Tech Times November/December 2014

2 November/December 2014 www.techdata.ca

www.techdata.ca November/December 2014 3


7 Executive Address Understanding your Business Needs

15 TechSelect Member Profile We catch up with Rob and Bhaskor Ghua of Telenet Informatique Inc.

16 TechSelect Partner Conference What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas – not this time!

20 Lenovo and Tech Data Tech Tour 2014 Another successful experience in Raleigh, North Carolina

23 Winner’s Circle Final stop in London, Ontario for 2014 a great success!

26 Business Builder Tour Wrapping up on Canada’s west coast

29 The Fast and Secure Tour The FortiExpress stops at Tech Data

Comments, suggestions?Tell us what you think!

[email protected]

EditorJillian Cahill

Art Direction and DesignJulie MacAulay

Contributing Writers and EditorsIrene Buchan, Jillian Cahill

Project ManagerRalitsa Naydenova

Tech Times is published and distributed six times per year to channel resellers across Canada.

©2014 Tech Data Canada Corporation. Prices, promotions, offers & terms and conditions of sale subject to change without notice. Errors and omissions excepted. All manufacturers’ names are registered trademarks of their respective corporations.

This publication comes to you free from Tech Data Canada Corporation. We received your mailing address from your Tech Data customer account information. To make changes or to unsubscribe, please contact your Tech Data sales team at 800.668.5588 or notify us at [email protected].

www.techtimesmagazine.ca

6 January/February 2013 www.techdata.ca

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Each time I sit down to write this address to all of our valued solution providers at the close of another calendar year, I can’t believe how quickly time has passed. 2014 is coming to a close and we’ve seen so many exciting happenings that have provided more opportunities for accelerated growth in the channel.

2014 not only marks the year of Tech Data Canada’s 25th Anniversary, but also the 40th Anniversary of our parent organization in the US. We have listened to all of you and have made some significant investments to enable you for further success. We’ve successfully launched a Mobility and Retail Business Unit and a resellerCONNECT end user marketing program.

I strongly suggest that you take the opportunity to reach out to our resellerCONNECT team to find out how they can help you reach your goals. We’re leveraging the success of our vendor-driven marketing services and bringing them to all of you. We’ll remain in the background so that you, our reseller partners shine in front of your end customer. From event management and lead generation activities to creative services and website design, we’ve got you covered.

Each day, the entire Tech Data Canada organization provides all of you with best-in-class service and support that you require to meet your business needs. I assure you that as we approach 2015,

our customer service will remain at the top of our priority list. We will continue to look for ways to bring you innovative opportunities and enhanced solutions that will enable you to be more competitive in an increasingly complex industry.

On behalf of the entire Tech Data Canada organization, I’d like to wish each and every one of you a happy holiday season and prosperous New Year! I look forward to our continued partnership and accelerating our mutual success throughout 2015.

Best Wishes,

Rick Reid

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Télénet is a regional telecommunica-tion company building its own private fiber optic network infrastructure. Télénet provides private networks, internet access, telephone services and unified communication on its own and partner networks. Telenet also delivers cloud services on the same network it extends to its cus-tomer. Hybrid cloud solutions pro-vided to our customers are servers, backup, disaster and recovery solu-tions and desktop. Finally Telenet is using the expertise it uses to build its enterprise class cloud services to provide enterprise solutions to public and corporate customers in the space of storage, networking and servers. Group Télénet has been in the business for 17 years and has 70+ employees working in three of-fices in the province of Quebec.

Q: What are your thoughts on the industry in general?The complexities of systems are increasing rapidly. Solutions are delivered using varying platforms (Windows, Linux, Chrome, IOs, Android, etc) and are also using hybrid cloud models from multiple specialized solution providers. Also consumers are expecting enterprises to provide the same access to technology that they can use at home. Most large vendors are going through an important evolution because of new market pressure from lower margins and disruptive technology. For this reason, they have been adding new services competing against each other on a larger range of solutions. They also have been acquiring and consolidating the market and changing their ‘go to market strategy’. We see a lot of direct sales cloud strategies from vendors we would normally have seen using more traditional distribution models.

