Avnet Partner Solutions, IBM Americas Announces Avnet Integrated Marketing Solutions -AIMS- to Fuel Partner Growth.

SAN ANTONIO -- Avnet Partner Solutions, IBM Americas, the leading value-added distributor of IBM enterprise computing products, storage, software and services, today announced the official launch of Avnet Integrated Marketing Solutions (AIMS). The custom subscription-based marketing program allows partners to stay connected with existing customers and to cultivate new relationships by expanding their marketing reach.

"The goal of the program is to position our partners for greater success by helping them move from a product-centric to a solutions-focused model," said Roger Arndt, vice president of customer and product marketing for Avnet Partner Solutions, IBM Americas. "AIMS is a set of unique offerings that can be tailored to the individual needs of each solution provider," added Arndt. "The program will enhance their ability to capture more business in their accounts -- which I like to call eating sideways -- and as a result grow their business more profitably."

According to Arndt, AIMS consists of a variety of on-demand offerings, including Customer Connection, sales webinars and custom campaigns. AIMS also offers Renewal Portfolio, which tracks IBM Global Financing (IGF) contract expirations, IBM Global Services (IGS) maintenance contract data, and Healthcheck Performance Monitoring, which measures the utilization of a system's vital resources.

All elements are designed to work together to help solution providers become "on demand" with their customers -- that is, more responsive and focused. Because Avnet provides content development, execution, and full project management, partners are able to deploy a variety of marketing programs with minimal effort and investment, resulting in significant time and cost savings, noted Arndt.

Webinars on demand is a vehicle that allows partners to provide resources and expertise to their customers, and features industry subject matter experts. The program uses telemarketing and electronic invitations to drive attendance to the events; it captures valuable participant feedback through online polling questions, giving partners the ability to prioritize and better manage their leads.

Solutions-II Inc., an IBM Premier Business Partner headquartered in Denver, specializing in storage and server consolidation, was one of the early adopters of AIMS. Solutions-II utilized webinars on demand to provide product information to its existing customer base on new Blade Center solutions.

"I am really pleased at how Avnet Integrated Marketing Solutions helped us reach out to our customers," said Todd Bowling, president and CEO of Solutions-II. "Not only did we achieve an attendance rate of 45% among the executive audience we targeted, but Avnet's marketing specialists took care of everything. The ease of implementing this campaign was truly an important benefit for us."

In addition to webinars, partners utilize Customer Connection on demand, a high-value, low-cost customer retention program designed to provide an ongoing dialogue with customers and prospects. The program focuses on the use of electronic newsletters, which solution providers personalize, focusing on their skill base, supported products and solution portfolio, and their selections from a catalog of new product and industry articles. These are delivered on a recurring basis in conjunction with other methods of communication such as customer appreciation letters and cards.

Custom campaigns on demand, which are based on the partners' geography, vertical markets and personal messaging, takes lead generation to a whole new level of customization for the reseller. These highly personalized marketing programs integrate vehicles such as webinars, seminars, events and executive door openers with more traditional approaches such as direct mail and the very effective HiQ telemarketing.

Once partners have utilized the program to connect and establish an ongoing dialogue with their customers, explained Arndt, they can take full advantage of Avnet's IGF and IGS contract databases. By sending personalized updates and end-of-contract reminders to customers on a partner's behalf, the AIMS program ensures customer awareness of critical dates and puts the solution provider out in front of their sales opportunity.

About Avnet Partner Solutions

Headquartered in San Antonio, Avnet Partner Solutions, IBM Americas is an industry-leading, value-added distributor of IBM enterprise servers, storage, software and services, marketing exclusively to the reseller channel in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Avnet Partner Solutions, IBM Americas is part of the Avnet Technology Solutions operating group of Avnet Inc. Avnet (NYSE:AVT) enables success from the center of the technology industry, providing cost-effective services and solutions vital to a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and 250 suppliers. The company markets, distributes and adds value to a wide variety of electronic components, enterprise computer products and embedded subsystems. Through its premier market position, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of capabilities that help its trading partners accelerate growth and realize cost efficiencies. Avnet generated more than $10 billion in revenue in fiscal 2004 (year ended July 3, 2004) through sales in 68 countries. Visit www.avnet.com/.

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