IBM Announces Distribution Agreement with Bell Microproducts

Information Management Online, January 13, 2000

Somers, N.Y. and San Jose, Calif., Jan. 12, 2000 – IBM announced that Bell will become a Technology Group Solutions Partner for distributing IBM technology throughout the Americas. The agreement is expected to generate more than $2 billion in sales during the next four years. The agreement capitalizes on Bell Microproducts' established marketing and sales structure in a broad range of product areas represented by IBM's Technology Group, including LCD panels, network controllers, storage area networks (SANs), network and server- attached storage (NAS and SAS), hard disk drives, tape drives and LTO-based tape libraries.

“Expanding sales of IBM technology through Bell Microproducts will help bring IBM innovations to market faster,” said David Ernsberger, vice president of worldwide sales, IBM Technology Group. “Bell Microproducts' transition from a traditional component distributor to a solutions provider makes them well- suited for bringing IBM's leading-edge technologies to resellers, system integrators and OEMs.”

Bell will market IBM products at a variety of levels of integration, from components to subsystem assemblies and fully integrated, tested and certified system solutions. Bell will also add value through a broad range of services including testing, software loading, kitting, mass storage system integration and computer system integration. Through the agreement, Bell Microproducts will rely on its existing e-business and supply chain management infrastructure to expand sales of IBM components. PartnerNet, Bell Microproduct's new customer extranet, will guide VARs and OEMs through the decision-making, pricing and purchasing processes of IBM products.

For more information, visit www.bellmicro.com.

Rachel Rasmussen was a Web Editor of DMReview.com.

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