Tech Data introduced its Analytics and IoT Solution Factory to help businesses accelerate opportunities in the booming next-generation technology areas of analytics and IoT. This offering expands on the click-to-run solutions found in the Tech Data Cloud Solution Factory to create vetted analytics and IoT solutions that focus on specific use cases in key vertical markets to facilitate simplified deployments and outcomes for partners.
Tech Data has included a broad spectrum of next-generation technologies including analytics and IoT solutions featuring Intel IoT Market Ready Solutions. The Solution Factory methodology enables Tech Data partners to obtain proven, repeatable solutions providing speed and scale in the market.
The Tech Data Cloud Solutions Factory includes a broad set of IT and business solutions practices. These are created by integrating licenses, services and third-party components and include core infrastructure, application innovation and data protection, among others. Through a solutions practice, Tech Data enables partners to think and sell based on customers’ business outcomes. Each practice combines a logical set of click-to-run solutions, services and independent software vendors.
The Tech Data Solutions Factory will add a variety of vendors going forward. Some of the initial partners include Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Red Hat, NetApp, Veeam, Autodesk and many others.
“The Solution Factory is a great example of how Tech Data is aggregating pre-packaged, tested and proven solutions to speed time from deployment to outcome,” said Colin Blair, vice president, Analytics and IoT Solutions, Americas, at Tech Data. “There is a huge opportunity for our customers to deploy profitable Analytics and IoT solutions. Tech Data’s Solution Factory enables repeatable solutions resulting in a faster time to market.”
Industry analyst firm IDC projects that by 2021, more than 65 percent of partners will focus efforts by vertical or functional use case. Repeatable solutions enable faster delivery to help optimize use case deployment, resulting in greater profits for stakeholders.
“Tech Data’s Solution Factory complements its successful Practice Builder methodology to provide partners with outcome-driven, complete solutions,” said Pam Miller, director of Infrastructure Channels Research, at IDC. “This model offers end customers digital transformation with demonstrable business value, while allowing partners to jump-start their own transformation to the digital economy. This type of enablement is what has been needed for the channel to scale in analytics and IoT and capitalize on the revenue opportunity provided by the third platform.”
Examples of outcomes within the Analytics and IoT Solution Factory include smart city solutions, such as outdoor edge security for school safety and smart security for remote areas for public safety and situational awareness; delivering wayfinding and location services that supercharge the shopper experience by leveraging Wi-Fi, beacons and/or GPS to drive foot traffic and revenue by improving store operations, reducing restocking time and overhead—enabling retailers to elevate the shopper’s journey, offering targeted promotions in real time.
With Clinic Interconnect for the ambulatory care market, it connects care teams and patients across multiple facilities also addresses the M&A challenge and accelerates the digital transformation of outpatient clinics and hospitals.
“Delivering pre-designed, defined and repeatable solutions is key to channel partners like Logicalis,” said Mike Trojecki, vice president, IoT and Analytics, at Logicalis. “The advent of repeatable, scalable solutions is helping move analytics and IoT out of the ‘science-project phase’ and into the real world, where actual use cases are seeing problems being solved, with the benefits of these technologies being circulated across the entire business. However, partners can’t do it all—it’s critical to have a strong relationship with a proven solution aggregator such as Tech Data.”
