MicroAge Expands Services

Telephony and Net support added

By Marianne Kolbasuk McGee

any computer resellers are improving their systems-integration services in an effort to get closer to their corporate users. To that end, MicroAge Inc. recently unveiled several support initiatives.

MicroAge, in Tempe, Ariz., has implemented two service groups-Computer Telephony Integration and Internet Solutions-that are intended to aid the company's resellers in providing corporate customers with solutions in these high-demand areas. The Computer Telephony Integration group offers expertise in setting up telephony solutions such as videoconferencing, and the Internet group provides help with Web-based solutions such as distance learning.

"We're expanding the breadth of our services, in areas like telephony and Internet, because customers are demanding those services and they are becoming a larger part of our profit stream," says MicroAge chairman and CEO Jeff McKeever. Although the bulk of MicroAge's $3.5 billion net revenue in 1996 was generated by product sales, services-related revenue is growing nearly three times as fast. "Services are growing at 60% and products at 20%," he says.

MicroAge isn't the only VAR ramping up such services. Over the last several months, rivals such as Entex Information Systems, Inacom, and Vanstar also have introduced new systems-integration services targeting large corporate customers.

To facilitate its expansion, and to support various geographic regions, MicroAge plans to acquire a number of local and national systems integrators over the next few months, a company spokeswoman says. MicroAge last week disclosed the first such U.S. acquisitions: three former MicroAge franchisees in Boca Raton, Fla., Exton, Pa., and Pitt sburgh. Among the geographic regions slated for expansion are international markets, such as the Asia-Pacific, as well as areas in the United States, including the Mid-Atlantic states.

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