Arrow Electronics Launches New Program to Help IBM Business Partners Increase iSeries Sales

Business Wire, Feb 2, 2005

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Support Net Division of Arrow Electronics, Inc. (NYSE: ARW), one of the largest value-added distributors of IBM enterprise products and integration services, has embarked on a program designed to help IBM Business Partners significantly boost sales of iSeries technology to small-to-mid-size businesses.

Launched last month, the iSeries SMB Enablement Program will provide marketing support a select number of iSeries Business Partners over the next 21 months. Arrow has committed to these iSeries partners that the enablement program will help them increase sales by ten percent cumulatively by the time the program winds down in September 2006.

The participating Business Partners, also informally known as the "21 Club," will receive support from Arrow in developing educational materials, marketing collateral, and templated sales presentations. In addition, Arrow will commit additional sales support to the participants, and this month will conduct iSeries i5 certification training and seminars on new positioning and sales strategies.

"These Business Partners are the front line for IBM talking to small-to-midsize business customers," said Eric Williams, executive vice president of the Support Net Division. "Our commitment to the iSeries SMB Enablement Program will empower the Partners to significantly grow their business in the coming months."

"With added sales support and other materials from Arrow, we will be better positioned to win competitive sales situations and retain customers over the long run," said Bruce South, vice president of Sales at eTech Solutions, one of the members of the "21 Club."

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 industrial OEMs and intellectual property-based companies. Visit all of our divisions at www.arrownacp.com.

Arrow Electronics is one of the world's largest providers of products, services and solutions to the electronic components and computer products industries.