InformationWeek

December 8, 1997

Channel Strategies: High-End Allies

Distributors and vendors team on solutions for integrating Windows NT and Unix

By Pedro Pereira of Computer Reseller News

raditional computer product distributors are using new alliances with hardware and software vendors to get into the act of offering high-end solutions that integrate Microsoft's Windows NT with Unix platforms.

This trend expands the choice of players that IS shops can select for solutions that integrate their Unix and NT environments-giving them more options for mixing and matching Unix and NT, as opposed to discarding technology investments.

Among recent alliances between distributors and software providers is an agreement by Gates/Arrow Distributing Inc. to deliver Baan Co.'s enterprise resource planning software suite in solutions bundled with Compaq Computer's ProLiant servers and Windows NT.

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The arrangement, which will utilize Gates/Arrow's logistics and integration capabilities, will cut implementation time as well as reduce resellers' costs in delivering the solution, say Gates/Arrow executives.

Another distributor, Hall-Mark Computer Products, entered an agreement last month with Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft to capitalize on the interoperability of the Windows NT and Unix platforms. Hall-Mark, in Tempe, Ariz., became the first distributor in a program HP and Microsoft christened Interoperability Partner.

Rather than align themselves with either the Windows NT or Unix worlds, the distributors are tapping into what they see as an expanding market of coexistence between the two systems. This trend has also caught the eye of other distributors, including Merisel Inc., which is tapping the expertise in its dedicated Sun Microsystems unit to train its field sales staff on higher-end Windows NT solutions.

Small and medium-sized businesses also benefit by accessing complete solutions with technology that might be too cost-prohibitive for their limited budgets if sold separately. "An application like Baan legitimi zes the platform from Microsoft," says Gary Gammon, Gates/Arrow VP of enterprise computing solutions. The Baan-Compaq solution minimizes the on-site implementation requirements, opening up opportunities to a class of Windows NT resellers that had been excluded from the Baan technology, says Gammon. "What it does is bring you a new wave of NT reseller that begins to demonstrate enterprise skills," he says.

Gates/Arrow is opening a test center at its Greenville, S.C., headquarters to simulate the Baan environment in a variety of configurations using the Compaq and Windows products. The distributor is also launching recruitment efforts to authorize resellers throughout the country to support the Baan solution.

Hall-Mark has set the focus of its initial recruitment efforts on value-added resellers that sell and service Sun products. "The top 50 Sun resellers in the country have been targeted for this," says Amir Mobayen, Hall-Mark's VP of enterprise solutions.

But resellers of other midrange platf orms, including those by IBM and Silicon Graphics, also will be recruited for the effort, he says. Hall-Mark will train and certify resellers of NT solutions, as well as provide consulting and implementation services and match hardware VARs with software application developers.

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