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CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 7 NOVEMBER 2011 1

TOP VARS

My colleagues and I have been askedmany times if we can provide reliabledata on the UKs biggest and best VARs.The idea of publishing a rundown of thecountrys largest resellers is one that has

been batted around the CRNnewsdesk fre-quently over the years.

So, you may ask, what makes this theright time to compile such a list?

This industry has always moved withan accelerated speed of change. However,it seems to stand at many different cross-roads now and more so than ever. Theneed for VARs to evolve their businessmodels, in a variety of ways, has neverbeen more evident.

If you believe everything you read inthe press, it would be easy to concludethat there has never been a worse time tobe a VAR. Resellers have to contend with

swingeing cuts in public spending, withan impetus on the government to go di-rect to save costs, and with the seeminglyunstoppable rise of cloud computing,

which might seem to eradicate the needfor indirect sales channels and hands-onintegration skills.

Defying doomBut VARs have been defying the doom-mongers for years and they will continueto do so. There are few, if any, resellers onour list that do not accrue at least a de-cent proportion of their revenue fromservices. And this trend will surely only

increase in the coming years, particularlyas so many resellers are now actively em-bracing cloud computing, and pursuingthe sales opportunities that this technol-ogy is creating.

Indeed, it is perhaps the greatest ironyof this list that most of the featured com-panies would probably wince at evenbeing termed a VAR. But as far as we areconcerned, the word, and all the qualitiesthat it represents, has always been abadge of honour.

The 1 to 100 rankings of the list arebased on annual revenue, which must begenerated in this country and by UK trad-

ing entities. We accept that basing therundown solely on sales may be seen bysome as reductive, but we have also triedto shine a light on the fastest growers, themost impressive profit generators and thebiggest innovators.

Facing the futureWith the UK IT channel at a crossroads, Sam Trendallasks where the industrygoes from here, while examining how this list works, and explaining why andhow it was constructed

The second half of this study is basedon our survey of more than 500 senior ITdecision makers at end users of all shapesand sizes. For the research, we grilled

them on what they want and expect fromtheir IT suppliers, whether they are cur-rently being adequately catered for, and

what they would like to change aboutthat relationship.

Real valueThe results make for fascinating reading,and we believe that they provide real

value to all corners of the channel.We owe a debt of gratitude to our data

partner, Graydon, which provided thesource data on which the top 100 list isbased. In those cases where we have devi-ated from the Graydon figures perhaps

to account for acquisitions or give a divi-sional breakdown, where appropriate

we have clearly marked their rankingwith an asterisk.

Of course, we believe the documentyou are holding in your hands is a fair

and accurate ref lection of the UKs 100biggest resellers. All companies on our listhave some background as a technology re-seller, and operate, to some extent, in the

B2B market.However, it would be naive of us to

think that there will be no quibbles withour methodology or with our final data.We are confident in our research meth-ods, and more than happy to explainthem, so we urge you to get in touch withany queries.

It would be fair to say that the top 100have enjoyed mixed fortunes over the lastcouple of years, and a quick leaf throughthe data finds that many have felt asqueeze on their top and bottom lines.But, time and again, we see channel play-ers remodelling their businesses, branch-

ing into new areas, and bringing the goodtimes back.

We believe thatTop VARsreflects theresilience, the strength and the adaptabil-ity of a great industry at a time of evengreater change.
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TOP VARS

How can resellers run a lean businesswhile still delivering great service and re-maining profitable? A simple question and if only the answer were as straightfor-

ward. Avnet Technology Solutions re-

cently spoke to several of its businesspartners to discover if there were anycommon traits to their success.

It soon became clear that the organisa-tions that are in the strongest position arethose that focus on customers and haveengaged employees, a clear strategy anddefined value proposition, as well as anability to deliver solutions and services.

Organisations are looking for morethan just technical expertise, and strongcustomer relationships provide partners

with the opportunity to introduce practi-cal solutions that deliver tangible busi-ness benefits to existing customers.

For example, one security specialist re-positioned itself to ref lect the fact that itscustomers were looking for solutions be-

yond security. It invested in skills includ-ing virtualisation and acceleration to takeadvantage of these opportunities, whichresulted in 20 per cent growth last year.

It was also apparent that loyal cus-tomers and employee engagement arecritical to success. An organisations em-ployees influence the behaviour and atti-tudes of customers, and customers drivean organisations profitability throughthe purchase of its products and services get this link right and another part of

the puzzle is in place.Even the most motivated workforce

requires direction and set objectives. An-other of our business partners trans-formed itself from a business selling allsorts across 70 vendors to focus on justthree vendors, delivering servers, storageand virtualisation. By promoting the In-frastructure 3.0 message and training staffto ensure a new focus, this partnerquadrupled its revenue in two years.

More with lessThe need for focus, customer service, em-ployee engagement and a strong message

is evident, but how can these be deliveredwhile running a prof itable company?

One answer is to look towards distribu-tion as an additional resource. By buildingpartnerships and alliances, organisationscan spread their expertise, plug gaps in

Lean on your partnersCRN Top VARs has been produced in association with Avnet, and the distributors UKand Ireland boss John Toalbelieves that the most successful resellers focus on coreskills and customer satisfaction

knowledge, and secure their financial po-sition during times of change.

Running a lean business involves oper-ational efficiency. While there is always aneed to listen to the market and react to

new trends, there is an equivalent re-quirement to ensure outstanding businessbasics, such as logistics, technical and f i-nancial expertise, are aligned with mar-keting and sales skills.

However, it may not be financially vi-able for resellers to invest heavily in newareas of technology in order to grow newmarkets while keeping their traditionalbases covered. And in periods of transi-tion, people changes may occur, creatinggaps in knowledge and expertise.

This is where a solutions distributorcan help. Additional expertise is typicallyacquired in two ways: by training existing

personnel or by buying additional knowl-edge in both sales and technical disci-plines. But working with a solutionsdistributor offers a third method, whichallows an organisation to draw on itsknowledge and expertise as and when re-quired. Quality staff are expensive, andskilled technical people must be fullyutilised as activity gears up even oncethe new business model is operational. Sokeeping close to distribution can pay divi-dends by supplementing skills.

Having options available is an idealway of making change. Avnet believes itis vital to support business partners tran-

sition and help them evolve their busi-nesses while finding differentiation in acompetitive market. Making additional re-sources available is just one method ofsupport, while another is to work withother complementary organisations.

Customers often require complex solu-tions, which are difficult to source from

just one supplier. Avnet has more than 32significant supplier partnerships and rela-tionships with a considerable number ofbusiness partners. We believe this is thebest way of matching the right people toprovide solutions, and this partnering al-lows resellers to remain lean while react-

ing swiftly to opportunities as they arise.

Profitability through added valueThe ability for resellers to understand thebusiness challenges IT managers and CIOsare facing is central to delivering great

service, and they must know how to cre-ate complete solutions to meet their ITand business objectives.

Using a consultancy sales approach andtapping into initiatives such as AvnetsSolutionsPath mean that business part-ners can deliver practical complete solu-tions and immediate cost savings to theircustomers. SolutionsPath features a dedi-cated technology team to help businesspartners target specialised, high-growthmarkets, which include four areas: stor-age and data management; datacentreand virtualisation; cloud computing; andunified communications, collaboration

and mobility.Having the resources available from a

supportive solutions distributor meansthat resellers should be well positioned torun lean businesses while delivering greatservice and remaining profitable.

John Toal is vice president for UKand Ireland at Avnet TechnologySolutions

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CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 7 NOVEMBER2011 5

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reach 18.2m. Earlier thisyear, the f irm brought in f i-nance manager JeremyAttwood from vendor Belkinto help drive continuedgrowth plans.

Total Computer Networkshardware partners includeLenovo, HP, Dell and IBM,

while its software portfolio

boasts the ubiquitous Mi-crosoft, as well as vendorssuch as Citrix and CA. Securitymanufacturers include RSA,Sophos and Kaspersky, andthe reseller also sells network-ing kit from the likes of Ciscoand Netgear.

The Norfolk-based mobile spe-cialist grew sales by an im-pressive 77.1 per cent in FY10,

with operating profit risingabout 10 per cent to 231,000.Two months ago, the com-pany also moved from itslong-time village base inMartham to a city centre loca-tion in Norwich.

Declining sales and a340,000 loss for the Belfastintegrator. The company is aMicrosoft Large Account Re-seller, and also works with A-brand vendors such as HP, IBM

86Comm-Tech Voice

and Data

14.6m

85Business andScientific Services

14.8m*

Some VARs are feeling the margin squeeze

and Dell. Secondary vendorsinclude ShoreTel, Juniper,Cryptocard and Ironkey.

The managed services and in-frastructure VAR boosted itssales in the fiscal year of 2010by more than 2.5m, but italso saw a 1.4m operatingprofit turn into a 275,000loss. The company supplies kitfrom a handful of big storage

vendors, including EMC, DellEqualLogic, Nexsan, Comm-

vault and NetApp.

