Azlan leads the way with IBM’s Lotus Foundations program for SMB resellers in Europe

Sept. 10, 2009 - PRLog -- Munich, Germany –  Azlan, the enterprise networking and mid-range systems business of Tech Data, is working with IBM to lead the recruitment and enablement of resellers for the Lotus Foundations solution for small business in Europe.

“With its exceptional coverage, proven track record in SMB reseller identification, recruitment and enablement, Azlan was an obvious choice for the Lotus Foundations programme,” said Gareth Hansford, IBM vice-president of Distributor Management for Western Europe. “We will work together to make resellers fully aware of the market potential and to provide them with the support they need to maximize and develop their opportunities with Lotus Foundations.”

Aimed at businesses with between 1 and 500 employees, Lotus Foundations is a complete out-of-the-box ‘first server’ solution that empowers SMBs to succeed by providing them with all the software functionality needed to drive efficiency and growth, while minimizing the complexity traditionally associated with IT solutions. It comes with a complete range of easy-to-use, fully integrated office productivity, email and collaboration tools. It also provides remote access, advanced file management and directory services, a built-in firewall, anti-virus, anti-spam, and backup and recovery software.

Lotus Foundations’ unique self-managing and self-healing features simplify installation, configuration and updates, making the solution extremely cost-effective and easy for customers to use and for resellers to manage and support.

Azlan will draw on its pan-European reach ad capabilities to provide SMB resellers with a full program of sales training and marketing support for the software.

“IBM’ is synonymous with quality, sophistication and efficiency and Lotus Foundations delivers all of these qualities to small businesses in a package that is both affordable and easy to manage. For SMB resellers, it presents an ideal opportunity to leverage Azlan’s eco-system to offer IBM quality and resilience to existing and new customers.” says Sean Kendrick, Director of Marketing and SMB at Azlan Europe.

“Lotus Foundations presents resellers with a real SMB server solution to serve the lower end of the SMB market, and we expect this offering to bring both new partners and new customers to IBM for the first time”,

Azlan has a strong engagement and close relationship with IBM Software in Europe and was recently named as the best-performing IBM value-added distributor in the SMB market 2008 for the South West and North East territories, while Azlan Germany was named VAD Distributor of the Year. Azlan’s overall growth with IBM Software last year was more than 40 percent.

With full integration between all major functions of the suite and self-regulating processes, Lotus Foundations is extremely efficient and with security and recovery capabilities included, provides the protection and resilience that all businesses need for their software and data today.

Lotus Foundations is one of IBM’s first dedicated business 'appliances'. These purpose built solutions will create new and exciting opportunities for resellers, says Kendrick. “We are going to be working closely with IBM to drive awareness and communicate the benefits of these new solutions, both to SMB end users and the wider SMB reseller community. We see a great potential in this market for IBM Software.”

Initially, Azlan will be driving recruitment of resellers for the system in Belgium, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The program will be extended to other European markets later this year. Dedicated resources have been put in place in each of these countries to provide focused support for SMB resellers on the Lotus Foundations solutions.


About Azlan
Azlan, the Enterprise Division of Tech Data Corporation, is a leading value-added distributor of networking, communications, midrange enterprise server, storage and software solutions in Europe. We enable fast, cost-effective pan-European distribution of products and solutions for market leaders such as Cisco , IBM , HP , VMware  and Oracle (NasdaqGS: ORCL).  Azlan provides a variety of other value creating services including channel development, marketing and sales support, training and certification, and finance programs designed to assist vendor and reseller partners in developing their SME and mid market  opportunities. www.azlan.com

Azlan continues to build on its 25 year history of excellence, now as part of Tech Data, which acquired Azlan in March 2003. Tech Data generated $24.1 billion in net sales for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2009. Founded in 1974, Tech Data  is a leading distributor of IT products, with more than 100,000 customers in over 100 countries. www.techdata.com

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Azlan, the Enterprise Division of Tech Data Corporation, is the leading value-added distributor of networking, communications, midrange enterprise server, storage and software solutions in Europe.