Comms Dealer

Dell is looking again at its global distribution strategy with a view to reducing the over 150 two tier channels it has that have been added to over the last few years by its acquisition programme.

Bob Skelley, Dell executive director for global channel marketing and partner programmes tells Comms Dealer sister publication IT Europa that distribution is being sorted out now.

"We're giving the Dell community a choice in how they acquire solutions. But we want that to be based on the value- add, not the price. We can't set the price. If there is something in the relationship between partner and distributor that is incremental to how they engage with Dell, then we want to continue to use that."

But he acknowledges that Dell has too many two-tier channels.

"We have to settle on what our distribution strategy is, looking at all parts, and both broad-line and speciality. We have to look at the marketing with them, the training and enablement, the skills as we turn on in distribution. All of that we have to work through. So we now have Alan Fenton who was a strategist when we first launched the channel and understands it well, looking at this globally now."

"The channel partner community is easy - it's the distribution channel [that is hard]; if we make a decision to have a set number for a country or region, and we make an acquisition that gives us another five, we don't want to hurt that if it is working. That is where we are today - we have acquired a lot of distribution relationships across the globe and have to work out how that is going to work."

Europe has its own problems because of the varying level of maturity among countries. "I've been looking at the European marketplace for a while, since I ran the channels for EqualLogic before its acquisition. What we saw, and it is the same in Dell today, if you put the European channel on a timeline - most mature to least mature, you can every country. What we need to do to accelerate growth in those mature countries is much different from that in the least mature. In the least mature it is about partner recruitment, brand awareness and what the Dell vale proposition is. The most mature issues are building profitability, bring new demand generation resources through the channel, introduce new competencies so they can expand and grow adjacencies."

So the right approach is to have a plan that accommodates that different state of maturity by country, it doesn't mean you have fifteen plans, but there must be three or four different strategies, and you have to have a go-to-market that is right for each country, he says.

"Southern Europe, for example is driven by economics. We have a lot of cultivation to do there in building up the partners, compared to the UK and Netherlands in particular, where we have very mature communities. There is an opportunity to think about it more, rather than have one overall strategy."

But Europe also has its own issues over regulation and taxation across borders. "Absolutely this gives management nightmares. Language for campaigns, which also slows you down in time to market and adds cost. So you have to think about what you are going to bring into Europe and do it right."

Ingram Micro Q3 net income of $79m was better than last year which was $53m. Revenues for the quarter were up 12% at $10.2bn, compared with $9.03bn in the prior year.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $83m, compared with $62m a year ago.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the company expects gross margin to be up sequentially by high single digit basis points and worldwide revenue to increase over the 2013 third quarter in-line with historical seasonality.

Europe revenue of $2.4bn was flat sequentially and year-over-year in dollars, as market dynamics were nearly identical to last quarter. In local currency, Europe revenue declined by 4% when compared to last year. Non-GAAP operating margin was 58 basis points, up 2 basis points sequentially but down year-over-year by 11 basis points.

"The team did a good job maintaining pricing discipline and successfully implemented profit improvement program in some countries, but we're not satisfied with this performance and have begun to implement specific cost-saving initiatives in the region," says William D. Humes - Chief Financial Officer.

On September 19, it appointed Paul Read as President and Chief Operating Officer. Among his early responsibilities will be working closely with the European team to better align the region's cost structure to improve profitability.

Paul Read, COO said: "We are working on adjusting the cost structure to fit this environment so we can get greater returns, where the profitability today is certainly not acceptable. But we also have to invest, and we are investing more in tools, resources, in the go-to market to enable us to have more higher value businesses and achieve more profitability. So that's definitely a plan for us."

Avnet Q1 2014 sales were up 8.1% year over year to $6.3bn, mostly through acquisitions, particularly Magirus in EMEA TS division and taking over Brightstar.

Adjusted operating income of $199.5m increased 38.1% year over year and adjusted operating income margin of 3.1% increased 68 basis points year over year.

Rick Hamada, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Our team kicked off the new fiscal year with a solid performance as both operating groups leveraged year-over-year revenue growth into increased margins and returns.

"Enterprise revenue increased 8.1% from the year ago quarter and adjusted operating income grew approximately five times faster than revenue driven primarily by our disciplined approach to portfolio actions and expense management throughout fiscal 2013.

"Adjusted operating income margin of 3.1% increased 68 basis points year over year and return on working capital was up 458 basis points to 19.8%. This represents the first time in seven quarters that these two important metrics expanded year over year. With our improving performance and overall financial profile, we were also pleased to announce our decision to initiate a dividend during our first quarter."

EMEA TS division had revenue of $694.3m, a rise of 9.3% because of acquisitions - organic sales were down -10.5%. CEO Hamada says" "In the September quarter, TS revenue was within our expected range, though at the lower end of expectations. Revenue of $2.4 billion decreased 8.1% sequentially while year-over-year organic revenue was down 3.0% in constant currency."

Ingram Micro Europe has launched year three of its pan-European Channel Transformation Alliance initiative, branded CTA V.3.

Ingram Micro Europe, together with all its vendor partners and its educational partners, SNIA Europe and SPC International, have grown the alliance over the last two years into a community of over 2,000 resellers who are actively downloading content on the portal (www.channeltransformation.com), attending business and technology focused webcasts, and participating in field-based events across Europe.

The channel community benefits from free vendor-neutral education, primarily focused on sales, marketing, and service delivery content, all of which is delivered through the CTA training platform.

Ingram Micro Cloud and Ingram Micro Advanced Solutions teams across Europe have conducted on average more than one field-based channel enablement event per week and per country in the past two years, including boot camps, workshops, roadshows, and roundtables.