Another Apple specialist, thecentral London-headquarteredVAR added stores in Woking,Crawley, Colchester and Ip-swich during 2010. Its newestoutlet, in Northampton,opened last month.

Sales were down 20 per centand operating losses stood at95,000 during a tricky FY10for this integrator. However,the Cisco Gold partner re-cently gained AuthorisedTechnology Provider status forthe vendors Unified Comput-

84Dacoll Group

14.8m

83Albion Computers

14.9m

82Cisilion

15.6m*

ing System range of serversand related technologies.

This comms player has reshuf-

fled its senior managementand strategy as it seeks todrive more services revenue.The London-headquarteredAvaya partner also operates inBarcelona, Dublin, Madrid,Paris and Utrecht.

Sales and operating profits

were f lat at this Surbiton VAR,with revenue still some wayshort of its pre-recessionheights. However, the com-panys engineers do hold al-most 60 badges across thefollowing vendors: Cisco, HP,Microsoft, VMware, NetAppand Hitachi Data Systems.

Sales were up and operatingprofits almost doubled to3.6m, giving the VAR operat-ing margins of a hefty 22 percent. The Oxfordshire firmclosed its third acquisition in-side a year when it bought vir-tualisation consultancy Five ITin summer 2010.

81Datapoint

circa 15.7m*

80Viadex

16m

79Prolinx

16.5m*

This resellers sales grew morethan 2m, but operationalmargins slipped by three-tenths of a point to 2.6 per

cent. In July, the VAR becamevendor Sourcefires first UKpartner for its SMB-targetedoffering IPSx.

The south London-based VARrecently launched its new re-seller arm, Orange Security So-lutions. It also placed 84th on

theSunday TimesTech Track100 list, which includes theUKs fastest-growing privatelyowned technology companies.

Founder Aria Taheri appearedon television showThe Secret

Millionaire, but sales at hisfirm fell 12 per cent as operat-

ing margins stood at a skinny0.5 per cent. However, largereductions were made to thecost base of the Mancunianreseller during the year.

Sales were up 6.8 per cent andoperating profit grew 5.3 percent to 511,000 during the

2010 fiscal year. The Devon-based software firm has beenin business since 1983 andpossesses accreditations from

vendors including Microsoft,Oracle, VMware, Symantec,Adobe and SAP.

The HP and VMware partner

slumped to a 70,000 operat-ing loss during a tricky 2010.Trading as Richardson Eyres,big contracts won recently in-clude a deal with professionalservices firm Mourant and

77Orange IS

16.8m*

78Caretower

16.6m*

76Aria Technology

16.9m

75Grey Matter

17.5m

74NE Computing

17.8m
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6 7NOVEMBER 2011 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK

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beauty products specialistMolton Brown.

Revenue was up more than 50

per cent in 2010 for the re-seller, while operating profitmore than doubled to almost700,000. The Wiltshire-basedfirm is part of a pan-Europeanresale group, whose parentcompany is German outfitBechtle AG.

This Northampton-based VARturned 2009s losses into a477,000 operating profit in2010. The reseller, which alsoprovides office furniture,achieved Authorised Resellerstatus with vendor Apple ear-lier this year.

Sales and profits were downduring the 2010 fiscal year,but this security specialist stillput a healthy 1.5m on its op-erational bottom line. Thecompany, which is backed byprivate equity firm NVM, indi-cated earlier this year that itintends to hit the acquisitiontrail and it is currently on the

71Axial Systems

18.3m

72acs Systems

18.2m

73Bechtle

17.9m*

South East: 36

London: 19

North West: 17

South West: 8

West Midlands: 6

East Midlands: 5

North East: 4

Wales: 2

Scotland: 1

N Ireland: 1

East of England: 1

Where the top VARs are headquartered

lookout for businesses in thesecurity and performancemanagement space.

The Avaya partners revenuegrew 1.4m but operatingprofit stood at a meagre77,000 in 2010s fiscal year.Recent contract wins includeLeeds City Council and GreaterManchester Police. A servicecentre was also recentlyopened in Singapore.

The London-based resellerhas bagged both Oracle Goldand Cisco Premier partnerstatus in the last year. Andafter enduring a six-figureloss in 2009, operating profitfor FY10 stood at almost250,000, which equates tomargins of about 1.3 per cent.

Sales rose 8.5 per cent and op-erating profits were up 16.8per cent to 448,000 for thisreseller during a very solidFY10. The Apple Authorisedreseller also partners withhardware giants HP andLenovo, while its key software

69TET Limited

18.7m*

68Trams

19.1m

70Sabio

18.5m*

brands include Adobe, Mi-crosoft and Oracle.

The Wembley-based reseller

reversed 2009s nigh-on500,000 loss by putting al-most 300,000 on its bottomline in FY10. Earlier this year,former Royal Navy engineer-ing officer Mike Manisty

joined the VAR as chief tech-nology officer.

The Luton-based Cisco VARhas nearly doubled in sizefrom being a 10.9m opera-tion in 2009. In F Y10, salesgrew almost 2m to 12.8m,

while revenue soared 56.2 percent in its most recent fiscal

year. The 20m top line issome way ahead of its initialtarget of 18m. FY11 operat-ing profit was also up 53.9 percent to almost 970,000.

During this year, the com-pany has also opened thedoors on a 3m purpose-built

datacentre to help facilitatefurther growth. The new facil-ity contains more than 300managed racks, as well asbusiness continuity managedservices suites.

Ultimately, the f irm aims tobecome a 50m operation inthe not-too-distant future. InFY11, the companys average

66ONI

20m*

67Transputec

19.8m

number of employees stood at77, up from 69 the previous

year and 64 in 2009. And ONIbegan FY12 with an assurancethat it intends to carry ongrowing staff numbers and acall for capable candidates toget in touch.

This services and infrastruc-ture player came into beingthis year through the mergerof IBM VAR Apex Computersand managed services playerAssurIT. The combined entityaims to give bigger players arun for their money in themid-market.

Sales were down by more than1m, but operating profit rosemore than a quarter to582,000. This summer, theLeeds-based firm launched itsAffordableERP product, whichis designed to help mid-mar-ket businesses make the right

investments in enterprise re-source-planning technology.

Revenue for 2010 rose 13.5per cent, while operatingprofit grew 11.6 per cent tomore than 2.6m. The PBXspecialists leading vendorpartners include Avaya, Mitel,

Siemens, Gamma and En-terasys. The Southwark-basedfirm also works with manu-facturers including HP,VMware and Polycom.

Formerly PC-Ware, this re-seller recently changed itsname as it brought together

hardware, software and serv-ices operations. UK sales at thecentral London-based VAR in-creased by 2m in FY11, whileoperational profit was up al-most 50 per cent to 386,000.

64Computer Systems

Integrations

20.5m

63Maintel

22m*

62Comparex

22.3m*

65Apsucirca 20.4m*

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The virtualisation and storageplayer bought security resellerGSS this summer. Earlier inthe year, Philip Brown was

brought in as chief finance of-ficer to oversee the VARs on-going buy-and-build plans, in

which cloud is a key focus.

Sales grew by 500,000 andoperating income more thantrebled to more than 1.6mduring the fiscal year of 2011.

Big-ticket customers for theBromley-based reseller includeleisure centre group DavidLloyd, financial servicesplayer J O Hambro and Lang-ley Grammar School.

Sales grew more than 15.7 percent in FY11, but operating

profit declined marginally to1.9m, equating to margins ofmore than eight per cent. TheBedford-based IBM partnersbiggest clients include GalaBingo and Greggs.

Revenue was up 5m and a150,000 loss was turned into

a 450,000 operating profitduring a robust FY10. In thelast three years, the South-ampton-based reseller has

worked hard to reduce its costbase, including reducing its

workforce by about a quarterto its current level of 63.

The Merseyside VAR recentlyunderwent a 30m manage-ment buyout with the backingof private equity house RJDPartners. Chief executive MikeMason, who has previously

60Selection Services

23.2m

59Blue Chip

23.8m*

58Vohkus

26.8m

57Intrinsic Technology

27.4m

61MTI Technology

circa 23m*

stated his desire to turn Intrin-sic into a 100m outfit,headed the deal.

The resellers annual reportreveals the loss of a major ac-count as turnover declinedby 7m. However, IBM lastmonth picked the Surrey-

based firm as a delivery part-ner for the National Serverand Storage framework,

which is used by higher edu-cation establishments.

Revenue more than doubledafter the Mancunian firmsbuyout of storage specialist

Alpha. The VAR also recentlyrejigged its boardroom setup,

with Alpha exec Howard John-son becoming its new profes-sional services director, andRichard Gascoigne promotedto managed services director.

