CHANNeL NeWS
Danish distribution crisis as SMG fails Azlan to launch
DeNMARK
Scribona to buy its office in Denmark. But it
doesn’t have the size. Not only are vendors not “SMb Activation”
1 of something bigger,” he says. partnering with it, but also some larger resellers
SMG is only the latest firm to pull out of the have dropped SMG,” says Elbak.
eUROPe
Danish distribution market, after Sweden-based There is no news yet on a potential investor,
1
cross-selling. The key areas are unified
Scibona’s exit last year. although one party which is definitely not intested communications, virtualisation, Green
And Jens Fournais, CEO at 60-strong Danish is Swiss broadliner ALSO, which acquired the IT and blades.” And security should be no longer
player BlueCom, recently told us he is looking for a former SMG Sweden and Norway units through a specialised area, but one where vendors
buyer. But IDC analyst Anders Elbak says he is still its swoop for GNT Group: “We are not interested and partners see it as a part of the solution.
surprised by developments. at all,” asserts ALSO CEO Thomas Weissmann. This will launch in March, with web sites, and
“SMG is a top five player in the Danish market, Germany-based disti Actebis has also distanced communications direct to resellers. It will be
and they were involved in negotiations with itself from the Danish player. www.smg.dk pan-European, though not all 16 countries where
OUR ANALYSIS
Azlan is present will go with all the product areas -
virtualisation will be in under six, for example.
As we said when we wrote about the Danish But, working with VMware, he aims to make
channels in our country survey (IT Europa 1 specialist resellers - the VMware professionals
February), this is one of the more challenging places into enterprise partners and closer to the
in the channel. We identified many players than systems integrator model, and instead of all the
that covering the Danish market, all competing virtualisation OEM sales going through HP and IBM,
furiously on price. he wants resellers on the bottom rung to move up
Jens Fournais has yet to sell his BlueCom to specialise.
distribution business, which is another indication The Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Division
of what the market thinks of Danish distribution of Tech Data in the US has just signed up with
in 2008. Key issues of size and cross-border VMware, and is exchanging information. “This is
credentials may be a forerunner of trends in the not really new where Azlan has done VMware
wider European model. business for some years - Germany. Switzerland
and Austria, for example. But in the US and some
HP - “dramatically short of partners”
other European countries, eg France, Belgium, UK,
where we have just started to do VMware business
eUROPe
a lot in areas such as thin client, printing, PoS this service offering is obviously new.”
solutions and others. “With the expansion of the VMware business
1
mapping by market segment, geography, On top of this HP has trimmed about $1bn we are about to launch a “compelling” virtualisation
by product segment, even by industry, where it in costs from its business, meaning it can invest campaign in Europe, where we cover all aspects
make sense certainly in the context of the mid- more. But it needs channels - “there is a huge from “how to become a virtualisation reseller” up
market and the enterprise, it is “dramatically under need to add partners and sales people.” And this is to Demand and Lead Generation campaigns for
covered,” he says. “And when I say that, we’re not something that HP has been reviewing in EMEA - a selected members.”
off by 10% or 20%, we’re off by more than that.” recent whole day exercise reviewed it in detail. Using more dedicated resource, and connecting
“And it’s not direct sales people, so we give The strategy is to increase coverage by adding to the 87,000 Tech Data resellers, he plans to
you that number as one fact point, but it really is distributors in the specialist areas, and reviewing identify and filter the partners who are ideally
a combination of partners, sort of badged and full where resellers are working, and seeing where they positioned to deliver as part of this campaign. “It’s
time employed HP people, working in unison to try operate and in which segments. He particularly not a club – we only want motivated partners.”
to get a broader distribution footprint across the identifies Russia, the Balkans and Africa as areas www.azlan.com
entire market.” Much of it is in emerging markets, where HP would be adding partners and the sales
OUR ANALYSIS
but it’s not all - even in the US with 31% of total people to look after them. www.hp.com
revenue, HP is not as well distributed as it would We expect even stronger links with Tech Data’s
OUR ANALYSIS
like to be,” he says. storage business, perhaps going beyond the current
“We have improved the situation, based on the Yes, HP does have a lot going for it, particularly HP and IBM vendors’ streams to align with some
headcount and also relationships investments we’ve when it comes to its technologies, and many other big players (NetApp, EMC anyone?).
made in the channel. That said, there is more work partners and distributors have done well from But any move has to add to Azlan’s position
for us to do.” working with the industry giant. – there’s no point in just replacing a vendor
Antoine Barre, HP channels head, confirms the But it is not easy to work with HP, some have without growing the business. Eastern Europe
view that more resource is needed to some extent: said, and the relentless drive to cut costs - moving remains a target area, but he will also have his work
“as we grow the business in terms of volume and credit operations to Romania and Bangalore for cut out just monitoring the channel consolidations.
diversifications such as software.” example, has not been without some issues for We agree when he says he expects merger
He points to the pile of acquisitions HP has resellers. HP needs to explain more what it is doing and acquisitions in the channel this year to be
made in specialist areas, and says HP is investing for its channels. Watch this space for the news. significantly up on 2007.
29 feb 2008 3
It0804 - 2-3_news.indd 3 27/02/2008 11:19:24
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