Another big tech distributor adds content component

December 9, 2011 by Dave Haynes

The drive to sell content as a SKU in a digital signage order continues, this time with Tech Data doing a deal with Saddle Ranch Digital for “an exclusive line of SKUs specifically developed for Tech Data to complement its full line of content creation and management services.”

“Our new partnership with Tech Data brings a new level of commitment to the channel in support of our content creation services,” said Kim Sarrubi, President and CEO of Saddle Ranch Digital, in a news release. “Through our partnership, we are enabling resellers to offer a total digital signage solution, including content, to their end-user customers.”

What that actually means is not laid out in the PR or on the Tech Data site, but  let’s assume templates and packages-up time and scope of work bundles that mean you can get a “spot” generated by buying four hours of studio time for $__.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after Tech Data key competitor Ingram Micro announced its own Digital Signage Content Creation Services. In that case, Ingram politely declined to say who their content partners are. My first guess was Saddle Ranch, so I was either wrong or that company has some major moxie.

The question remains whether creative services can or should be sold as a SKU. The digital signage in a box thing has not, from what I hear, set the world on fire. But the marketplace will decide.

Tech Data also announced arrangements for GE Capital to provide financing to support its digital signage resellers and their end-user customers. GE Capital, Americas is the commercial lending and leasing arm of GE Capital, which provides loans and leases to more than one million customers across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

That one has immediate application if it is packaged right. Ingram had and probably still has digital financing set up.