D&H Distributing has signed an agreement with Google to offer that company’s web-based Chrome Management Console to D&H business and education resellers. The Google Chrome Management Console is an online offering that allows administrators at an end-user company to manage hundreds or even thousands of Chromebook devices from a single interface. Adminstrators who sign on to the console can control network and Wi-Fi access, customize device features, pre-install Chrome apps and extensions, block apps, assign user groups, document device usage, track Chrome device shipments, and more. D&H will offer the Chrome Management Console to its customers on a license basis, via the distributor’s Licensing Desk.
D&H offers Chromebooks in a range of price points from partners including Acer, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung. The Acer Aspire, HP Pavilion, Lenovo ThinkPad, and Samsung Exynos all feature the Chrome operating system. Several of these units are under $300. Resellers can deliver the Google Chrome Management Console as a managed services offering, overseeing their customers’ Chrome devices remotely, or can provide this product to their end-users so they may independently manage their own devices.†
The console is being offered for both SMB environments and to the K-12 education market, where Chrome is gaining share due to the affordability and ease-of-use of notebooks that leverage this OS. To support the Google agreement, D&H will offer a series of Solutions Lab webcasts with product information and strategies on how VARs can profit from sales of the Chrome console. Details on the webcasts are to be announced. In addition, the distributor will add a dedicated Partner Services template to its resource library of customizable marketing templates, focusing on the benefits of a Chromebook environment managed by the console product.
“We’re excited to work with Google to promote its device management console initiative in the channel. The product stands to enhance Chromebook environments throughout the marketplace, empowering organizations to easily apply consistent and strategic policies on a multitude of devices, across a widespread ecosystem,” says Rob Eby, vice president of purchasing at D&H Distributing. “The industry has been waiting for effective management that can regulate multiple devices in the new, increasingly mobile workplace. Chrome’s console fills that need, making management of an extensive volume of Chrome-based notebook computers accessible from a single, unified point on the network.”
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