Video

Tech Data accessTD on Windows 8 Hands-On Demo, Interview with eBusiness VP Phil Filippelli

Channelpro had the opportunity to sit down with Tech Data's Phil Filippelli during Tech Select and talk about Tech Data's e-business approach and accessTD, full video demo. By Matt Whitlock

November 21, 2012

During their Tech Select 2012 conference in Puerto Rico, Tech Data unveiled accessTD for Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. Despite being an application for channel resellers to manage and place orders on the go, these new applications feel much like a consumer shopping experience.

At Tech Select Channelpro had the opportunity to sit down with Tech Data’s Phil Filippelli and talk about Tech Data’s e-business approach and accessTD. And, for those who haven’t gotten a chance to take a look at the new accessTD app, we also managed to sneak a few minutes with Luis Reyes to give Channelpro readers a demo of the app. Take a look.

“We looked out at what other people were doing in the channel, and nobody had a robust mobility app in any way, shape, and form,” says Filippelli. “I don’t mean just pricing and availability, and I don’t mean just ‘call my sales rep.’ I mean a full shopping experience. We decided that if we’re going to do it, we had to make sure it was everything it could be. The other piece is that we also wanted to make it highly usable [from the perspective of someone using a tablet instead of a browser].”

Interestingly, it turns out Phil’s teenage daughter was a guinea pig for much of the early design work. He told me about how he sat her down in front of the Tech Data website and asked her to buy a laptop… and couldn’t, making her a great candidate to help gauge the usability of the mobile app. “There was really no way she could navigate through our distribution-centric Tech Data lingo to buy a laptop,” says Filippelli. “So, I gave her the accessTD app and asked her to buy a laptop. And she did, easily.”

I think the move to a consumer-like shopping experience is exactly the way to go. Many VARs, particularly smaller ones, and those selling in the field likely have a better familiarity and comfort level with that style of shopping experience. Plus, conveniences like the ability to save and recall shopping carts online and on the mobile app can be a huge timesaver. Imagine being able to define a variety of solutions from top to bottom, then order it at any time in just a few clicks.