Cloud drives disties to merge

Hardware distributor Bluechip Infotech has realised its software ambitions by announcing a merge with Track IT Online.

The merge continues a period of consolidation among Australian distributors, including the recent Dicker Data acquisition of Express Data.

"The distribution landscape is certainly changing," Track IT Online director Phil Lancaster told CRN. "The emphasis is now on 'as-a-service', and even though the bulk of our dollars are still in traditional areas, it's shifting."

Lancaster told CRN last year that cloud vendors need the channel as much as traditional providers.

"Once you have strong competition in a given space, that’s where the channel comes into its own," he said at the time.

[Related: How disties are beating the squeeze]

The merger supports Bluechip Infotech's strategy to enter the software and virtualisation channel.

"With new skills sets and focus in software based solutions, the merger will take Bluechip to a new stage in providing virtualisation and cloud tools to its channel partners," said Bluechip managing director Johnson Hsiung.

Track IT Online channel manager Kylie Ayres told CRN that the two disties already had a large overlapping client base, so the complementary offerings from each side made for a natural union.

"[The merger] gives us more scope to provide for our customers – it's a positive step forward," Ayres said. "The merger will grow and enhance our relationships with channel partners."

Bluechip announced that Track IT Online will now be known as "Delivio – enterprise division of Bluechip Infotech".

"We ran an online competition for the name and we liked how the winner coupled 'delivery' and the computing term 'IO'," Lancaster told CRN.

The merger process is expected to be wrapped up by the end of next month, according to Bluechip Infotech.

TrackITonline counts among its reseller partners Data #3, Dimension Data, and Datacom. Current boss Lancaster will become a director of Bluechip Infotech.