You read it right yesterday. KODAK is operating as an adviser to storage customers and service providers. But Susan Cardot, worldwide marketing director for Kodak Service and Support, says that’s nothing new. In fact, she points out that Kodak has offered commercial business support for about 25 years. Here’s the scoop.

Kodak has two focuses: consumer business and commercial business. Cardot said that Kodak has a strong service and support department behind its commercial offering. “It started about 25 years ago when we expanded to support non-Kodak solutions as part of our multi-vendor business strategy,” she said. “It was a natural extension of our work with enterprise companies.”

It all began with Kodak clients doing more document scanning. These clients needed more support, and they wanted Kodak to provide support for multiple solutions instead of having to contract multiple MSPs to do the work that Kodak could do on its own. Soon the expansion to an adviser role made sense on two fronts:

Today Kodak has formal partnerships with over 30 storage solution providers globally. Still, their service and support role for these storage solution providers remains largely under the radar. “We hear a lot of ‘I didn’t know you did that’,” said Cardot, who emphasized that Kodak does more than installation and maintenance. “We provide service parts management and consulting and advice services to help our clients get the right parts, to the right customers, at the right time. It’s nice to see we’re finally getting some exposure for this.”

Kodak isn’t staying put in this advisory role. Kodak is looking for new partnerships and looking to expand into new technology. “Expect to hear more about manufacturing partnerships in the storage space in the next 30, 60 or 90 days,” said Cardot. “Because we are definitely pursuing partners in that space.”

Sign up for MSPmentor’s Enewsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. And follow us via RSS; Facebook; and Twitter. Plus, check out more MSP voices at www.MSPtweet.com.