Sales were up 22.7 per cent,

but a 884,000 profit turnedinto a 36,000 loss for thisPortsmouth VAR. It holds Goldpartner certifications from HPand Oracle, and is an IBM Pre-mier Business Partner and oc-

55ANS Group

29.4m*

54Bell Microsystems

29.4m

56Tectrade Computers

29.1m

cupies the Platinum tier ofSymantecs channel scheme.

Operating profit increased al-most tenfold to 2.5m in astellar FY10 for the managedprint specialist. The company,

which has offices in Manches-ter, London and Glasgow, re-

cently secured a five-yearcontract with a big financialservices company, which is

worth more than 8.5m.

The recession bit hard as thisGeordie resellers operatinglosses grew to 467,000.

But the company, which isbankrolled by Sage co-founderGraham Wylie, recentlykicked off an acquisition spree

with deals to buy Concentrixand Rocket Solutions.

The Wetherby-based VAR grewsales by 8.5 per cent to

29.5m in the fiscal year of2010, with operating profitrising more than 16 per centto 2.8m. Esteem will also adda chunk of change to its topline through its acquisition

53M2 Digital

30.4m*

52Technology

Services Group

30.7m

51Esteem Systems

circa 31.5m*

last summer of VARs Midas ITand Sirvis.

Double-digit sales and profitgrowth for Sussex-based com-pany, with an operating profitof almost 1.5m which pro-

vided margins of 4.2 per cent.The integrator claims that it

was recently picked as HPssole Cloud Centre of Excel-lence in the UK.

US IT services giant arrived inthe UK in 2008 with its acqui-sition of IBM VAR Syan, which

was followed up a year laterwhen it snapped up Anix, an-

other Big Blue partner. ACSclaims the buyouts made itIBMs biggest SMB reseller inthe UK and has pledged to buyfurther European targets.

Last year was a tough one forthe comms integrator, withsales and pre-tax profits both

enduring double-digit de-clines. Public sector sales feltthe pinch and now represent13 per cent of the Alcatel-Lu-cent partners turnover, downfrom 40 per cent in 2009.

49ACS

circa 35m*

50OCSL

34.3m

48NextiraOne

36m

Whats the secret to doubling your businessin one year?Focusing on private cloud offerings and infra-structure 3.0 NetApp, VMware and Cisco.They are calling it FlexPod now, but we weredoing it way before FlexPod was even invented.With that referenceability, we have seen

growth. Including Microsoft, we have been fo-cusing on four key partners.

Have there been any key verticals?Because our offering is an infrastructure offer-ing, it crosses all verticals. Our sales are about50 per cent public, 50 per cent private. We didan acquisition, but that is not the main reasonfor the growth we still grew about 60 per centorganically.

Where do you go from here?We think that we will be at least 40m this

year all of it through organic growth. We areconsistently recruiting three or four peopleevery month. We are now up to about 130 peo-ple on staff.

Q&A: ANS Groups Scott Fletcher, chief executive

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TOP VARS

Turnover was up 13.4 per centfor this print reseller duringFY10, but operating profit fellfrom 1.8m to 1m. Land-

mark customers include Birm-ingham City Council, LincolnCollege and Arsenal FootballClub, while the firm operatesoffices in Leighton Buzzard,Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, London,Belfast, Dublin, Southamptonand the West Midlands.

Revenue dropped by 5m on2009, but profit was up a littleto 750,000. The Portsmouthfirm sells systems, peripher-als, networking and servers. Ittrades online and operatesstores in Reading, Cardiff,Bristol and Portsmouth.

Sales rose 27 per cent during2010, but operating profit wasup only marginally and stoodat 1.1m. In July, the Watfordfirm, whose key vendors in-clude HP, VMware, IBM, Net-App and Dell, launched acloud-based replication andrecovery offering.

A year ago, the Chesterfield-based storage integrator ac-quired Cisco partner Essantand claimed the addition hada very similar methodologyto its own. In April, B2Net wasitself acquired, when Swedishstorage powerhouse Proact ITGroup bought a 75 per centstake for 12m.

The integrator is owned byBelgian carrier BelgacomGroup. Key verticals include

46Novatech

36.6m

45Storm Technologies

37.5m

44B2net

40.4m

47Altodigital

36.4m

43Telindus40.8m*

Mergers are a common feature of the top 100

defence, education and retailand the firm also specialisesin physical security technol-ogy. Top partnerships includeCisco, Alcatel-Lucent, ExtremeNetworks and Juniper.

The Twickenham company,which claims that it is theUKs biggest audiovisual inte-grator, closed its seventh ac-quisition in six years in April

when it bought video servicesoutfit VC-Net. Two monthsago, the VAR also opened itsdoors at its second Scottish lo-cation, in Glasgow.

The Watford-based reseller hasenjoyed a stellar year with its

vendors, beginning with at-taining NetApp Gold partnerstatus. Later in the year, it be-came the 19th UK partner tobe awarded Gold Volume Li-censing status with Microsoft.

The Newbury-based VAR en-dured a 5.8 per cent sales de-cline in FY10, while operatingprofit before exceptional

41CAE Technology

Services

42.4m

40Q Associates

43m

42Audio VisualMachines

circa 41.4m

items was more than cut inhalf, and stood at just over400,000. This figure waseroded to a miserly 62,000 byone-off charges relating to thesetting up of a US subsidiary.

The Coventry-based firmnearly doubled in size earlierthis year when it bought rivalEurodata Systems. The twofirms claim that, together,they will be one of the UKsleading Microsoft consultan-cies. Trinity also works withSAP, Citrix and IBM.

The Avaya integrator recentlypromoted Simon Payne, for-merly managing director ofDamovo Global Services, todeputy managing director. He

will assume overall strategicresponsibility for the com-panys sales and marketing. Inthe last few years, Damovohas bet big on fixed-mobile

convergence technology.

The IT integration arm of con-struction outfit NG Bailey en-dured a sales decline of 2.8

38Damovocirca 44.6m*

37Bailey Teswaine

44.8m*

39Trinity ExpertSystems

circa 43.8m*

per cent in FY11, following arevenue slump of 16 per centthe previous year. In May,Gary Pickering and Paul Mor-gan were brought in as salesdirector and national salesmanager, respectively.

Channel M&A veteran IanSmith recently bought a mi-nority stake in the VAR and adisposal process for non-coreunits will commence soon.Sales fell more than 10 percent in the fiscal year of 2011,

while a hefty goodwill impair-ment charge resulted in an op-erating loss of 8.3m.

The Reading-based MicrosoftLarge Account Reseller also

works with vendors includingCitrix, VMware, Cisco, HP,Check Point and Symantec.The company, which wasfounded in 1990, claims thatmore than half of its employ-

ees work in technical roles.

In its 2011 fiscal year, whichclosed at the end of March,

35Ultima Business

Solutions

48.5m

34European

Electronique

48.8m*

36Maxima

45.7m*

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TOP VARS

European Electroniqueshowed, in spades, a qualitythat all firms on our top 100have required in the last few

years: resilience.Sales for the year were up by

more than 50 per cent, while

the companys operatingprofit soared 83.4 per cent tomore than 1.1m. And all ofthis came after a 2010 in

which sales shrunk 12 percent and operating profit de-clined by a third.

The directors report forFY11 explains that the com-pany has benefited greatlyfrom the conclusion of theBuilding Schools for the Fu-ture programme and the coali-tion governments increasedfocus on free schools and

academies.Indeed, the Oxfordshire-

based VAR, led by chief execu-tive Yolanta Gill, workedclosely with the West LondonFree School, which opened inSeptember of this year as thefirst such establishment to beawarded funding by educationsecretary Michael Gove. Dur-ing 2011, European Electron-ique also tied down a deal

with the Woodard SchoolsTrust to provide both ICTequipment and services to

15 academies.Managed services sales were

up 60 per cent in the fiscalyear of 2011, and contractswith 17 primary schools werealso secured.

European Electroniques Yolanta Gill

Between 2007 and 2010, the

Birmingham-based resellermore than trebled in size toreach an annual turnover ofalmost 58m, before thegrowth dried up in 2010. Pro-brand is a Microsoft Autho-rised Education Reseller, andother key partners includeIBM and HP.

The London-based Cisco Goldpartners FY10 sales weremore or less flat, but operat-ing profit slumped almost athird to 2m. But the firm isprojecting top-line growth of20 per cent and a rise in oper-ational profits of 50 per centin FY11, after its order-book

worth more than doubledover the course of the year.

The Sage and Microsoft Dy-namics provider grew sales 20

32NSC Global

52.1m

31K352.8m

33Probrand

51.4m

per cent, while operatingprofit was up six per cent to5.8m, which equates to mar-gins of a hefty 10.8 per cent.This summer, the companyalso acquired fellow Sage part-ner FD Systems.

The system builder and inte-grator has bagged a spot on anumber of different majorpublic sector frameworks overthe last two years. Earlier this

year, it appeared on three outof six lots on the DesktopHardware and PeripheralsFramework in the further edu-cation space.

