Alternative Technology opens GSA schedule to partners

Alternative Technology is launching a General Services Administration program in which resellers will act as fulfillment agents.

Although such agent programs are fairly common among distributors, Alternative Technology's will focus on security technologies, and the company is specifically reaching out to state and local governments.

The Englewood, Colo.-based specialty distributor has signed several vendors to the program, including BNX Systems, Eicon Networks, Packeteer, Rajant and Vericept. John Stubbs, Alternative Technology’s vice president of business development strategies, said the company is speaking to all of its partners about the GSA program.

Stubbs said he sees the distributor’s security vendors as an ideal fit for the government market. ActivCard and SonicWall are among the vendors Alternative Technology plans to add to its schedule contract, he said. ActivCard sells digital identity products, and SonicWall markets Internet security products.

When government customers buy through Alternative Technology’s GSA schedule, the distributor will turn to its reseller agents for fulfillment. Authorized resellers will also be able to buy products from Alternative Technology’s schedule. The company plans to work with resellers nationwide in the state, local and federal markets.

However, the company will place particular emphasis on the state and local sector. “We want to go after state and local because those opportunities are very large,” Stubbs said. He noted that many of the vendors it does business with have a federal strategy but lack a state and local strategy.