What challenges are you facing and how do you overcome them?Our main challenge is growing a business in a slow regional economy that is reducing IT spending.

We have invested in enterprise class solu-tions and packages for very specific regional and industry markets. For example private fiber optic networks with secure communica-tion to our cloud that are tailored to security minded multi-office organizations trying to lower capex cost. We have also created cost conscious telecommunication service pack-ages to lower telecommunication bills of our prospective customers feeling the financial “crunch”. Finally we are growing our busi-ness outside of our main region on specifical-ly chosen expertise and telecommunications that have a unique selling proposition even outside of our market.

Q: What would you like to see from vendor partners?As value added resellers we cannot simply move boxes that customers ask for. We need to train and sell our customers on new solutions that could provide value to their organization. To be able to successfully execute such a strategy we need our vendor partners’ support. We need to identify specifically tailored sales and marketing strategies that work in our specific regional markets for targeted customers with targeted solutions. Vendors using the global experience should help identify successful sales plays that generate results in the field.Support from vendors on training is neces-sary at all levels of our organization. We need to first help train pre-sales engineers to better understand which market or business pains does this technology address, sales team for ‘go-to-market’ and ultimately our customers to make them aware of the new solutions and even help close sales. We are looking for vendors who want to actively engage and create a deep level of in-volvement with us to target and train custom-ers. The few vendors who have worked with us up to the customer level have generated 500% year to year growth.

Q: What are your organization’s goals for the next five years?We want to be one of the de facto choices of any industrial, commercial or institutional customer looking for telecommunication ser-vices in our region (i.e. customers selecting us as an automatic supplier to bid on a con-tract.) This will be achieved by a multi-year publicity campaign, sustained sales call of every prospective customer, cost competing

telecommunication services and regionally based cloud solutions for SMB customers layered on to our telecommunication network.

Q: How has the TechSelect program helped you? Or helped you meet your organization’s goals?Meetings with members have given us good insight in strategies and best practices in every part of our organization. As new own-ers, it has helped us create a better managed organization and allowed us to focus on our goals. Increased communication with our vendors and Tech Data has helped them understand our business strategies and objectives. This in turn has brought them to propose products, solutions, marketing strat-egies, technical staff, guest speakers, and vendor sales rep to achieve our goals. It also added another team of great people support-ing us and helping us grow. And it’s fun!!!

Q: What is your outlook for 2015?We have finalized most of our sales strategies and we are continually gaining market share against giant telecommunication players in our regional market every month. We will be accelerating the deployment of networks throughout our region. We are growing our cloud business using strategic regional telecommunication partners outside of our primary market. Finally, we are at the point of finalizing at least one acquisition to help us access new markets for our existing solutions.

TechSelect Member Profile In this issue of Tech Times, we sit down with Rob and Bhaskor Ghua of Telenet Informatique Inc. to understand how TechSelect membership has provided them with valuable insights to help accelerate their business.

Bhaskor Ghua – president, Robi Ghua - vice president

www.techdata.ca September/October 2014 17

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas – not this time! Almost 400 IT solution providers dedicated to supporting the technology needs of small- to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in North America headed to Henderson, Nevada for the TechSelect Fall Partner Conference. From October 22-26, over 60 Canadian community members represented the red and white at the Green Valley Ranch Resort and Spa. Attendees shared their leadership strategies and discussed new ways to optimize business opportunities in the IT channel. “This TechSelect conference provided all of the participants with invaluable industry insights as well as community networking opportunities to help grow our business,” said Wade Ball, manager,

BC Operations. “I am happy to be part of the Canadian TechSelect community and utilize conferences like this to further network with solution providers across the country and build upon our relationships with the vendor partners and Tech Data executive team.”The conference offered hands-on technology training, marketing and sales strategies, and financial planning tips. Members also heard from leading vendor partners including representatives from Cisco, Eaton, HP, Lenovo, Lenovo System X, McAfee, Symantec and VMware. Each discussed their latest technologies and business opportunities. Fellow Canadian business leader Robert Herjavec, Founder and CEO of Herjavec Group and personality on the ABC series Shark Tank, gave the keynote. Herjavec explored the advancement of technology trends, its effects on communication, and the rise of cyber security threats we face on a daily basis. Additionally, the conference featured Tim Curran, CEO of the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC), who addressed the