The storage-focused VAR looksall set for further growth in2011, after first-quarter salesspiked 23 per cent to 18.9m.The Chesterfield-headquar-tered company runs sales of-fices in 16 UK locations andits key vendor partners in-clude Dell, Microsoft and

VMware.

The integrator is a consider-ably different beast to thebloated 200m monolith ofseveral years ago, after thesale of several businesses anda wide-scale restructuring ofthe firm. Operating losses nar-

rowed by more than 1m inFY11, but still stood at apainful 5.3m.

The St Albans-based systembuilder increased sales bymore than a quarter in its2010 fiscal year, but opera-tional profit fell by almost 50

per cent to a little more than500,000. A year ago, StellaEnglish, winner ofThe Appren-tice, joined the firm, but sheand the VAR parted companyacrimoniously.

29CCS Media

60m

28Redstone

circa 67.1m*

27Viglen

68.7m

30Centerprise

54.9m*

The Staffordshire systembuilder has remodelled itselfin recent months as a manu-facturing added reseller, after

tying up partnerships with anumber of big-name manufac-turers. A year ago, the com-pany also teamed up withMicrosoft to enter the refur-bished market.

The security specialist, whichis majority-owned by Japanese

telco NTT, recently promotedNeal Lillywhite to the post ofUK managing director. During2010, UK sales rose more thana f ifth, and amounted to 43per cent of the firms world-

wide total.

The York reseller celebrates its

25th birthday this year and itcan also celebrate tying up a30m, five-year contract withthe Ministry of Defence thissummer. The company stylesitself as the UKs top providerof information security. Itsleading vendor partners in-clude Microsoft and Dell.

The online VAR, which tradesas Laptops Direct, amongother things, recently revealedthat it hopes to add 50m toits top line with the imple-mentation of conversion rateoptimisation technology. Ontop of direct sales, the com-pany also sells through white-label agreements withbig-name retailers.

The software and services out-fit continues to land big-ticket

24Software Box

73.2m

25Integralis

circa 71.4m*

23Buy IT Direct

74m*

22Civica UK87.7m*

26Stone

69.7m

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10 7 NOVEMBER 2011 CHANNELWEB.CO.UK

TOP VARS

public sector deals, as it saw astring of significant successesthis summer. Among these

was the companys inclusionon eight out of nine lots onthe Local Government Soft-

ware Applications SolutionsFramework, which could haveup to 1bn in its budget.

This IT services outfit is partof the 2.7bn outsourcinggiant Capita Group, whichspent more than 300m on ac-quisitions last year. The com-panys recent channel-relatedbuyouts include the 40m

which it spent on resellerand managed print services

provider Right DocumentSolutions in April.

The UK is a still relativelysmall but fast-growing terri-tory for one of the US largestresellers. With headquartersin Milton Keynes, this VAR isone of only a handful of Mi-

crosoft Large Account Re-sellers in the UK and it also

works with all the major hard-ware manufacturers.

The York-based firm under-went a year of refocusing in2010, a process that included

bowing out of pass-throughbusiness for key vendor part-ner Microsoft. This led to a12.3 per cent drop in bothsales and pre-tax profit, whichstood at 3.4m. But the VARasserts it is in control of itsown destiny after the rejig.

Just over a year ago, the Lon-don-listed company boughtfellow top-level Mitel partnerScalable Communications foran upfront consideration of7.5m. The deal should take

20SHI International

circa 100m*

21Capita IT Services

93.2m*

19Trustmarque

Solutions

107.7m

18Alternative Networks

circa 111m*

The biggest resellers continue to bulk up

its sales comfortably into ninefigures. Operating profit forthe fiscal year of 2010, priorto the Scalable acquisition,grew 30 per cent to 9.1m.

The Nottingham-based re-seller, which is owned byWestcoast parent Kelido, in-

creased sales by 38 per cent in2010, while its operatingprofit more than doubled to3.3m. Being picked as a sup-plier on the Home Accessscheme and various otherframeworks was instrumentalin growing sales.

The West Midlands-basedfirm increased pre-tax profitsby more than a quarter to11.5m in FY10, despite a sixper cent revenue fall. Big winsin FY11 included a three-year,5m installation of unifiedcommunications technologyfor facilities titan OCS.

The licensing player addedabout 10m to its top line

with its acquisition of CheckPoint VAR Security Partner-ships for an undisclosed sum.

17XMA

140.5m

16Azzurri

141.1m*

15Bytes

circa 158m*

The Surrey-headquarteredfirm was quick to pledge thatit would double the securityresellers revenue.

Two years ago, KCOM Groupmerged its national telecomsdivision with VAR Affiniti,

while it was decided that sys-

tems integrator Smart 421would sit alongside the newlycreated division. Affiniti stillfiles its own trading accounts,

which peg sales for the fiscalyear of 2011 at a little over170m. Meanwhile, Smart 421

would be big enough to makethis list on its own merit, andit enjoyed sales of more than13m last year.

The B2B arm of the UKsbiggest technology retailer issomething of a mysteriousbeast. Dixons has not brokenout sales figures for the unitfor several years, and also de-clined to do so for this table,but market sources suggest itscurrent turnover is hoveringabove the 200m mark. How-ever, Dixons group accountshave made it plain that B2B

sales have been hurting, andVAR Equanet has had to en-dure the closing of its formerheadquarters in Surbiton, as

well as several changes ofleadership in recent years.

14Kcom

circa 184m*

13DSGi Business

200m-plus*

The Slough-based integratorhas been in an acquisitivemood this year, snapping upIBM VAR Inca and videocon-ferencing specialist Direct Vi-sual. In the last two years, thefirm has bought into thecloud in a big way, and itopened a 7.5m, purpose-built

datacentre last year.

Last year, South Africa-basedDidata, which enjoys globalsales of almost $5bn, was ac-quired for more than 2bn by

Japanese telco NTT. The inte-grator makes no secret of itsdesire to offer a wider range of

managed services and increasesales of high-end technologies,such as virtualisation and uni-fied communications.

The UKs biggest print special-ist enjoyed a stellar FY10, withsales up 13.4 per cent. Operat-ing profit was also on an up-

ward curve, rising about athird to 15.1m, equating tomargins of 6.9 per cent.

In recent years, the printservices giant has bought up anumber of print resellers, in-

11Dimension Data

216.2m*

12Logicalis

circa 206m*

10Danwood Group

220m*

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TOP VARS

cluding Printware and thecopier resale arm of AdmiralGroup. Earlier this year, thecompany made the cut on theBuyout Track 100 rundown ofthe UK private equity-backedfirms with the quickest-grow-ing profits.

The Marlow-based VAR closedits most recent year severalmonths ago and enjoyed an-other 12 months of stellargrowth. Sales were up morethan 50 per cent on 2010s fig-ure of 146m and the firmhas nearly doubled in size inthe last two years, all throughorganic growth. Pre-tax profit

in 2010 stood at 16.5m,equating to margins of ahealthy-looking 7.5 per cent.

Group sales in 2010 rose from200m to 327m, with or-ganic growth coming in atabout seven per cent and salesfrom acquisitions contributing

well over 100m to the topline. The biggest deal was theNewbury-based companys70m buyout of integratorMorse in June 2010.

During last year, 2e2s UKturnover grew from 169m to245.6m, while its global foot-print increased even more rap-idly. Earlier in 2011, the

9Softcat220m*

82e2

circa 245.6m*

integrator also announced atie-up with mobile networkoperator O2, which will seethe two companies jointly of-fering outsourced IT andcomms services.

The online reseller, owned byUS resale giant Systemax,grew sales 11.4 per cent to al-most 250m during 2010. Op-erating profit rose 12.6 percent to 9.8m.

During the year, fellow on-line VAR WStore, which wasbought by Systemax in thesummer of 2009, was inte-grated into the Bucking-hamshire-based firms

operations. Late last year,Misco was singled out by HPas one of seven resellers that itfelt are instrumental to gain-ing a greater share of the UKmid-market PC space.

The London-based resellerbegan its new fiscal year by

adding 50m-plus acquisitionISC Computers to its books,having bought the firm for anundisclosed sum at the tailend of 2010.

Sales from existing opera-tions spiked almost 50 percent in FY11 to 244.4m,

while operating profit grew17.1 per cent to 8.5m.

7Misco

circa 272m*

6Kelway

circa 299m*

The company has been vocalabout its ambitions to becomeone of the UKs top three tech-nology providers and recentlyclaimed that it will be goingall guns blazing at almostevery level to compete withComputacenter.

The education-focused systembuilder enjoyed a robust 2010,

with group sales up 10 percent to more than 380m andadjusted operating profit ris-ing 12 per cent to 19.9m.However, the Oxfordshire-based firm always knew thatFY11 was going to be atougher proposition, as the

Building Schools for the Fu-ture programme was con-signed to the scrapheap andpublic spending cuts beganeating into revenue.

