Avnet Technology Solutions Introduces SolutionsPath™ Services

Avnet Technology Solutions, the solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), today announced the latest evolution in its services offerings -- SolutionsPath™ Services. SolutionsPath Services is a portfolio of professional and managed services that Avnet’s U.S. and Canadian value-added reseller partners can leverage to help them expand their data center offerings to meet end-user business needs. Delivered and project managed through Avnet on behalf of its partners, SolutionsPath Services directly supports the sale and delivery of data center solutions developed within Avnet’s SolutionsPath™ technology practices, NetworkPath™, SecurePath™, StoragePath™ and VirtualPath™, and vertical market practices, GovPath™ and HealthPath™.

"Our partners are experts in developing solutions for the traditional data center; however, this model is undergoing a significant shift and customers’ needs are changing rapidly,” said Tony Vottima, vice president of Solutions Marketing and Development, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas. "To be successful long term, partners will need to know how to architect data center solutions for an increasingly converged environment. With SolutionsPath Services, our partners can begin immediately offering these capabilities to their customers, while also benefiting from the revenue growth and higher margin potential that services provide.”

The service lines include:

• Assessment Services -- Avnet provides a range of solution-specific assessment services -- networking, security, storage and virtualization -- that add value to a partner’s business. Assessment services enable partners to position themselves at the front of the sales cycle to drive business development and deliver complete solutions to their customers. Using proven methodologies, assessments provide the analysis and reporting that partners need to help guide customer decision making.
• Design Services -- Avnet solutions architects and technical consultants collaborate with partners to design the solutions based on the assessment findings. This strategic team augments solution providers’ existing staff, providing the expertise to define the solutions, provide ROI/TCO analysis and develop the product specifications for procurement.
• Implementation Services -- In coordination with supplier services and solution provider expertise, Avnet implementation resources can implement and integrate the solution into the customer’s environment. Implementation services enable partners to expand their expertise without incurring hiring and training expenses.
• Managed Services -- Partners can take advantage of Avnet's 20+ years of experience in managing data centers to create complete solutions for their customers, including hardware or software managed services.

"Services are a key component of a complete solutions offering for our customers, but developing new services in-house requires considerable investment,” said Bill Richardson, vice president of sales for Micro Solutions, based in California. "With SolutionsPath™ Services, we can ramp up projects more quickly by using standard services offerings from Avnet. That gives us the luxury of testing the water and building up our technical bench and capabilities over time. Avnet has demonstrated to us that they understand both our strengths and our challenges. The investment they have made in developing these service offerings makes Avnet an invaluable partner for our business.”

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About Avnet Technology Solutions

As a global solutions distributor, Avnet Technology Solutions collaborates with its customers and suppliers to create and deliver effective solutions that address the business challenges of their end-user customers locally and around the world. For fiscal year 2009, the group served customers in more than 30 countries and generated US $7.04 billion in annual revenue. Avnet Technology Solutions (www.ats.avnet.com) is an operating group of Avnet, Inc.

Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology in the world. Avnet accelerates its partners’ success by connecting the world’s leading technology suppliers with a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 27, 2009, Avnet generated revenue of $16.23 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.