Clarity Distribution has opened a new demonstration centre for HP storage products and systems at their distribution and warehouse complex in Tallaght, Dublin.
The HP Storage Solutions Centre will be used to demonstrate and educate channel partners and customers about HP server and storage technology and will allow dealers to test, configure and demonstrate systems for clients.
Similar in ways to EMC/Dell’s demonstration centre at Dell’s plant in Limerick, the centre houses equipment worth over €300,000 and will be managed by three HP- trained sales and technical people. The equipment will be updated on a regular basis to reflect ongoing changes to product line-ups.
The product set includes medium and enterprise size servers, storage devices, backup tape equipment, data protection solutions and management software. More advanced concepts such as virtualisation and ILM can be explained and demonstrated. In addition to the hardware and software, services can be provided that support design, integration, data migration and reactive and proactive support services. The establishment of the centre was primarily funded by Clarity.
‘A huge proportion of customers need to be able to test and try the product so they can benchmark them with competing products,’ said Veronica Philips, sales director, Clarity. She said that the centre would be primarily used for demonstrating systems to enterprise customers. Clarity also has a demonstration centre at its Tallaght complex for printer products and systems.
Another advantage of the centre, says Clarity, is that will reduce the need for travel abroad as it is intended to be one-stop shop that can be worked in conjunction with HP’s Competency centres in Europe and EMEA call centre in Ireland.
Ned McQuaid, managing director of HP partner Sabeo said: ‘We see Clarity’s investment in the Storage Solution Centre as a major step forward and indication of their willingness to invest in additional value-add to the channel. By affording the reseller access to EVA type technology, it allows us to demonstrate to the customer the real benefits of SAN technology and affords the customer the opportunity to experience ”hands on” the functionality of this technology.’
24/05/04
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