Seeking to help resellers build and sell end-to-end solutions more effectively, D&H Distributing Co., of Harrisburg, Pa., has published the first in an anticipated series of “SMB blueprints.”
Available immediately to D&H partners, the new document offers detailed guidance on building sophisticated “modern” office spaces equipped with the mobile hardware, cloud-based collaboration software, and digital conference room whiteboards that millennial-aged knowledge workers increasingly demand, along with a complete set of associated wireless networking infrastructure, security technologies, power protection gear, and more.
Such solutions represent a rich new potential source of revenue for resellers, vendors, and D&H alike, according to Peter DiMarco, D&H’s vice president of VAR sales. At present, however, many channel pros lack the skills and information needed to assemble the necessary products and communicate their bottom-line benefits. Channel partners and vendors have both been asking D&H for help in closing those gaps.
“There was overwhelming feedback that D&H needed to step up,” DiMarco says.
The new blueprint represents the distributor’s answer to those requests. In addition to educational background materials, it includes concrete illustrations—complete with prescriptive product advice—of specific modern workplace solutions, as well as pointers to websites, webcasts, and other resources from D&H and its suppliers containing additional information.
D&H plans to issue further blueprints over the months ahead about solution opportunities in cloud computing, mobility, state and local government, education, and retail, among other areas. Though the company has no set publication schedule for those documents, DiMarco says VARs can expect to see roughly one a quarter. That, he adds, provides D&H and its vendors the time they need to give resellers in-depth, hands-on coaching on configuring and marketing complete solutions.
“This is a case where more is not necessarily better,” DiMarco says.
D&H’s blueprint initiative comes roughly a week after fellow distributor Tech Data Corp., of Clearwater, Fla., introduced a new Internet of Things business practice that is developing similarly prescriptive reference architectures for a dozen all-inclusive solutions in a different but equally promising market.