latest industry trends and the pulse of the channel .The group also found time to recognize its outstanding and fastest-growing members. Winners of the 2014 TechSelect Member Achievement Awards are: David Sime, from Contava for Best TechSelect Canada Newcomer.Scalar Decisions Inc. for Best Year Over Year Performance. It was with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to one of our long-standing members and good friends in September. To pay tribute to this well-respected business leader Rick Uhrich, the community has decided to rename the “Most Engaged TechSelect Member” award to the “Rich Uhrich Community Award.” The first recipient is John McLaughlin, from Next Digital Inc. Tech Data and the TechSelect team would like to thank all those who attended and we look forward to hosting the TechSelect community in Montreal, Quebec for our Spring Partner Conference from May 4-7, 2015!


This year’s Lenovo and Tech Data Tech Tour event in Raleigh, North Carolina was designed to bring solution providers together from across Canada for a two-day event that provided all participants with valuable information required for their business and the opportunity to enrich business relationships.

We were delighted to host two separate groups. The first two days of the conference began with seven attendees from the Microage Network. Following that, we hosted 20 reseller partners from across the country, of which 10 were TechSelect members. All participants earned their opportunity to attend based on attainment of revenue targets of Lenovo TopSeller ThinkPad and ThinkServer products as well as target achievement of Intel and Microsoft products.

All attendees spent one full day at Lenovo’s state-of-the-art Customer Briefing Centre to learn about Lenovo’s product line-up, channel programs and services, including a tour of the Lenovo product showcase. Additionally, everyone had the opportunity to hear from key Lenovo technical and product experts and to engage in stimulating discussions with key partner strategists from Intel and Microsoft, who were also in attendance. The second day was spent on the beautiful course at the storied Duke University Golf Club. Fore! And of course, this annual event would not be complete without a fabulous dinner at the Angus Barn, allowing everyone the chance to kick back, relax, and get to know each other better.

Thank you to all of this year’s attendees for helping to make this long-standing tradition better than ever!

Lenovo and Tech Data 2014 Tech Tour a great success


I had a fantastic experience at the Lenovo Tech Tour and gained valuable insight on Lenovo’s corporate strategy. The venue and host made it a very worthwhile experience. Nir TzurSales Manager, MIT Consulting Inc.

Excellent content, presentations and the tour of the campus was a huge eye opener as to how much Lenovo continues to invest in R&D. One of the best vendor tours I’ve attended and a great use of my time to help Think drive more Lenovo business.David Saele, President - Think Communications Inc.



Welcome to the Winner’s CircleTech Data’s regional Winner’s Circle series made its last stop for 2014 in London, Ontario in October.The room was full of energy with over 45 resellers along with 12 vendor partners showcasing their products and new technologies. The Winner’s Circle events are informative and exciting. They bring together solution providers in smaller regions face-to-face with vendor partners and Tech Data executives to discuss strategy, develop plans for growth and build new and existing relationships. Thank you to our vendor partners and all who attended and made this event a huge success!See you next year!

Tech Data Canada’s Cisco Pre-sales Technical Support Team provides best-in-class support for all Cisco products and solutions, including everything there is to know about Enterprise Networking suc as Switches (Nexus switches, Fiber Channel Networking and Network Automation), Routers and Wireless, Security Solutions with Firewalls, VPN Intrusion Prevention and Content Security Solutions such as antivirus and

antispam, Voice and Video Collaboration for Unified Communications Manager, Call Manager Express, Unity Connection, Phone Systems, Telepresence and video conferencing solutions, including WebEx. This team also has expertise in Data Centre and Virtualization Solutions and can assist with questions regarding UCS servers, all validated through the combined certifications this team holds:

Cisco Systems Engineer Type of # of Certi�cations Certi�cations AchievedAssociate CCNA R&S 12 CCNA Voice 3 CCNA Security 4 CCNA Wireless 2 CCNA Video 1 CCDA 7Professional CCNP R&S 3 CCDP 2

Associate Value: The Associate level of Cisco Certifications can begin directly with CCNA for network installation, operations and troubleshooting or CCDA for network design. Think of the Associate Level as the foundation level of networking certifications. Professional Value: The Professional level is an advanced level of certification that shows more expertise with networking skills. Each certification covers a different technology to meet the needs of varying job roles.

