Ex-Infotronics manager launches new distribution business

Channel veteran, Phil Lancaster, has taken the wrappers off a new software distribution company. The launch comes two months after the demise of his previous and now defunct employer, Infotronics.

TrackITOnline aims to provide resellers with product tools and support for managing physical and virtual environments. Its vendor line-up encompasses 11 virtualisation and broader IT management tools: Replify, Kaviza, LiquidWare Labs, ToutVirtual, Virtual Instruments, PHD Virtual, ManageEngine, ensim, GlobalArk, PerfectDisk and C2C.

“Our distribution business is mostly about new vendors, although there are a couple I’ve dealt with before,” Lancaster said. “Our focus is on management and managing virtual infrastructure, but we’re doing some general infrastructure products as well.”

The vendors were targeted because of their profile in the international virtualisation market, Lancaster said. For example, LiquidLabs had gained a strong reputation in the VDI assessment space, while PHD Virtual offered broad backup tools for virtual platforms.

The distribution business is being financed by Lancaster, and retains a pre-sales engineer as well as a sales support manager. Both are ex-Infotronics employees.

TrackItOnline’s reseller focus will initially be VMware and Citrix partners. Lancaster said it was already transacting with “several dozen” partners and expected to have more than 200 sign up. The company is now finalising a range of partner programs to launch in coming weeks.

Lancaster also hoped to have another 1-2 vendors come on-board.

He was formerly general manager of now defunct distributor and S Central subsidiary, Infotronics. The company was liquidated in November, one week after S Central sold its business assets in a controversial deal to managed services provider, Brennan IT. Investigations into S Central and Infotronics continue.

Lancaster admitted his association with Infotronics was an initial concern for some of TrackInOnline’s vendors.

“When people see me I’m one of those on the creditors’ list that hasn’t been paid, they realise I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I got caught, as did other people close to it [Infotronics].

“People are mostly concerned however, with how well you understand getting products to the market.”

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