred Cuen’s blog site. Cuen is an Avnet, Inc. vice president and senior vice president and general manager of the Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas IBM solutions group. Here is an excerpt of Lesley’s post:

Many of us believe technology solely exists to make our lives easier and, ultimately, better. But we often struggle to make technology work for us, leading us to deem it more of a hassle than it’s worth.  

Despite this opinion, there’s no denying the benefits of technology and its potential to change our lives. Take the Smartphone, for example. It’s not just a phone, but a tool by which we live our lives. It’s a phone, calendar, mp3 player, camera, video camera, entertainment center and Web browser—all in one device. It’s fast, easy and, best of all, intuitive. Smartphones and tablets are proliferating at a speed we’ve never seen before. Why? It’s because Americans want technology that is both simple and seamless.

I think Lesley is right; simple and seamless is the way to go in retail IT too. I’ll be sharing more of my thoughts on the retail IT market in future blogs. I hope you join me!

You can read Lesley’s full post by visiting Fred’s blog.

Posted under Data Center Technologies, Retail, Vertical Markets

When you ask most people about health care, the responses you hear often include comments about cost, retaining personal physicians and medical insurance. But there’s a lot more to healthcare than the interaction between patient and provider. As the Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas director of Healthcare Solutions, I wanted to share with you some of the details of Avnet’s healthcare practice and the healthcare market in general.

Analysis of the Healthcare IT Opportunity
Healthcare has three major segments: providers, payers and life sciences. Avnet has significant revenue and investment in each, but our primary focus is on the provider side—the hospitals, physicians and clinics that actually take care of the patient from a clinical perspective. That’s not to say the other segments aren’t as important. There are significant opportunities in all three segments of healthcare, so we look at the trends and drivers in the industry and develop different solutions with our supplier community to bring to market, through our partners, those solutions that focus on the high-growth areas in healthcare.

There is a shift going on now towards the “accountable care organization” model – a partnership between the three segments of healthcare in relation to risk, reimbursement, how they treat and manage patients, and how they collaborate care. There are certain things that have to be done in order to get us there, such as implementing a certified electronic health record and providing HIE (health information exchange) in a secure environment. Business Intelligence and Analytics need to be used to translate all of the data being collected into useful information for real-time patient care, a single patient view using clinical and patient portals for patient history and physician collaboration, and, of course, a refresh or upgrade to the hospital infrastructure will probably be necessary.

The convergence of the three segments brings with it great opportunity for on-point technology solutions that integrate functions crucial to each area. For example, governmental mandates requiring a conversion to the new classification of diseases, ICD-10, must be adhered to. This requires a major implementation for the provide/payer segments for coding and claims processing. And, in the life sciences segment, data must be warehoused, analyzed and dispensed in useful ways to clinicians for chronic disease management.

Behind the scenes, the healthcare CIO is managing hundreds of applications in a very complex IT environment with concerns around workflow, data management, virtualized environments and protecting patient information. This requires a very sophisticated and finely tuned infrastructure to keep things running smoothly. The biggest hurdle for providers implementing integrated solutions is cost, followed closely by the technical expertise required to install and maintain technology solutions. In response, Avnet, partnering with some of their legacy resellers—those who have healthcare experience from not just a hardware background, but also with implementation and installation—has created initiatives to help address these hurdles.

Avnet and Oracle Partnership
Avnet partners with many technology suppliers to enable our solution provider customers to deliver the right healthcare solutions, and today I wanted to touch on Oracle. Oracle is a key component of the medical industry. Thousands of healthcare organizations around the world rely on Oracle to help them increase clinical performance and integrate business processes across the entire healthcare continuum. Avnet’s renewed focus is on a service portfolio including Oracle’s Healthcare Master Person Index, Health Information Gateway, Healthcare Transaction base, Healthcare Data Warehouse Foundation and Enterprise Healthcare Analytics.

An important focus for us is the Oracle “technology stack” when it comes to healthcare solutions. For example, by running Oracle programs on Oracle hardware, many potential compatibility issues are immediately eradicated, resulting in smoother, more integrated performance and less implementation time. As the only company in the industry offering a total solution from training to support and everything in between, Avnet is positioned as the go-to distributor for resellers to partner with.

