Avnet sweetens IBM services platter after Ascendant buy

Distribution goliath leverages acquisition of Big Blue VAR to push automation and collaboration services

Following the completion of its acquisition of IBM consultancy Ascendant Technology, Avnet Technology Solutions is unleashing a brace of new services for UK resellers.

The first of these is labelled Middleware Infrastructure Automation, and is designed for use by end users requiring maintenance and management of high-volume websites running on IBM software. The offering is designed to allow VARs to work with their customers' IT teams to reduce admin costs by implementing customisable automation frameworks.

The Social Business in the Cloud offering allows resellers to provide IBM collaboration and social technologies as a cloud service. The service aims to help IT decision makers move swiftly on implementing social media tools and gradually scale up to a large-scale deployment if a small pilot run is successful. Customers can also opt to bring the service back on-premise following the cloud-based trial.

Ian Belton, IBM Software business development director for Avnet TS EMEA, said: "Following on from the successful uptake in the US and Canada, our IBM partners can now immediately leverage these offerings to expand their own end-to-end services, enhancing their customers' satisfaction while maximising new profit margin opportunities.

"These opportunities include IBM's Solution Accelerator Incentive, which pays a premium for selling IBM hardware and software together in a single transaction."

In addition to the UK, the two services are being rolled out in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Belgium and Turkey.