Value-added distributor ADN is expanding its Academy into an AI enablement hub. Through new workshop and consulting formats, the company aims to help partners and enterprise customers identify concrete AI use cases and turn them into productive solutions.
IT distributor ADN says it is developing its Academy into an AI enablement hub. Through new workshop and consulting formats, the company aims to help partners and enterprise customers identify, prioritize, and implement concrete AI use cases. According to ADN, the focus is not on knowledge transfer alone but on productive solutions and measurable business value.
Since the beginning of the year, Oliver Opgenoorth has been responsible, as Head of Sales Academy & Professional Service at ADN, for the strategic development of the training, enablement, and service business. According to the company, classic training courses, specialization programs, and apprenticeship programs remain part of the portfolio and are being supplemented with application-focused AI enablement formats. At the center are workshops, masterclasses, and individual consulting formats designed to help companies identify use cases for artificial intelligence in their business processes and derive actionable projects from them.
“Many companies have been dealing with AI for years but still don’t know where the technology creates the greatest value in their own business,” Opgenoorth is quoted as saying. He said the company works together with partners and customers on exactly this point, developing ideas for concrete use cases that are then moved into productive use.
Opgenoorth points to a shift in demand: most companies, he said, no longer need a basic introduction to AI, but rather guidance on prioritizing use cases and support in implementing them. The enablement formats are intended to close this gap.
Case in point: an AI agent for tender analysis
According to ADN, a joint project with the Compass Group illustrates how the approach works in practice. Representatives from the group’s companies Netz 16 GmbH, Starke + Reichert GmbH & Co. KG, and System-Haus-Dresden GmbH were involved. The starting point was a time-consuming tender process in which extensive documents had to be manually analyzed, evaluated, and assessed for business relevance.
Following training on Microsoft Copilot Studio, Compass Group brought this use case into its collaboration with the ADN Academy. In a subsequent AI enablement workshop, the teams involved worked together with ADN experts to develop an AI agent based on Microsoft Copilot Studio.
According to the company, the solution analyzes tender documents, answers recurring questions, extracts relevant information, and supports an initial assessment of potential business opportunities. A functional prototype was already created during the workshop, which Compass Group is now developing further on its own.
“The Compass Group case shows what AI enablement is about,” Opgenoorth said. He said the companies jointly analyzed a business-critical process and developed a productive AI use case from it, adding that combining knowledge transfer with implementation is the core of the approach.
Andreas Kleinknecht, project manager at Compass Group, is quoted as saying that the volume and complexity of tender documents has increased significantly in recent years. The agent developed together with ADN, he said, helps identify relevant information faster and carry out initial assessments more efficiently.
Shift in the training and channel market
By expanding its Academy offering, ADN says it is also responding to changing requirements in the training and channel market. According to the company, multi-day in-person training is increasingly being supplemented by digital learning offerings and needs-based enablement formats. What’s in demand today, Opgenoorth said, are models that combine knowledge transfer, practical implementation, and individual guidance.
Hermann Ramacher, managing director of ADN, offers a strategic assessment: the market, he said, has largely moved past the phase of AI experimentation, and the focus now is on actually realizing productivity potential. That requires fewer presentations and more implementation know-how, he said, adding that with the new enablement offerings, ADN aims to help partners turn AI projects into business solutions.
Dr. Jakob Jung is Editor-in-Chief of Security Storage and Channel Germany. He has been working in IT journalism for more than 20 years. His career includes Computer Reseller News, Heise Resale, Informationweek, Techtarget (storage and data center) and ChannelBiz. He also freelances for numerous IT publications, including Computerwoche, Channelpartner, IT-Business, Storage-Insider and ZDnet. His main topics are channel, storage, security, data center, ERP and CRM.
Contact via Mail: jakob.jung@security-storage-und-channel-germany.de