HIMMS 18 — Tech Data on Monday announced enhancements to its Practice Builder methodology, a customized approach to help partners specialize in next-generation technologies, by aligning it with a vertical-market framework.

First up is Tech Data’s HealthPath program for partners interested in building or supporting a health-care practice. The announcement was made in conjunction with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Conference, being held this week in Las Vegas.

Tech Data’s Colin Blair

By aligning the HealthPath program – currently supporting hundreds of Tech Data partners – with the Practice Builder methodology, partners can leverage accelerators such as cloud, security, analytics, mobility, and IoT, as well as education on applying these technologies to health-care environments.

“When you look at the specializations that we’ve got, we’re coupling that with vertical-market expertise that resides with our team, in another turn of the crank in terms of enablement or support for partners,” Colin Blair, vice president, specialist solutions sales at Tech Data, told us.

The new frameworks built by vertical market deepen the partner-engagement process around next-generation technologies with opportunities in a specific vertical. Tech Data consults with partners to help identify where they’re selling today and where they’re able and willing to make investments. The process also involves helping partners to identify opportunities and build technical affinities for what’s happening in a particular technology space

A strategic framework for health care, for example, looks at how next-generation technologies are being consumed within that vertical and where the opportunities are being created to reduce costs, create operational efficiencies, or improve basic care, for example.

“So, we’re looking at the predominant areas of spend, such as security in health care, analytics in health care, IoT in health care, cloud in health care — and we’re looking for repeatable solutions,” Blair said.

One example of repeatable solutions that exist in health care today is the application of IoT in hospitals that drive technology solutions around physical ID and asset tracking. Tech Data has analytics solutions that bring in Cisco gateways, advanced servers and access security cameras, Blair said.

“We’re also building things with informatics to help hospitals identify data sets that leverage our data-discovery workshops in health care to help partners do on-premises and off-premises kinds of data-integration work,” Blair explained.

Partners could also use Tech Data security-assessment offerings and add value around security penetration testing and security management.

Since Tech Data announced its Practice Builder methodology last November, the distributor has made new investments, adding more solution consultants to its ranks to drive and scale its Practice Builder workshops. The distributor’s current focus is on health care and retail specialties.

The workshops are often one-on-one and high-touch, and drive partner accountability around developing practice plans.

“The operational advantages that digital transformation can deliver represent a huge business driver for health-care organizations; however, these organizations must trust that their technology partners thoroughly understand their inner workings and the issues they face, as patient well-being may depend on the solutions they implement,” Blair said.