Avnet, Inc., a leading global technology distributor, today announced that it ranked No. 4 on the InformationWeek Elite 100 – a list of the top business technology innovators in the U.S. Avnet was recognized for the development of an innovative cloud-based training system that serves as the foundation for Avnet Academy – the company’s education and training organization focused on technical training around top IT vendor technologies. The development of this system allowed Avnet to quickly expand its IT-related training capabilities around the world, while creating a new service that Avnet and its IT solution providers can offer to their customers.
“Avnet is constantly searching for innovative ideas to profitably grow our business while accelerating the success of our customers and partners,” said Steve Phillips, senior vice president and CIO, Avnet, Inc. “The development of Avnet’s customer training system is a prime example of how our business and IT teams have worked in partnership to develop a state-of-the-art technology system needed to start up a new global business within our company. Being recognized on the InformationWeek Elite 100 is a strong endorsement of the entrepreneurial spirit that inspires the Avnet team to constantly find new opportunities while delivering outstanding experiences for our customers and partners.”
Avnet’s business leaders, educational services experts and IT team collaborated to create the cloud-based training platform that underpins Avnet Academy. This platform includes a web portal, academy.avnet.com, which provides customers with a way to easily search for courses, find training schedules, enroll in classes, and chat with Avnet’s education experts. Additionally, students are able to hone their technical skills in a cloud-based virtual data center environment.
“As Avnet was evaluating the market opportunity for training services, we recognized that it would require a sophisticated system to achieve the scale needed to capitalize on this market opportunity,” said Matt Fox, vice president of Education Solutions, Avnet Services. “Thanks to a collaborative effort across the business, the team developed a system that delivered training services to more than 60 countries in a matter of months.”
Fox continued, “The training courses offered through Avnet Academy are helping our customers increase their technical knowledge, obtain technical certifications and provide services they can resell to their customers.”
Since its deployment, the new cloud-based training system has played a key role in expanding Avnet’s training capabilities. Avnet is now able to offer online and classroom training from more than 30 IT vendors, with a catalog of approximately 3,000 courses. Based on its new training capabilities, Avnet was selected as one of five IBM Global Training Providers, as well as recently named an HP Learning Partner.
“Gone are the days when IT could run as an entity unto itself. If IT isn’t part of product development, or marketing, or customer service, your company risks falling behind in the era of digital business. At InformationWeek, we talk about this as ‘IT Without Borders,’ as we see the best IT leaders tearing down traditional borders to help every department leverage technologies such as data analytics, cloud, and mobility. The 2015 InformationWeek Elite 100 spotlights companies at which IT is not only inseparable from every department, it’s pivotal to every customer experience,” said InformationWeek Editor Chris Murphy.
This is InformationWeek’s 27th year identifying and honoring the nation’s most innovative users of information technology. TheInformationWeek Elite 100 research tracks the technology-based investments, strategies, and results of some of the best-known organizations in the country. Unique among corporate rankings, the InformationWeek Elite 100 spotlights the power of business technology innovation.
This is the second consecutive year that Avnet has been named to the InformationWeek Elite 100, which started in 2014. Prior to that, Avnet was a long-standing honoree on the InformationWeek 500. It ranked among the top 100 most innovative companies multiple times, placing 3rd on the list in 2004 and 13th in 2005.
Additional details on the InformationWeek Elite 100 can be found online at: http://www.informationweek.com/elite100.
Download the current InformationWeek issue to read more about Avnet’s approach to innovation and the cloud-based training system that fuels Avnet Academy at: http://avnet.me/59739.
