Avnet Australia wins EMC, Westcon loses account

Avnet has become an EMC distributor in Australia, joining Ingram Micro and knocking out Westcon following a competitive tender.

The deal aligns Avnet Australia with North America and Europe, where it already represents EMC. It follows a smaller partnership locally, with Avnet representing EMC's VSPEX Blue converged solutions technology in Australia since February.

A Westcon Australia spokesperson confirmed to CRN that its relationship with EMC is ending on 19 October.

“EMC conducted a confidential request for proposal process earlier this year and, having concluded this process, have decided to appoint one of their global distributors for EMC in Australia," said the spokesperson. "Westcon Group will work with EMC to ensure a smooth transition during this process.”

Chris Trevitt, EMC's Australia & New Zealand general manager of partner sales, told CRN: "Going forward Avnet and Ingram Micro will be EMC’s primary distributors in Australia. Westcon’s contribution to EMC over the years has been greatly appreciated and we thank them for their partnership.

"Ingram Micro and Avnet will distribute the majority of EMC’s range. However, for some specific products within EMC’s portfolio we will continue to work with specialty distributors, such as Arrow."

Bringing EMC into the fold will align with Avnet vendors such as VMware – part of the EMC Federation – as well as Lenovo, which is partnering with EMC in the data centre, said Darren Adams, general manager of Avnet Australia & New Zealand.

"It was a very competitive tendering process. We had to win it, it wasn't a gift. We will be ensuring continuity of service to the EMC community and bring innovative new ways of doing business," said Adams.

"We are doing all the key products in the EMC portfolio. There was an RFI that EMC did to select two distributors. All the usual players were on that competitive tendering process and they selected us."

He called this transition "safe passage – our program for onboarding a new supplier, and we will be doing that. We are open for business immediately."

The distribution deal will centre around converged infrastructure and data solutions related to big data, cloud computing and storage.

"In addition, Avnet partners can take advantage of Avnet’s integration services to offer pre-configured, fully-tested solutions based on EMC technology, which can be delivered to customers’ sites with certified shipping," according to the distie.