Jason Beal, Executive Director, Advanced Solutions Division, Europe, said: "In the first year of the CTA initiative, we focused primarily on exposing the reseller channel to all the new business model possibilities associated with cloud computing and IT-as-a-Service.

"At that time in 2011, we wanted to remove a lot of fear and doubt associated early on with the cloud. In the second year of the initiative we broadened the focus onto business and technology solutions-orientation and much more specific demand generation and sales process training."

US-based Ciber is expanding its ISV practice in Europe after seeing its US model taking off.

CEO Dave Peterschmidt said: "We made steady progress on the shift in our business mix to more ISV and managed services projects. As a result we clearly believe in our ability to grow the business in a consistent and profitable way.

"While we still have some challenges, particularly in selected areas of our ADM (Application Development and Maintenance) business, today we are a company with a more stable platform yielding more predictable performance than three years ago when we started our transformation.

"Our ISV business is becoming a significant part of total revenue and growth. In Q3 our ISV revenues was approximately 33% of our total and grew by 10% sequentially. And growth in our ISV practices is also driving growth in Managed Services. Managed Services revenues increased 7% sequentially in Q3."

Ciber is not seeing pressure from the low-cost providers in those verticals especially with the ISV relationships. The ISV business is not subject to the same type of price pressure that ADM is, he says.

"In our international segment, proactive plans to improve the consistency and predictability of this operation are beginning to take hold.

"Our focus continues to be on The Netherlands where our business is stabilising; and we are encouraged that the UK, Germany and Norway posted another solid quarter. Q3 international results included strong year-over-year revenue growth and stable EBITDA margins in this seasonally soft quarter.

"We expect the business to improve gradually as additional restructuring enhances the profitability, consistency and predictability of overall international results."

Red Box Recorders has appointed its first reseller in Oman following an agreement with Mideast Data Systems (MDS), part of the Midis Group.

Under the new arrangement, Red Box will become MDS' preferred partner providing advanced voice and data recording for unified communications solutions that are already used by some of the leading public and private sector organisations within the country.

Lee Jones, CEO of Red Box Recorders said: "We are committed to strengthening and growing our reseller network, which now exceeds more than 200 partners worldwide. Therefore, we are teaming up with likeminded and leading technology businesses such as MDS Oman to provide local sales and technical support."

NTT Com Security AG, a provider of global information security and risk management solutions, has confirmed that Integralis has formally changed its name to NTT Com Security after the initial intention was announced earlier in June this year.

This latest move is a 'natural progression' for NTT Com Security to bring both the previous Integralis and Secode organisations within one corporate structure. The name change reflects NTT Com Security's intention to continue expanding its security capabilities to service global customers, which will mean ongoing investment into products, platforms, services as well as improved career opportunities for its employees.

Simon Church, CEO at NTT Com Security, said: "The name change makes good business sense and better aligns us to one of the world's largest companies and biggest brands. We remain 100% focused on information security and risk management and while other acquisitions throughout our industry have lost some of their identity and expertise, we continue to have the opportunity to become our industry's next powerhouse.

"As NTT Com Security, we are able to engage with customers at all levels across the globe to deliver a clear and consistent message that represents the core of the business and the value we can bring to our customers."

Audio device manufacturer Jabra has revealed new customer cashback offers for quarter four 2013, giving customers money back when they purchase selected Jabra devices. The incentive can be utilised by all authorised partners registered to the Jabra WIN Partner Programme and allows them to offer the cashback promotion to their end customers in the easiest way possible.

Andrew Doyle, Managing Director, UK & Ireland Business Solutions said: "The Jabra Q4 Cashback incentive provides our valued partner community with an easy way to gain incremental revenue and further develop their headset category."

Cisco and IT solutions and implementation partner Dimension Data have joined forces to provide the IT infrastructure for WWF's Living Planet Centre - a sustainable new building which will be the headquarters for WWF employees and an education centre for visitors. The partnership will encourage WWF to adopt sustainable IT, helping to reduce its environmental footprint.

The Living Planet Centre - situated in Woking - will open its doors to the public on 1st November 2013, and showcases the latest in sustainable design, technology and construction. Cisco is providing the end-to-end IT infrastructure incorporating some of the technology used to power the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In turn, Dimension Data is offering its expertise and services to implement the Centre's infrastructure. The technology design will support WWF's sustainability goals, which include smarter working and more efficient energy management.

The network will be the platform to connect to the datacentre built on the Cisco Unified Computing System, and will help increase the efficiency and utilisation of network and server resources. Combined with the ground source cooling and heating function in the Centre, this will be powered by 100% renewable energy.

David Southern, Head of IT at WWF-UK "The combination of Cisco's borderless network solution, unified communications and video conferencing will allow WWF staff to work in a way we have long envisaged. Our people will be able to connect, collaborate and communicate more effectively from any location and at any time - this flexible and reliable technology will help ensure that WWF will continue to be able to deliver our strategy and objectives, helping to safeguard the natural world."

Zen Internet has staged fourth fourthannual partner event and awards at The Belfry in the West Midlands.

The day opened with Richard Tang, Zen's Founder and Managing Director taking Partners through the company strategy. Guest speaker Matthew Townend, Director of illume Consulting, provided insights into opportunities in the UK voice market.

Partners were able to customise their day by choosing to attend two of five elective workshop sessions.

The awards were presented by Richard Tang, Stephen Warburton and Deborah Wrigley, Channel Sales Manager to recognise the contribution that Zen's Partners make to the business and reward top performers.

Winners included:
Wholesale Partner of the Year won by Nexus Telecommunications
Reseller Partner of the Year won by RivaNET
Rising Star won by Chalvington Communications
Solution Sale Partner of the Year won by Cellpipe
New Partner of the Year - Odyn Systems