Getting resellers up to speed and taking advantage of the resources Avnet has at its disposal is all geared to get ahead of the curve with coming trends in the healthcare industry, with the goal of selling increasingly complex healthcare solutions over the next two years. Resellers have been jumping at the chance to expand their offerings, and the majority of partners in the program have completed their certifications, thus garnering them Tier One leads. The goal is to get them up and running 100 percent before expanding the program. That said, the program itself, directly in line with Avnet’s SolutionsPath® Engagement Strategy, sets Avnet apart from the competition.

Our next HealthPath® University event for Avnet partners is April 11-12, 2012. We’re completely booked for this event, and that fact makes me very proud to be a part of technology in healthcare! Please visit the Avnet HealthPath website to learn more about Avnet’s healthcare solutions.

Posted under Healthcare, Vertical Markets

On the drive to the Cancun airport last week, we passed an enormous wind turbine standing almost literally on the side of the road. We had just been discussing alternative energy and specifically wind farms, debating whether we’d see states and people in the U.S. start to get comfortable with the idea of living near large scale wind farms. I realize that not everyone views wind farms as large scale art installations, as I’ve come to see them. I also realize there are real issues to address, like how to ensure we site them in places that don’t endanger migrant and other bird populations. So, when I got back to the States, I started to do some research.

I learned that Mexico installed the 1.5 MW wind turbine in 2010 in honor of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held just south of Cancun. Just this one wind turbine alone is capable of generating enough clean electricity to supply 2,300 homes in Mexico! Mexico, and other countries such as China, Denmark and Spain, are investing millions of dollars in wind power to address their concerns about carbon emissions.

Some states in the U.S., including California, Illinois, Iowa and Kansas, have made significant investments in new wind power sources. Ohio was the fastest growing state in 2011 for wind power, and new projects are currently underway or planned this year in Nevada, Connecticut and Puerto Rico.* It’s pretty exciting to see the investment being made to harness a natural energy source such as wind.

What does all of this mean for Avnet and you? Energy and utilities companies are making investments now to modernize their IT infrastructure. Let Avnet’s EnergyPath team help you enter the large and growing energy market with solutions these companies need.

Cheers!

*Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/american-wind-energy-association/news/article/2012/01/wind-energy-making-new-inroads-building-on-success

Posted under Energy, Vertical Markets

For many legacy product companies, it’s not uncommon to see a strong desire to expand their portfolios to include a higher mix of IT services. This is common in many companies across a variety of industries; however it is a strategy of most IT channel companies. Regardless of industry, the reasons for driving services growth are fairly common: Stagnant or shrinking product margins create a need to drive higher margin service offerings. Done correctly, this can have a very positive impact on overall margins and financial performance.

 Other common benefits are as follows:

• Improved margin on products when bundled with a solution or service
• Customer entanglement via deeper value propositions
• Recurring revenues
• More predictable financial performance
• Employee retention
• Competitive differentiation
• Customer loyalty
• Increased shareholder value
• Increased product sales

Among value-added resellers (VARs) it’s rare that I find anyone not strategically driving services growth. I also see this as a very big challenge for these companies that have a strong legacy of selling hardware and software. The legacy “engine” is built for products and can create strong headwinds against a service strategy. Regardless of the need and desire to execute a service strategy, the legacy product culture often creates huge obstacles that slow or completely foreshadow good intentions. We often refer to these as service “antibodies.”

Having the privilege of being part of this challenge—as well as talking to many VARs—I have developed some thoughts based on observations and experiences that shed some light on what works vs. what doesn’t. Although every environment and company is unique, there are common critical success factors that are helpful as you embark on accelerating your service business in a product-centric company. 

