Resellers handed own Lot in meaty universities framework

Framework set to be worth £200-£600m to be delivered by the likes of Softcat, Insight, XMA and CDW

Resellers have been reserved their own Lot in the latest iteration of a server and storage framework for universities whose award was completed last month.

Worth an estimated £200m to £600m over its two-year lifespan - with the option of two 12-month extensions - the Servers, Storage and Solutions Agreement (SSSA) framework covers technology including virtual appliances, software-defined storage, back-up, compute, hyper-coverged infrastructure and high-performance computing.

Managed by Southern Universities Purchasing Consortium, the framework is broken into four Lots, with Lot 4 serving as the dedicated reseller Lot (full details, bottom).

Lots 1 and 2 were awarded in October last year, while Lots 3 and 4 were confirmed on 19 December - with the announcement coming this morning.

Susan Wright, head of SUPC, said: "This new framework has been developed in consultation with institutions and brings together key suppliers of the most in-demand server and storage technology.

"We're proud to be delivering the first high performance computing agreement to the sector and will work closely with suppliers and members to ensure the agreement provides best value over its lifetime."

Lot 4 consists of 11 resellers in the shape of CDW, MCSA (formerly CSA Waverley), Insight, Logicalis, OCF, Q Associates, SCC, Softcat, Stone, Tectrade and XMA.

Meanwhile, the vendors in each of the three remaining Lots can assign up to four resellers to deliver the services - a process some vendors have not yet completed. The resellers represented in an indirect-only capacity include CAE, Daisy, DTP, Esteem, MTI, S3, ANS, BT, OCSL and Getech.

Paul Cameron, sales director at VAR Tectrade which won a place on Lot 4, said that the biggest benefit of the new iteration of the framework is the addition of the reseller-only Lot.

He explained that previously resellers could only put business through the framework if they had been selected as one of the vendors' resellers - meaning they could only sell that particular vendor and would have to compete against the other selected partners.

Tectrade was on the previous iteration of the framework as a selected IBM partner, but IBM is no longer on the framework.

"We're personally not selected by one of the vendors on Lots 1-3 because IBM didn't get selected for storage, which is where our heritage has been, but we're able to do that with Lot 4, rather than saying 'we can only sell you IBM'," he said.

"If we hadn't got on Lot 4 it would have been really difficult for us because it's a big part of our business.

"Where we're not on frameworks in other parts of our business we typically have to work through another partner and pay up to four per cent for someone else to front that bid and all they do is top and tail our response, put their name on it, and earn three or four per cent in the process - so people like Insight and Softcat do that a lot."

MCSA was also selected for Lot 4 and also by Huawei on Lots 1, 2 and 3.

Craig Fairs, public sector sales manager at MCSA, said: "This win follows our successful track record in supporting public sector organisations, including the NHS and Scottish Government.

"Having successfully supported Newcastle University with their IT solutions, we are keen to accelerate our innovative, sustainable and high value solutions across this sector."

The framework is for the provision of servers, storage and solutions, including virtual appliances; support and maintenance and warranty extensions' software-defined storage; and backup solutions.

It also includes compute and server-related solutions; converged, hyper-converged, HPC; and associated infrastructure.

Full details of the framework's suppliers and their allocated resellers:

Lot 1 (Servers)

Dell (direct): Esteem

Fujitsu (direct): CAE, Softcat, CDW

HPE (direct): SCC, Softcat; DTP Group

Huawei (indirect only): CAE, Insight, Q Associates, MCSA

Lenovo (indirect only): OCF, SCC, Getech, Stone Computers

Stone (direct only)

XMA (direct only)

Lot 2 (Storage)

Dell (direct): Esteem, MTI, S3

Fujitsu (direct): CAE, XMA, CDW

HPE (direct): SCC, Softcat, DTP Group, Daisy

Huawei (indirect only): MCSA, CAE, S3, Q Associates

Lenovo (indirect only): OCF, SCC, Getech, Stone Computers

NetApp (indirect only): Logicalis, ANS Group, Q Associates

Lot 3a (Converged, Hyper-Converged, Hybrid and Other Solutions)

Cisco (indirect only): ANS, BT, SCC, Q Associates

Dell (direct): Esteem, MTI, S3

Fujitsu (indirect only): OCF, Q Associates, Softcat, CAE

Hitachi (indirect only): OCF XMA, CDW S3

Huawei (indirect only): Capita, MCSA, CAE, Q Associates

Lenovo (Indirect only): OCF, SCC, Getech, Stone Computers

Lot 3b (High Performance Computing and/or Data Intensive Computing)

Atos IT Services

Clustervision

Dell (direct): Esteem

Fujitsu: OCF Softcat, Transtec

HPE: SCC, OCSL

Huawei: MCSA, Q Associates

Lenovo: OCF, SCC, Getech, Stone Computers

XMA (direct only)

Lot 4 (Reseller Solutions)

CDW

CSA Waverley

Insight

Logicalis

OCF

Q Associates

SCC

Softcat

Stone

Tectrade

XMA