Full-year numbers are dueout in a couple of weeks, andRM is already planning to re-model its entire business inthe coming year. Several non-core divisions will be up forsale, while 13 per cent of the

workforce will be axed.

The telecoms leviathan re-cently announced that all itsVAR operations comprisingBT Engage IT, BT Business Di-rect and dabs are to be inte-

5RMcirca 330m*

4BTcirca 400m*

grated into one entity. Thegoal is ultimately to create a1bn turnover IT product andservices juggernaut.

BT Engage IT, which wasformed through the acquisi-tion and merger of mid-mar-ket VARs Basilica and Lynx, isthe largest individual opera-tion, posting sales of almost

180m in FY10. Business Di-rect is a 120m operation,

with online reseller dabs chip-ping in around 80m. The trioof brand names are likely toremain in place until some-time next year.

Sales grew 14.5 per cent dur-

ing a robust 2010 for the NAS-DAQ-listed, US-based VAR,

while operating profit rose28.6 per cent to 8.9m. Thisequates to operating marginsof more than two per cent.

Mobility has been the watch-word for the reseller so far in2011, with a range of Applesupport services for businesseslaunched recently. Insightaims to become the Mac-makers top UK partner in theenterprise space.

Earlier this year, the VAR

was appointed as the exclusiveB2B stockist of RIMs PlayBooktablet for all of the products90-day launch period.

Sir Peter Rigbys resale power-house enjoyed an upbeat yearin FY11, with turnover fromexisting operations spiking

13.1 per cent year on year tomore than 553m. This fol-lows a 4.3 per cent sales de-cline in 2010.

Revenue growth was largelyfuelled by a hike in productsales, but services sales alsorose and still represent morethan a fifth of total turnover.During the year, SCC boughtinfrastructure VAR Kavanagh,a nigh-on 25m operation.Print services firm TSG wasalso acquired this year.

However, like so many of its

smaller rivals, the Birming-ham-based giant felt thesqueeze on margins last year,

with operating profit (exclud-ing Kavanagh) falling from6.9m to 5m.

3Insight

412.9m

2SCC

circa 580m*

Whats the trick to doubling your business in-

side two years?It is all about getting the basics right, and re-cruiting the right people. When the recessionstarted, we took a very conscious decision toinvest more than ever. We looked at the reces-sion as an opportunity to take market share,rather than a threat.

Have you focused on any key verticals?The only particular vertical we have homed inon has been the public sector. We were not init at all until we won the (Buying Solutions)CITHs accreditation that gave us the impetusto go off and create a public sector business.We are now up to 35 salespeople just doing

public sector.

Has the economic climate put the squeezeon margins?Our margins have not fallen in the last two

years in fact, they have gone up. We are veryhappy to supply customers with PCs and print-

ers if they want it, but it has never been a focus.We are into the solutions side. It would be diffi-cult to continue to double the company everytwo years, but we are still looking for strongdouble-digit growth.

Q&A: Softcats Martin Hellawell, managing director

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A number of the companys top competi-tors have made noises in recent yearsabout threatening Computacenters domi-nance, but the reality is that the Hatfield-based VAR is still the UKs biggest by along stretch.

The company is more than twice thesize of its nearest competitor, it is threetimes the size of the UKs third biggest re-seller, and it is more than four times asbig as everyone outside the top f ive. It hasbeen the countrys only 1bn reseller for

almost 15 years.In 2010, Computacenter UK Ltd posted

sales of 1.23bn, up 4.2 per cent on lastyear. Operating prof it was up 58 per centto 24.2m, equating to operating marginsof two per cent. The firms annual reportreveals that 21 per cent of UK revenue in2010 came from sales of PCs, printers, pe-ripherals and consumables. Some 29 percent was generated by servers, storage,networking and security, while 15 percent came from software products. Third-party services chipped infour per cent of totalturnover.

Professional andmanaged servicesoperations werea key growthengine for Com-putacenter last

year, with salesgrowing at 13.9per cent, al-most threetimes the over-all revenuegrowth rate.The resellersUK services

sales stood at380.5m last year.Support and man-

ComputacenterWith sales at 1.23bn, the UKs biggest VAR remains a long

way in front, writes Sam Trendall

aged services now account for 23 per centof overall turnover, while professionalservices chip in eight per cent, bringingservices sales to almost a third of the total.

In his operating review of the year,Computacenter chief executive Mike Nor-ris indicated that his f irms future successhinges on differentiation, rather thanpure volume.

Over the last two years, we have donemuch to identify those Computacenter of-ferings where we have competitive advan-

tage and for which there is marketappetite, he writes. We believe that thisis where our future success lies and ourfocus is on repeating delivery of these of-ferings, in an efficient and high-qualitymanner. We are investing in tools andprocesses which support repetitive deliv-ery of these services, whilst ensuring effi-ciency and quality.

After the successes of 2010, the firsthalf of 2011 was a very different story forComputacenter. The companys UK rev-

enues plummeted 16 per cent, a fallthat was largely fuelled by a 23

per cent decline in product

sales. This allowed Germanyto become the VARs

biggest sales territory forthe first time.

However, chief Norrisremained unfazed,tellingCRNthat he is in-

vesting heavily in thethe resellers servicesbusiness in the UK, as

well as in datacentresand call centres. He alsostressed that more acqui-

sitions in the VARshome country are a dis-

tinct possibility. The UKsbiggest VAR is unlikely to

be toppled any time soon.

Systems and printers

Infrastructure & security

Software

Professional services

Support and managed services

Third-party services

21%

29%

15%

8%

23%

4%

Computacenters UK revenueby area

Source: Computacenter

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1981 Computacenter isfounded by Philip Hulme andPeter Ogden

1984 Sixth UK branch opened

1989 International ComputerGroup founded, including oper-ations in Ireland and Germany

1990 UK headquarters, in-cluding Europes largest PCoutlet, opened in south London

1994 Mike Norris appointedas chief executive; Computa-center becomes biggest UK-owned IT company

1997 The VARs UK revenuesexceed 1bn

1998 Computacenter floats onthe London Stock Exchange

1999 Operations founded inBelgium; UK IT disposal com-pany RDC is acquired

2001 Computacenter Ger-many acquired by GECITS,

which sells its UK and Frenchbusinesses to the UKs topreseller

2003 GE CompuNet in Ger-many and GE Capital IT Solu-tions in Austria are bothacquired

2005 Service desk functional-ity added in Barcelona and,through the buyout of Digica, inCape Town

2007 299m five-year out-sourcing contract win with BT

2009 A year of comings andgoings, with the acquisitions ofThesaurus in the UK andBecom in Germany. Distributionarm CCD sold off to Ingram

2010 Cloud offering C Maillaunched

2011 French VAR Top Info ac-quired; Germany overtakes theUK to become the VARs biggestsales territory

Computacenter was founded in 1981 byentrepreneurs Philip Hulme and PeterOgden, and sales had grown to 1.5m by1983. The following year, recent gradu-ate Mike Norris joined the company in asales role at the firms City office.

In 1990, the company moved intonew headquarters on Londons Blackfri-

ars Road, a venue which it claimed wasalso Europes biggest PC outlet. Four

years later, Norris was appointed chiefexecutive, and he led the company tobecome the UKs biggest IT supplierprior to its flotation on the LondonStock Exchange in 1998.

Over the next 10 years, a host of ac-quisitions in both the UK and across Eu-rope helped Computacenter grow itsglobal revenue to 2.7bn. In recent

years, it has ramped up its services oper-ations and it launched C Mail, its f irstcloud-based offering, last year.

Computacenter now employs more

than 10,000 people across all of Europe,and it has offices located in seven differ-ent countries.

In 2010, the UK provided 47 per centof total sales, and the resellers corporateheadquarters are now located in Hat-

field. It serves the UK through an addi-tional 10 offices in Belfast, Birmingham,Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London,Manchester, Milton Keynes, Nottinghamand Reading.

Germany, which provided 38 per centof overall revenue last year, recently be-came the VARs biggest region by sales

volume. German operations are run outof the national head office in Kerpen,

with a further 24 locations in usethroughout the country.

France, which provided 13 per cent ofComputacenters revenue in 2010, is afast-growing region for the VAR. In thefirst quarter of 2011, French servicesand product sales rose 10 and 22 percent respectively.

In February, the VARs standing acrossthe channel was boosted by its 21m(17.7m) acquisition of reseller Top Info.Sales are run from Paris, with a further15 offices in operation.

The Benelux region, where Computa-center runs offices in Luxembourg andZaventem, in Belgium, currently pro-

vides two per cent of the VARs turnover.The firm also operates from locations inCape Town and Barcelona.