Critical Success Factors

1. Executive support starting with the CEO: Successful execution of any companywide strategy has to be passionately driven from the top. A successful IT service strategy requires change management from all areas of the company: Sales, Marketing, IT, HR, Finance and Operations will all need to evolve and change to support the service strategy.
2. Services Leadership: Many product companies lack professionals who have a services background and experience, so hiring dedicated services leadership with experience and focus is desirable.
3. Service Sales focus: Asking a product sales force to also sell services is a low probability challenge. This is an area where many VARs struggle, one in which engaging one third of the product sales force to successfully drive service sales would be considered a major accomplishment. This is as much about focus, aptitude and bandwidth as it is about desire. Selling services is a very different skill and process, and even when done well it’s usually at the cost of product sales. Exclusive service sales ownership with discreet service pipeline management is highly recommended. I often see service sales overlay teams work best.
4. Service management system and metrics: Many product companies have a great management system built around their product model. A management system for services is unique and a key to success. Billing, contract management, revenue recognition, project management, service financial reporting, pipeline management, sales reporting, margin tracking and utilization reporting are only a few of the key elements to a solid service management system. This is a critical foundation to any successful service organization.
5. Role clarity: Defining who sells services, who provides technical presales and who delivers quality service is critical. Defining roles and responsibilities and measuring for accountability reduces confusion and improves productivity.
6. Compensation and rewards: Align all compensation and rewards with your overall mix strategy. A sound recognition program for those who successfully execute your service strategy needs to co-exist in your current recognition model yet stand out.
7. Clarity of offerings: Deciding what your service offerings are and properly communicating and resourcing them helps focus and creates consistent awareness. Sometimes, less is more; quality and awareness will always trump quantity and confusion.
8. Celebrate wins: Everyone likes to “high five” the large hardware deal that closed; it is (rightfully so) culturally ingrained. Make sure to highlight the service wins too. The numbers may not be as big at first, but call the service wins out and celebrate. Make customer service and service wins part of all your team cadence calls.
9. Marketing: Services marketing can also be unique and difficult to fund. Many VARs leverage OEM marketing funds for product marketing, but his may be a challenge for service marketing.  Case studies, references and whitepapers can go a long way to help close service deals. If this is not part of your current marketing capability, consider finding a way to create these critical service marketing tools.
10. Customer Service: Exceeding customer expectations will go a long way in creating repeat business, references and confidence from your sales teams. This is a combination of good people, good process and a customer centric culture. Go the extra mile to ensure your service customers are delighted with your service. 

Perhaps using the criteria above as a current state scorecard for your service business would be helpful. Are you red, green or yellow on each of these factors? Is there room for improvement that will help accelerate your IT service strategy?

A successful services strategy can go a long way in driving a more profitable business model. The benefits can be obvious and the journey can be challenging. Stay the course and pursue it with passion and patience… and enjoy the rewards.

Posted under Data Center Technologies, Services

If you are in the IT business, the holiday season is a great time to evaluate or create your company philanthropic strategy. With the technology we represent being prevalent and critical to business and personal success, we have much to offer our respective communities. As leaders in the IT industry, the holidays are a great opportunity to leverage your leadership to help the community and your employees—as well as your business. I have found we have much to offer, and that there are great benefits of creating an avenue for your company and employees to help your local community. The adage is true: “if you take care of your customers, community and your employees that the market will take care of you.”

What do we have to give? One option is to organize your employees and provide an avenue for company/employee donations to help a common cause in your community through employee donations or gifts. How about donating our technical skills in career centers to help teach computer skills and enhance employment opportunities? We can also donate equipment and expertise for use in career or computer learning centers, or to a favorite charity to help them automate.  If you do choose to donate IT assets, make sure you have the proper paperwork to release you of liability if the asset becomes an environmental hazard. If the asset ends up compromising the environment, the serial numbers can be tracked back to you or your business which can create a future liability. 

Let’s examine some of the benefits to giving:

Employees:

I have found that companies that give help their employees as they help their community. Often, the combined effort is more than individuals can do on their own. Providing this leadership for giving helps build employee loyalty and makes them proud to be part of the organization. This can lead to reduced turnover and helps attract new employees to your business.

Corporate Brand:

Companies that give to their community earn positive brand recognition. Giving is a powerful way to build your local brand and network. Not only are you helping those in need but it is also good business through positive brand recognition.

Community Improvement:

The community benefits from your leadership and helps build a stronger community and local economy.

By having a giving strategy for your business your employees wins, the community wins and your business wins. It’s truly a WIN WIN WIN strategy.

Have a great holiday season. I wish everyone health and happiness in 2012!

Posted under Data Center Technologies, Services