OREANDA-NEWS. August 12, 2014. MERLION, Russia's largest IT distributor, and VIAT LLC, distributor of Dell WYSE (formerly Wyse) products in Russia and the CIS since 1993, report about agreements reached. The parties have signed an agreement to transfer VIAT’s distribution business in Dell WYSE thin clients to MERLION from July 2014.

MERLION struck the deal as a part of its VAD (Value Add Distribution) development strategy. The aim is to strengthen MERLION’s market position as a supplier to system integrators and build up its competencies in server hardware.

"VIAT is a leader with a dominant share in the Russian thin client distribution market and it has unique experience of working with Dell WYSE", says Anton Lukyanov, MERLION’s Deputy Director for VAD. "Since we intend to develop actively in the direction of hardware solutions, we have decided to offer VIAT to cooperate by transferring distribution rights to us. With Dell WYSE in our portfolio, we are gaining a dominant market position in desktop virtualization and we will make every effort to become a worthy successor to this efficient long-term cooperation."

"We are pleased to expand our cooperation with MERLION, one of Dell‘s most important and reliable partners in Russia. Fostering partner relations is our priority within the approved strategy", says Boris Shcherbakov, CEO of Dell Russia. "We witness a growing corporate demand in Dell WYSE thin clients, and we are confident that thanks to MERLION’s energetic and skillful efforts, promotion of our solutions that meet clients’ most challenging demands and requirements will gain additional support in the Russian market."

Dell WYSE products are designed for corporate clients with high security requirements (major banks, healthcare service providers, industries, etc.). Currently, MERLION offers a package of necessary components and solutions to such clients for multi-level enterprise business systems. Solutions based on Dell WYSE thin clients ensure high reliability, performance and scalability, shorter development and deployment timeframe and lower overall costs. Wyse thin clients run Windows-, Java-, Linux-, UNIX- and web-based applications safely on central servers using a thin display protocol. Applications do not traverse the network and are not downloaded into the thin client, eliminating user security and bandwidth issues common with PCs.

MERLION provides additional services to the partners implementing such systems, including consulting, logistics, design and construction of engineering infrastructure, after-sales service and more. Experts at MERLION Engineering Center will help to choose and install equipment and provide expert advice. The Center offers opportunities for partners to buy from MERLION and resell a customized rather than a packaged solution. This is a ready-for-operation system assembled by the distributor, in particular, servers with software installed. In addition, small and medium-sized companies together with MERLION Engineering Center can offer additional service and support and equipment protection to clients.

The integration of a strong team of professionals (including sales and IT staff) into MERLION has already started. They have become members of VAD division.

Financial and other aspects of the transaction are not disclosed.