Arrow Electronics' PowerStart Adaptive Enterprise Road Show Boosts HP Reseller Sales.

Business Editors

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 2003

A program launched earlier this year by the SBM Division of Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW), one of the largest value-added distributors of HP enterprise products and integration services, has significantly boosted sales of enterprise products through HP-authorized resellers nationwide.

The program, called the PowerStart Adaptive Enterprise Road Show Series, was designed to support HP's Adaptive Enterprise initiative, an effort to boost HP's product and service sales into enterprise accounts. The PowerStart program provided Arrow's reseller partners with a variety of specialized training sessions and presentations to help them position their companies to successfully sell HP products and services around two key areas of focus for HP, IT Consolidation and Competitive Selling. Through the program, Arrow and HP also helped resellers develop a structured marketing plan to drive IT consolidation sales.

"Arrow sponsored its PowerStart Adaptive Enterprise Road Show Series together with HP as a way to better inform resellers about important HP initiatives, particularly in the areas of IT consolidation and competitive selling," explained Charles McPherson, vice president of sales and marketing, SBM Division. "Our goal was to help our resellers use what they learned to significantly increase their sales, and the program worked."

At each PowerStart road show, Arrow's HP resellers attended a five-hour training session conducted by key HP managers as well as industry experts, and a two-hour networking session in which they were able to interact with featured speakers and executives from Arrow's SBM Division. Throughout the program, resellers attended presentations on HP OpenView, HP Services, Business Critical Systems (BCS) and HP Storage to bolster their sales efforts.

Following the PowerStart road shows, resellers reported increases of as much as 50 percent in their HP sales over a six-month period. "Arrow's PowerStart Adaptive Enterprise Road Show Series helped us better identify sales opportunities and more efficiently provide HP solutions to new and existing customers," said Jay Uribe, principal, director of sales for reseller Mobius Partners. "The road shows definitely helped bolster our HP sales and provided the focus we needed to successfully leverage our HP relationships and expertise to the fullest."

Comprised of two sets of road shows, Arrow's PowerStart program offered resellers in-depth information on IT consolidation and competitive selling practices. The PowerStart IT Consolidation events were held during the first quarter of 2003, and the Competitive Selling road shows were held throughout the second quarter.

Hundreds of resellers attended the PowerStart road shows, which were held in Houston, Atlanta, New York and Anaheim, Calif., as well as Toronto and Montreal, Canada. Participation in the events was offered to Arrow's authorized HP resellers at no charge.

About the North American Computer Products group of Arrow

Electronics

The North American Computer Products group of Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW) is a leading distributor of enterprise and embedded computing systems to resellers and OEM customers in North America. Based in Englewood, CO, the group is comprised of four divisions that make up Enterprise Computing Solutions (Support Net, SBM, MOCA, Enterprise Storage Solutions) and OEM Computing Solutions, which serves complex and industrial OEM customers. Visit us at www.arrownacp.com.

Arrow Electronics is one of the world's largest distributors of electronic components and computer products and a leading provider of services to the electronics industry.