CC through the years

Hatfield globetrotter1

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Thursday 17 November 2011Battersea Park Events Arena,

London

THE DEFINITIVE MARKOF ACHIEVEMENTTHE CRN CHANNEL AWARDS 2011

SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Interested in sponsoring this years awards?For details please contact Colin Logan on 0207 3169484 or [email protected]

Alternatively contact Chris Pullinger:T: 020 7484 9924E: [email protected]

Headline Sponsor: Sponsors:
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TOP VARS

Vendors, distributors and resellers havelong been promising that their technol-ogy or service will allow customers toachieve that holy grail of IT management:doing more with less.

It is, of course, a bold claim andshould, no doubt, be taken with a pinchof salt when emanating from some cor-ners. But at its best, the channel, and the

technology it develops and delivers, canhelp make businesses smarter, leaner andmore efficient.

And the results of our survey of endusers shine a light on just how crucial itis especially in the current economic

climate that resellers help customersdeliver on their IT and business objec-tives, while still driving value and provid-ing demonstrable cost savings.

CRNquizzed more than 500 senior ITdecision makers at a wide range of endusers, from micro-businesses to thebiggest enterprises, for the survey. And,perhaps unsurprisingly, it quickly be-

comes apparent that cost is the watch-word for many IT chiefs.

Respondents were asked to rank a vari-ety of issues in order of how big a consid-eration those issues are likely to be overthe next couple of years, with five being

In the current economic climate, it wasperhaps inevitable to see that reducingIT spend emerged as the biggest con-cern for UK IT chiefs in our research.

But more research from Gartner findsthat global IT spending is actually setfor a healthy rise this year. The analystforecasts that total technology spendingwill grow 7.1 per cent to more than$3.4tn in 2011.

And, despite all the cloud buzz, com-puting hardware sales will enjoy thebiggest growth, increasing by 11.7 percent to $375bn. Enterprise softwarerevenue is projected to grow 9.5 per

cent to $244bn, with services sales setto rise 6.6 per cent to $793bn.

Telecoms spending growth is peggedat 6.9 per cent, with market worth set totop $2tn this year, according to Gartner.

Spending timeCRN quizzed 500-plus IT chiefs about whatthey want from their IT suppliers. Sam Trendall

examines the results

Greatexpectations

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very important and one being not impor-tant at all.

Some 27.2 per cent of IT chiefs gave re-ducing IT spend a rating of f ive, putting itat the top of the importance scale ahigher percentage than for any otherissue. A further 32.8 per cent indicatedthat cutting costs was quite important bygiving it a rating of four.

But in spite of the need to reduce

CapEx, the demand for more effectivestorage and security technologies remains

very clear, with 23.1 per cent of respon-dents citing the increased sophisticationof threats as a consideration of the utmostimportance. A further 36.1 per cent gavethe evolving security landscape a rating offour, while some 59.6 per cent placed theincreased demand for storage in the toptwo rungs of importance.

Dont believe the hypeImplementing a unified communicationsstrategy and reducing power consump-tion were also issues to be rated fairly

highly in the survey, as each was given afour or f ive rating by more than two-fifthsof respondents.

And despite all the hype, the move to-wards cloud and the consumerisation ofIT were two trends that were consideredless important by the surveys respon-dents. A little more than 10 per cent oftechnology decision makers believe thatcloud will be an issue of great importanceover the next two years, with about 20 percent claiming the rise of cloud will bequite an important issue.


TOP VARS

For IT chiefs, managing data storagemust be a task akin to painting theForth Bridge: a job that has to beginagain even before it is finished, andmust seem to get bigger and more un-likely all the time.

The rise of virtualised computing plat-forms continues to fuel demand forstorage, as do the rigours of effectivebackup and business continuity poli-

cies. Indeed, recent research fromGartner shows that the external con-troller-based (ECB) disk storage marketcontinues to enjoy stellar growth,notwithstanding the harsh macroeco-nomic climate.

Worldwide ECB revenue in the secondquarter of 2011 soared to $5.1bn, an11.6 per cent rise on the correspondingperiod last year. EMEA outpaced thewider markets growth, with sales rising12.2 per cent.

Never-ending storage

A mere 3.5 per cent think that thegrowing proliferation of consumer devicesin the enterprise is a major concern, with16 per cent more citing it as an issue ofsome importance.

Other issues that were singled out byrespondents include tasks such as keepingup-to-date with various software industrystandards as well as the implementationof the new internet protocol, IPv6. Updat-

ing systems, maintaining network per-

27.2%

3.5%

Reducing IT spend

Sophisticated security threats

Increased demand for storage

Reducing power consumption

The move towards cloud

Implementing a UC environment

The consumerisation of IT

23.1%

16.2%

12.3%

10.6%

8.4%

Percentage of end users whoconsider the following issues to be

very important

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formance and managing growth were alsoissues to be picked out in the survey, as

were virtualisation, business continuity,upgrading from Windows XP and main-taining legacy systems.

Counting the costsWhen it comes to what end users expectand demand from their IT suppliers, costand value for money again emerge as thetopmost consideration.

Some 45.3 per cent of the surveys re-spondents ranked cost/value at five, the

very top of the importance scale, while afurther 37.7 per cent cited this issue asquite important. Less than one per cent ofthose quizzed claimed that cost is not atall important.

However, the need for VARs to providemore for less becomes even more appar-ent when examining what other issues

are considered important. Responsivenessis another big scorer, having been given ascore of five by 42.6 per cent of IT chiefs,and a four rating by a further 43.9 percent. Technical expertise is also highly

valued, being rated top of the importance

tree by 37.9 per cent, and quite importantby 44.6 per cent.

The survey also highlights resellersneed to balance their own books, with fi-nancial stability proving to be another bigconsideration in choosing your IT sup-

plier. More than a fifth of IT decisionmakers cited this as being vitally impor-tant, and about 45 per cent claimed thatthis was quite important.

Keeping up with emerging technologieswas also ranked highly, being given a rat-ing of f ive by 15 per cent of respondents,

while a further 54 per cent indicated thatthis was quite important.

Our research provides plenty of cheerfor smaller players, with personal rela-tionships, key vendor partnerships and in-depth knowledge of specific technologiesall emerging as major considerations for adecent proportion of IT chiefs.

Some 16.4 per cent of respondents con-sider personal relationships to be of thehighest importance, with 38.3 per centciting this as quite important. A resellersstrong relationship with a key vendor wasgiven a rating of five by 14.1 per cent of

Security, it seems, is a bit like bass gui-tarists or football referees: the defini-tion of doing its job effectively is to gounnoticed, and the only time anyonepays it any mind is when it all goeswrong or disappears completely.

Considering how often high-profilesecurity breaches have hit the head-lines over the last few years, it is hardlysurprising to see the increased sophis-

tication of IT threats is an issue that ison the minds of CIOs and IT managers.The potential financial and reputationaldamage of suffering a breach is huge.

And it seems no one is impervious toattack; a series of government databreaches have hit the headlines overthe last few years, while the worldsleading enterprise security vendor, RSA,has been plastered over the press forall the wrong reasons this year, aftersuccumbing to an advanced persistentthreat in March.

The consequences for end users ofhaving ineffective security got even

scarier last year, when the InformationCommissioners Office was handed thepower to dish out fines of up to500,000 for those found in seriousbreach of the Data Protection Act.

Maximum security

Cost/value

Responsiveness

Technical expertise

Financial stability

Personal relationships

Familiarity with emergingtechnologies

45.3%

42.6%

37.9%

21.5%16.4%

15%

The need is for VARs toprovide more for less

Percentage of end users whoconsider the following attributes tobe very important

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respondents, and a score of four by a fur-ther 41.7 per cent. Specialised knowledgeof a particular technology received topmarks from almost 15 per cent of respon-dents, with 28 per cent considering thisquite important.

Broadly speakingAnother piece of good news for SMB VARsis that breadth of product portfolio is

ranked as the least important considera-tion on our list. This was considered asbeing of importance by 39 per cent of re-spondents, with just 8.3 per cent givingthis a top-level mark of five.

A consultative approach from IT suppli-ers is also not that highly prized by ourresearch respondents, just 9.4 per cent of

whom gave this consideration top marks.Meanwhile, proactiveness and referralsand reputation come somewhere in themiddle of the importance stakes.

A proactive reseller is strongly desiredby 13.7 per cent of IT bosses, with a fur-ther 43.7 per cent considering this quite

important. Some 12.3 per cent place theutmost importance on referrals and exist-ing reputation, with another 44.4 per centgiving this a ranking of four.

Room for improvementOur survey also looks at where resellersare doing well, and where clients wantthem to make improvements. Respon-dents were again asked to rank their ITsuppliers performance on a scale of oneto five, with five representing excellent,and one denoting very poor.

