Tech Data this week launched a solution catalog made up of 30 analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings that the distributor has vetted on behalf of channel partners.
As part of this initiative, Tech Data has also rolled out an enablement program for approximately 200 partners in North America and Europe.
Tech Data is also providing those partners with access to the distributor’s Practice Builder methodology. Selected partners are invited to undergo a readiness assessment, followed by a strategy development workshop and practice building period of 90 days. Sponsored by Microsoft and Intel, the Practice Builder program is conducted by Lemon Operations, a consulting firm specializing in enabling IT channel partners to grow new revenue streams by embracing emerging technologies.
Thanks mainly to so many digital business transformation initiatives being launched by customers the time to launch an analytics and IoT solutions catalog could not be better, says Lisa McGarvey, director of solutions development for Tech Data..
In fact, citing industry analysts reports McGarvey says analytics and IoT represent a $96 billion market opportunity that is largely untapped.
The challenge solution provider face is that these types of solutions typically require deep familiarity with the specific vertical industry use cases in which they will be applied, adds McGarvey. To address that knowledge gap, Tech Data is making available its own professional services team in addition to encouraging partners to work together on opportunities.
“We know that one partner can’t do it all,” says McGarvey.
These days there’s almost no solution that doesn’t include some form of analytics. Sometimes that analytics is provided via a stand-alone application while other times it is embedded within a larger application. IoT solutions especially require analytics to make sense of the large stream of data that those solutions typically generate.
Tech Data as part of this initiative isn’t ready to take on more advanced forms of predictive analytics based on machine and deep learning algorithms that are embedded within artificial intelligence (AI) applications. It should be clear however to any solution providers that gaining a sound analytics foundation today will continue to pay dividends well into the next decade and beyond.
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