The Soft Pitch

Globalization isn’t anything new. There’s been a slew of books pointing out the globalization of just about everything from Starbucks to Sony to Siemens. Just take a walk down any shopping district and you’ll see brands representing every region of the globe. But in the world of computing resellers and systems integrators whose bread-and-butter customers are local, mid-market businesses, globalization has been talked about more than actually implemented. Until now. I’ve heard journalists from the computing trade publications ask are resellers really interested in globalization?  Do you know a reseller who is doing business globally that I can talk to?  The answer is yes and yes.  Avnet’s Technology Solutions operating group has launched a Global VAR Advisory Council just to work with VARs (value-added resellers) on the challenges of doing business globally.

Harry Edwards, Avnet’s senior vice president of Global Strategic Vendor Integration and Solutions for the Avnet Technology Solutions group, acknowledges doing business internationally can be challenging. “Worrying about what political pitfalls to avoid, quoting in different currencies, negotiating payment terms and ensuring products get from one location to another is a lot like throwing darts while blindfolded and hoping to hit the bull’s-eye. The problem is, it really distracts resellers from doing what they do best, which is proposing and delivering solutions to their customers.”

The VAR council has seven global resellers, but Avnet Technology Solutions Global President John Paget says he knows of at least 35 actively doing business globally and the number is growing daily.  A couple quotes from Avnet employees on the topic of globalization I thought interesting:

“Even in the Polish market we find companies that want to become more multinational. Global means more power, which gives us more financial strength, business relationships and growth capabilities in terms of best-practice sharing. The idea should be that we think globally but act locally, because every country has a specialized market and still some vendors let them have the power to decide locally. Every initiative should be tailored to the local market.”

– Adam Dyszkowski, Country Manager, Warsaw, Poland

“it is customers who drive us to think and act globally. While our customers pave their way for global expansion, we need to have Avnet operations close to those of our customers to canvas more business. Actually, it is the key driving force for Avnet to set up an integration center in Tianjin, China, to support international customers.”

– Sophie Li, General Manager, Tianjin, China

From Poland to China.  I guess the world is flat even for resellers.

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