Reassuringly, VARs were given highmarks in four areas considered vital by

end users: personal relationships, finan-cial stability, responsiveness and technicalexpertise. A third of respondents gavetheir reseller a top score of five for their

It is surely heartening for the channel tosee tech expertise considered vitally im-portant and specialist skills becomingincreasingly so. Over the last couple ofyears, a number of vendors have tight-ened up their channel accreditation

programmes, with many placing lessimportance on catch-all Gold or Plat-inum tags and moving instead towardsa world where VARs are encouraged tofocus on specialisations.

Last month, Oracle launched its Part-ner Network Specialisation programme,which allows resellers to get trainedand badged up in any of 75 differentareas. HP is another to bang the spe-cialisation drum in recent months.Since last year, the vendor has, for thefirst time, required top-level Gold part-ners to hold at least one specialistion.

Microsoft has also overhauled its

long-standing Gold partner badge. Thecatch-all certification has been cannedthis year, and it was replaced by tech-nology-specialised Gold and Silver com-petency badges.

Specialist interests

With end users having a strong focus oncost in the current climate, marketwatchers have reported a worrying dropin average selling prices (ASPs) onsome core technologies.

Recent figures from Context foundthat, in the three months to the end of

September, the European PC markethad suffered a 10 per cent decline inASPs. This problem was largely fuelledby vendors aggressive pricing strategy,as they attempted to flush out excessinventory in distribution channels.

Networking is another market to havefelt the margin squeeze, with the ongo-ing tussle between Cisco and HP Net-working being the main driver for adrop in ASPs in 2011s second quarter.Infonetics Research reports that globalswitching revenue in Q2 fell three percent to $4.4bn, despite an 11 per centhike in shipment volumes.

The cost of low cost

5

4

3

2

1

5 very important

1 not important

at all

9.4%

39.2%

34.8%

11.9%

4.7%

How important is it that IT providerstake a consultative approach?

More thanone in tenVARs is

consideredpoor value

financial stability, with less than two percent rating their IT provider as poor or

very poor on this front.Just under a third of IT chiefs rate their

supplier as excellent in the fields of re-sponsiveness and personal relationships,respectively. Some 30.6 per cent gavetheir reseller a top ranking of five fortheir technical expertise.

Our research finds that end users arerelatively content with the prices chargedby their IT partner of choice, with morethan one in five giving theirs a rating of

excellent for cost/value. A further 43.4 percent rated their IT provider as good in thisregard. However, more than one in ten ofthose quizzed indicated that they consider

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their reseller to be poor or very poorwhen it comes to value.

The area where VARs scored lowest isproactiveness, with five per cent claimingtheir IT supplier is very poor in this field.

A further 18.7 per cent claimed their sup-plier was below average when it comes toproactiveness, and 28.3 per cent gavetheir reseller a middling rating of three.

Just 15.5 per cent gave their VAR an excel-lent score, with 32.4 per cent settling on arating of good. Less than half of end usersconsider their IT provider to be either ex-cellent or good in being proactive.

Strength of referrals is another area inwhich resellers score relatively weakly. Amere 14.6 per cent of UK IT chiefs gavetheir VARs reputation a rating of excel-lent, a lower percentage than for anyother factor. In total, about 49 per cent

consider their IT providers references tobe average or below, with 11.4 per centgiving their reseller a ranking of poor or

very poor in this area.Resellers also score comparatively badly

when it comes to taking a consultative ap-proach, with about 17 per cent of respon-dents giving their IT firm a score of verypoor or poor. Just 16.4 per cent offered atop-level rating of five.

Love me vendorResellers strength of relationship withthe appropriate vendor partner was onearea to be ranked fairly highly by end

users, with 64.4 per cent of respondentsgiving VARs a rating in the top two tiers.Some 22.4 per cent claimed their ITprovider is excellent in this regard.

Familiarity with new products andservices is another facet of resellers per-

For the last few years, channel playersof all shapes and sizes have been mak-ing the right noises about being less re-liant on product revenues and openingup new service and consultancy rev-

enue streams. So it is perhaps disap-pointing to see VARs consultancy skillsgiven a lukewarm rating by end users.

Nevertheless, there are plenty of signsthe worm is turning, and starting at thetop offers a good barometer of wherethe market is heading. In 2008, Com-putacenter generated 24 per cent of itsUK revenues from services. This rose to29 per cent the following year, andnudged up to 31 per cent last year.

The impact of the strategy shift can beseen on the resellers bottom line; in2010, UK revenues increased by ahealthy 10.8 per cent, while operating

profit grew even quicker, rising by 14.5per cent. The importance of a strongservices practice will come to bear forComputacenter even more this year, asproduct sales in the UK have droppeddramatically. Services sales have heldsteady, though, mitigating the impact onprofitability. During H1, UK servicessales were just above flat, though prod-uct sales fell the best part of a quarteryear on year. But operating profit en-dured a decline of just 7.9 per cent.

Consultancy thebig picture

33.3%

32.9%

32.4%

30.6%

20.5%

15.5%14.6%

Financial stability

Responsiveness

Personal relationships

Technical expertise

Cost/value

Proactiveness

Referrals and existing reputation

Consultancy the

small pictureThe move towards high-end services isby no means only being made by theUKs biggest resellers, as a number ofsmaller VARs are now also shiftingbusiness models to fuel growth and in-crease profitability.

Security specialist Pentura is onesuch company. Earlier this year, theReading-based outfit even went as faras ditching all product sales that didnot stem from a consultancy contract.This followed the launch in 2010 of its14-strong consulting division, which

was designed to help Pentura win busi-ness against the Big Four audit firms.

Lanway is another reseller to beginthe migration from product sales. TheBurnley VAR made its name shiftingPCs and audiovisual kit to a predomi-nantly education-market customerbase. The company has since remod-elled and split into three divisions cen-tred on managed services, professionalservices and infrastructure solutions.

Vendors and distributors are alsodoing their bit to help smaller playersmake the move towards services, withHP recently opening up a clutch of con-

sultancy professional services pack-ages for resale. Storage VAD Hammeralso recently launched a standaloneservices and consultancy arm to helpresellers win more deals.

Percentage of end users whorate their supplier as excellentin these areas

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formance to be rated highly, with 17.4 percent giving an excellent rating, and a fur-ther 44.3 per cent awarding a good score.Less than one per cent of respondentsranked their IT provider as very poorwhen it comes to knowing the intricaciesof the latest technology.

However, possessing specialised knowledge of one vital technology is an areawhere channel firms scored relatively

weakly. Barely 50 per cent gave a rankingof four or five on this category, with morethan one in eight placing their providersin the bottom two tiers.

The need for speedWe asked IT chiefs to single out the thingthat they like the most about their ITprovider, and the one thing they wouldlike to change.

A wide range of qualities are picked asthe most impressive things about theVARs in questions and the most commonresponses support the answers given ear-lier in the report. The most commonlyfeatured word in detailing VARs mostbeneficial traits is responsiveness.

Closely related to this, the need forspeed is also clearly demonstrated, as anumber of respondents claim expeditious-

ness of delivery is what most impressesthem about their reseller of choice. Just asmany claim speed in responding to prob-lems, questions or concerns is the thingthat sets their IT provider apart from oth-ers. And, again, proactiveness also comesup a number of times when assessing thechannels most winning traits.

Clearly, in one sense, the end user com-munity wants IT providers that can actquickly and decisively. But, in other ways,customers want VARs to take their time,as our survey results demonstrate. One ofthe big repeat answers among the thingsthat clients value most about their IT

provider is taking a softly-softly consulta-tive approach.

The long gameA raft of resellers were also praised forplaying the long game, rather than justpunting the most expensive or highest-margin kit to their customers. Many re-spondents praised their technologysupplier for trying to get under the skin

Our research finds that end users areclose with their IT suppliers, if not quitethe best of friends. IT decision makerswere asked how often they were in con-tact with their reseller of choice. Justone in nine indicated that they are intouch every day.

Some 43.9 per cent of respondentsclaimed that they are in contact withtheir VAR every week, making this themost popular answer. A further 38.1per cent said they speak to their ITsupplier every month while, perhapsworryingly, 6.1 per cent per cent said

they are in contact on at least an an-nual basis.

Hanging on the

telephone

End users are clearly looking for an ITpartner that wont love them and leavethem after a quick liaison and an ex-change of cash. But some resellers gofurther than others in cultivating a con-sultative approach and a deep under-standing of clients needs.

Logicalis has, on several occasions,displayed the desire to engage withcustomers, particularly in the publicsector, in a way that is centred on theclients needs, rather than the resellersrevenue. In 2008, the Slough-based VARentered into a keiretsu agreement withlong-time customer Nottingham TrentUniversity. The partnership whichcame with no commercial strings at-tached involved Logicalis advising theuniversity on the technology considera-tions of a 70m building redevelopment.

Earlier this year, the reseller alsoopened up a clutch of its intellectual

property to the market after publishingits public sector network deliveryframework. The document detailed sixkey challenges for public sector bodiesand the IT providers that supply them.Logicalis UK managing director TomKelly claimed that the release wassparked by the fact that it is vital thatthe public sector and ICT partners en-gage differently.

