Avnet Technology Solutions Recognized with Two HP Partner in Excellence Awards in the U.S.

Avnet honored for its unique ability to leverage services and software to increase HP sales and support HP’s converged solutions strategy

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Avnet Technology Solutions, the global IT solutions distribution leader and an operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT), today announced that it received two HP Partner in Excellence Awards at 2013 HP Global Partner Conference. For the second consecutive year, Avnet was named the HP Partner in Excellence - Top U.S. Enterprise Distributor, and for the first time received the HP Partner in Excellence Award for U.S. Software Growth. These awards recognize Avnet’s expertise in increasing partner sales year-over-year in key growth areas for HP, such as converged infrastructure, converged cloud and software-defined data center solutions.

“As HP’s largest enterprise distributor, Avnet has the proven resources and support partners need to market and win across the entire HP enterprise solutions portfolio, including services, software and hardware,” said Chris Swahn, vice president and general manager, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas, HP Solutions group. “Avnet significantly invests in enabling our partner community to solve the business challenges of their customers. These investments are paying off for HP and our partners as evidenced by Avnet’s leading in market share, growth and success of our HP partners, and this outstanding recognition from HP.”

The HP Partner in Excellence - Top U.S. Enterprise Distributor Award honors Avnet Technology Solutions for demonstrating the highest year-over-year growth. Avnet was recognized for profitably increasing its solution providers’ businesses in 2012 by enabling them to sell complete data center solutions that include high-value services, software and hardware. In particular, Avnet increased its services offerings to help solution providers capitalize on HP ProLiant servers and HP 3PAR storage opportunities, and was selected as the first distributor to offer its professional services and technical resources through the HP ServiceONE program. Avnet’s continued success is also driven by its methodologies, practices and resources that help solution providers target high-growth, specialized markets, such as healthcare, energy, finance, government, and retail, through Avnet’s SolutionsPath® vertical market practices.

Additionally, Avnet received the HP Partner in Excellence - U.S. Software Growth Award for top balanced revenue and growth across the software portfolio year-over-year. Avnet significantly increased its portfolio of innovative offerings to grow HP’s software business through the acquisition of Pepperweed Consulting in 2012. For example, Avnet now offers a complete set of packaged, fixed-price implementations in the U.S. and Canada—Cloud Evolution Paks (E-Paks). The Cloud E-Paks deploy fully monitored, private clouds with HP CloudSystem or HP Cloud Service Automation products.

“Avnet continually evolves its capabilities to bring HP solutions to market in ways that meet the changing needs of CIOs and IT leaders,” said Tony Vottima, senior vice president and general manager, Avnet Services, Americas. “Building on our 30-year relationship with HP, Avnet is now providing innovative services specifically designed to augment our partners’ ability to drive HP Enterprise Solutions while helping businesses harness the power of cloud computing. Our channel ecosystem is already seeing tremendous success in this area as Avnet’s services position them for long-term growth. We thank HP for their continuing support, our partners for making it possible, and our solutions and delivery teams for their dedication to customer service excellence.”

HP Partner in Excellence Award winners are selected by a panel of HP Channel executives and presented to outstanding HP partners worldwide who have demonstrated exceptional business performance, achieved significant overall growth, have delivered innovative solutions to customers, or have demonstrated IT innovation through philanthropic activities in their local communities.

“Congratulations to this year’s HP Partner in Excellence – Growth Award winners,” said Terry Richardson, vice president and general manager, U.S. Channel Sales, Enterprise Group, HP. “Each of these partners has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to partnership in the spirit of delivering the technology, solutions and value-added services that matter to our mutual customers.”

Additional information on the 2013 HP Global Partner Conference is available at: https://h30599.www3.hp.com/.

Follow Avnet Technology Solutions, North America, on Twitter: @AvnetAdvantage and @AvnetTSChannels.

About Avnet Technology Solutions
As a global IT solutions distributor, Avnet Technology Solutions collaborates with its customers and suppliers to create and deliver services, software and hardware solutions that address the business needs of their end-user customers locally and around the world. The group serves customers and suppliers in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa. It generated US $10.8 billion in annual revenue for fiscal year 2012. Avnet Technology Solutions is an operating group of Avnet, Inc. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.

About Avnet
Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT), a Fortune 500 company, is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology serving customers globally. Avnet accelerates its partners’ success by connecting the world’s leading technology suppliers with a broad base of customers by providing cost-effective, value-added services and solutions. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2012, Avnet generated revenue of $25.7 billion. For more information, visit www.avnet.com.