Avnet opens door to Oracle health solutions

Scores previously direct business.

Avnet Technology Solutions is now authorised to carry health-care solutions from Oracle's Health Sciences Global Business unit, solutions that previously were sold direct, according to Avnet.

Avnet spent nearly two years developing a program to carry Oracle's Healthcare Information Exchange and Enterprise Healthcare Analytics solutions, said Chris Swahn, vice president and general manager for Avnet Technology Solutions.

"We knew if we were going to deliver an application in this end-user [area], we'd have to be equal to or greater than if it was sold direct," Swahn said. "The channel cannot afford to have a service level be less than Oracle direct. That was No. 1 on our list. We had to be better, faster, cheaper. I believe we are breaking new ground in figuring out how to work with an ISV in an application environment."

To develop its strategy, Avnet spent months training six solution providers on the health-care solutions, with some sessions lasting several weeks, and purchased hardware to design and build test solutions. "It was quite an investment on our part," Swahn said.

Avnet has initiated a marketing program to develop leads for solution providers and plans to help them aggressively pursue the leads.

"We have to be best in class. It can't be, 'Avnet gave me a lead but it wasn't good.' We don't want Oracle ever thinking that Avnet gave a lead that wasn't good. We're putting ourselves in the middle of this so that when Oracle sees a deal close they see the activity of the distributor and the partner," Swahn said.

"They're a software company and they realize they're a software company. How Avnet endeared itself to Oracle is to take advantage of the technology that Oracle is the world-class leader in, and that's software," Swahn said.

He added that the health-care solutions comprise a "pure red," or all-Oracle, stack with hardware, software and services, but solution providers need to understand the software first.

"The partner has to have the ability to understand the environment in an applications world. A hardware-centric world probably would not be the best for this," Swahn said. "The partners we have selected either have very strong services capability, legacy health-care relationships or they have the ability to deliver other applications. We're willing to teach or help a partner grow their ability; we just have to have a starting point. My starting point is not a hardware-centric partner."

Avnet is hoping to add two other Oracle health-care solutions later this year: supply chain analytics and operating room analytics, Swahn said.

"But let's break some ice first. Let's get these first two up and running and there will be plenty of other opportunities in the market," he said.

This article originally appeared at crn.com