The Difference in Distribution SM

Meet our proud team of dedicated Cisco Pre-sales Technical Support Team who are here to help you with all of your Cisco needs.

Tech Data Canada’s Cisco Pre-Sales Technical Support Team is a dedicated resource. They play a critical role in the sales process by offering significant influence on the solutions recommended to your customers. They use a consultative approach and provide a healthy sales enablement focus to the customer. The team looks at the big picture and takes into consideration future growth. With this high level of customer service, our Cisco Pre-sales Technical Support Team is often viewed by our reseller partners as their very own trusted advisors. The team has a special relationship with each customers and partners often conference our team members in on calls with their end clients to ensure clarity of the business needs and project objective and to jointly develop the technical solution necessary to progress the sale, and to close it.

The Cisco Pre-Sales Technical Support Team works collaboratively with you and your customers to identify the best possible solution for every opportunity. Designed with a full 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. coverage model, our team is accessible for training opportunities, demand generation through solutions recommendations and options for awareness campaigns. We encourage this partnership over conference calls or video conference to design a custom solution that meets your customer needs. These extra touches can add margins to your deal, and closing power to the resellers’ bid response.

We are here to help you encounter endless opportunities and accelerate your Cisco Business.Provide technical intelligence around Cisco products, solutions and services

Deliver strong business solutions to help drive your Cisco revenue growth

Generate more sales opportunities by adding value through collaborative efforts with the Tech Data Canada’s Cisco Pre-sales Technical Support team

Close more Cisco business by fueling your own knowledge and skills by engaging in Tech Data or Cisco led trainings and/or webinar sessions

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Your engagement with this technical team not only provides you with endless support from qualified associates, but also an opportunity to leverage our Advanced Technology Solutions Centre (ATSC) located at Tech Data Canada’s head office in Mississauga, Ontario. This technology powerhouse features $1.5 million in equipment from more than 25 industry leading manufacturers and hosts more than 400 customers a year, including visits for specific product solution demonstrations, technology briefings, and event tours not only onsite but remotely. We are able to reach customers near and far with the technology available in our ATSC allowing limitless opportunities for our customers.


Our six-city Business Builder Tour (BBT) has wrapped up for another year with the final stop in Vancouver this month. Once again, the BBT was very successful and saw more than 750 solution providers in attendance across the country. The tour began in April in Ottawa, followed by Montreal and Quebec City in May, Toronto in September, Calgary in October and the final stop of Vancouver in November.

At each stop solution providers and participating vendor partners had the opportunity to engage in business opportunity discussions and enrich business relationships. Attendees took part in several educational workshops designed to enable accelerated growth in their business. The Tech Data executive team and members of the sales organization were in attendance to further develop relationships with reseller partners.

Thank you to all of the VARs and our participating vendor partners for making our award-winning 2014 BBT a huge success! We look forward to fine-tuning our plans for next year’s events. We’ve made several enhancements to the program and look forward to seeing you there.

Business Builder Tour wraps up for the year with final stop on west coast




The FortiExpress and Tech Data – Driving the Future of Network Security.It’s big, red, shiny and packed with an array of advanced security technologies from Fortinet – it’s the FortiExpress!

Designed to be a mobile briefing centre, training room or trade show booth the FortiExpress is taking the “Fast and Secure Tour” across the US and Canada, creating buzz wherever it stops.

It recently stopped at Tech Data’s Toronto and Montreal locations and hosted a number of key Tech Data customers. The truck was set up to showcase a variety of security solutions including Unified Threat Management, Next Generation Firewall and Secure Wireless.

Everybody had a chance to explore the truck, talk to Fortinet and TD staff, ask questions and enjoy a gourmet BBQ lunch. They all agreed that the FortiExpress puts Fortinet firmly in the industry’s driving seat, taking network security to new places.







40 YEARS of strength and agility, providing cutting-edge technology to the world.

And we’re just getting started.

Tech Times November/December 2014

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