Azlan, the networking division of Tech Data, has shuffled its management team to shift more focus on its value add software and solutions business.

Sean Kendrick, previous Azlan’s Cisco European business development manager has become director of European marketing and SMB activation, and Uwe Stein who was previously director of enterprise solutions marketing, Europe, has taken the role of director of software and solutions, Europe.

Kendrick said a primary aim of his was to develop the distributor’s support for its SME reseller base.

““Azlan is committed to assisting our vendor and reseller partners to accelerate their growth, particularly within in the SME segment,” he said. “By working closely with our vendors and leveraging proven successes from across our European operations, Azlan aims to develop the type of training and growth programs which make business easier and more profitable for SMB focussed resellers.”

Stein said his primary objective in the new position will be to help VARs develop their solutions and services-based business.

“The dynamics of the enterprise solutions and services market are changing and opening up new potential for VARs and integrators. We have been watching this area carefully and forumulating our strategy and approach. We now feel that the time is right for us to provide the additional focus and resource to help our partners move towards new and more profitable business models that rely much more on the provision of services and solutions than on product sales,” he said.

Stein added that key areas of focus for Azlan in the software market will include virtualization, unified communications, business intelligence and document and content management.

Simon England, managing director of Azlan, welcomed the appointments.

“This will ensure that the value Azlan is creating is being recognised in th e marketplace and generating new opportunities for our local teams. We will do this by implementing a creative and differentiating strategy and by working closer with partners to turn competitor challenges into Azlan opportunities,” he said.