Understanding order

How often are you in touch with yourIT supplier?

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CHANNELWEB.CO.UK 7NOVEMBER 2011 21

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of their business and get to grips withpain points and business objectives beforerecommending appropriate technologyand services.

Inevitably, cost-effectiveness and pricealso come up time and again as beingamong a resellers most appreciable quali-ties. Breadth of product portfolio was also

cited as important by a decent smatteringof respondents.

Other qualities that were singled out inthe survey include technical nous, per-sonal relationships and friendly accountmanagement as well as a strong onlinesales operation.

Well be in touchWe also sought IT decision makers opin-ion on what single change they wouldlike to make, if possible, to their IT sup-pliers behaviour or service provision.

Predictably, there were many, manydifferent responses, but, once again, a

number of strong themes emerge aswords and concepts crop up time andagain. The most popular answer centreson a word that is a becoming a well-wornfeature of this survey: proactiveness. Butalthough there was a clear desire for re-sellers to be as proactive as possible, therewere also a number of respondents whose

one change to their IT suppliers behav-iour would be to stop them cold calling well be in touch when we need you,thank you very much.

Alongside the call for proactiveness wasanother old chestnut: responsiveness. Ahost of IT managers told us they wantfaster delivery, speedier deployment and,above all, quicker response times.

The next two most popular answerswere equally predictable. A swathe of re-spondents indicated that the one changethey would make to their resellers deliv-ery would be lower pricing. A similarnumber of IT chiefs claimed they want

their VAR of choice to display higher lev-els of tech expertise, particularly whenaddressing problems.

Another commonly given response is adesire for the personal touch. It seemscustomers value hands-on account man-agement by familiar people, and want toengage with their IT provider on a per-

sonal level, not just strictly business.It is when we look at some of the

slightly less commonly given answers that

With as many as one in eight of the worlds population on Facebook, and majorevents generating as many as 10,000 Tweets per second, its increasingly difficult, ifnot impossible, to escape the world of social networking. With so many people in-volved in this relatively new technology, it did not take professional technologists longto claim that this big trend could lead to big business.

And there are indications that businesses may be waking up to the importance ofsocial networking, and the opportunities it may provide. A recent survey from recruit-ment company InterExec found that 18 per cent of 150,000-plus executives foundtheir post through social networking.

Social media platforms have also increasingly become an intrinsic part of vendorsrelationship with the channel. A number of big vendors, including Cisco, Juniper and

Toshiba, use social networking platforms to communicate with resellers, or haveeven set up communities for partners to use.

Avaya is another vendor to pick up on the trend and has made concerted efforts toget its channel to base its sales efforts around businesses need to utilise, integrateand manage social media platforms.

Socially conscious

How would you rate your ITsuppliers familiarity with emergingtechnologies?

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means of tracking purchases. Anothercalled on their reseller to develop morein-house consultancy skills, rather thanoutsourcing certain functions.

Evolutionary roadOur research revealed what many of us al-ready knew: the thousands of f irms thatmake up the UK channel are, by andlarge, a resilient bunch.

Many companies on our list have hadto endure sales and profit declines, buthave fought tooth and nail to hang on tokey accounts and worked hard to ensurepipelines remain healthy. Many others

have invested heavily in sales and market-ing operations and have actually contin-ued to grow solidly.

At the heart of this resilience is adapt-ability. The business models of the top100 would surely have looked unrecognis-ably different 20, 10 or even five yearsago. But a look through the upper eche-lons of the list shows that the most suc-cessful channel players have managed toevolve, without throwing the baby out

with the bath water.The results of our end user survey sug-

gest that VARs will need to call on theirreserves of resilience and adaptability if

they are to continue to prosper. It wouldcertainly appear as if many end users

want to have their cake and eat it.Cost, inevitably, emerges as a key con-

sideration, with many IT chiefs citingstraitened budgets as a far bigger short- to

medium-term concern than the rise ofcloud computing or the consumerisationof IT. Numerous respondents also claimedthe one change theyd like to make totheir IT supplier would be their pricing.

But, on top of reduced costs, CIOsclearly want to improve their IT function,

with the increased need for security andstorage as the primary driver. And, on topof this, they want a better level of servicefrom IT suppliers that are more respon-sive, more proactive and more f lexible.

A simple recipeSo the recipe for success for VARs in 2012

and beyond is simple: offer more and bet-ter technology, with higher levels of techexpertise and better customer service, atheavily reduced prices. And, if this hasntdriven you out of business by the end ofQ1, think about bringing in 24/7 phone,

email, messaging and videoconferencingsupport for all customers. Easy-peasy.

But the comments of many respon-dents suggest that resellers dont have todo the impossible to continue to thrive.The thing that comes to the fore time andagain is that end users really value ITproviders that have the time and the pa-tience to get to know their business, tounderstand their problems and theirneeds and how best to meet them.

A number of resellers were singled outfor praise because they didnt go straightfor the kill with the costliest, highest-mar-gin kit and services. Rather, they sculpted

a solution which f itted their customersneeds to a tee, regardless of what it cost.

Despite the proliferation of IT in theconsumer world, VARs must rememberthat they are the experts, and positionthemselves as such: people will still paytop dollar for high levels of expertise andfirst-class customer service.

There can be few industries where thepace of change is as high as the tech

world, and the channels most successfulfirms have been comfortably keeping up

with the continually evolving landscapefor 30 years or more.

The make-up of this list may look con-

siderably different in 10, five or even oneyears time. But you can bet that the VARswho make up the UKs elite, whoever theyare, will always possess in spades the in-novation, tenacity and adaptability thattypifies the channel.

Many enduser IT chiefswant to havetheir cakeand eat it

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1. Computacenter1.23bn

2.SCC circa580m

3.Insight412.9m

4.BTcirca 400m*

5.RMcirca 330m*

6.Kelwaycirca 299m*

7.Miscocirca 272m*

8.2e2 circa 245.6m*

9.Softcat220m*

10.Danwood Group220m*

11.Dimension Data216.2m*

12.Logicaliscirca 206m*

13.DSGi Business200m-plus*

14.Kcomcirca 184m*

15.Bytescirca 158m*

16.Azzurri141.1m*

17.XMA 140.5m

18.Alternative Networkscirca 111m*

19.Trustmarque Solutions107.7m

20.SHI Internationalcirca100m

21.Capita IT Services93.2m*

22.Civica UK87.7m*

23.Buy IT Direct74m*

24.Software Box73.2m

25.Integraliscirca 71.4m*

26.Stone69.7m

27.Viglen68.7m

28.Redstonecirca 67.1m*

29.CCS Media60m

30.Centerprise54.9m

31.K3 52.8m

32.NSC Global52.1m

33.Probrand51.4m

34.European Electronique48.8m*

35.Ultima BusinessSolutions48.5m

36.Maxima45.7m*

37.Bailey Teswaine44.8m*

38.Damovocirca 44.6m*

39.Trinity Expert Systemscirca 43.8m*

40.Q Associates43m

41.CAE TechnologyServices42.4m

42.Audio Visual Machinescirca 41.4m

43.Telindus40.8m*

44.B2net40.4m

45.Storm Technologies37.5m

46.Novatech36.6m

47.Altodigital36.4m

48.NextiraOne36m

49.ACScirca 35m*

50.OCSL34.3m

51.Esteem Systemscirca31.5m*

52.Technology ServicesGroup30.7m

53.M2 Digital30.4m

54.Bell Microsystems29.4m

55.ANS Group29.4m*

56.Tectrade Computers29.1m

57.Intrinsic Technology27.4m

58.Vohkus26.8m

59.Blue Chip23.8m*

60.Selection Services23.2m

61.MTI Technologycirca23m*

62.Comparex22.3m*

63.Maintel22m*

64.Computer SystemsIntegrations20.5m

65.Apsucirca 20.4m*

66.ONI20m*

67.Transputec19.8m

68.Trams19.1m

69.TET Limited18.7m*

70.Sabio18.5m*

71.Axial Systems18.3m

72.acs Systems18.2m

73.Bechtle17.9m*

74.NE Computing17.8m

75.Grey Matter17.5m

76.Aria Technology16.9m

77.Orange IS16.8m*

78.Caretower16.6m*

79.Prolinx16.5m*

80.Viadex16m

81.Datapointcirca 15.7m*

82.Cisilion15.6m*

83.Albion Computers14.9m

84.Dacoll Group14.8m

85.Business and ScientificServices14.8m*

86.Comm-Tech Voice andData14.6m

87.Total ComputerNetworks14.5m*

88.Information and DataNetwork Supplies14.4m

89.Square Group14.1m*

90.SecureData14m*

91.Datel14m

92.Millgate ComputerSystems13.9m

93.Keltec13.8m

94.Pugh Computers13.4m

95.Lanway13.1m

96.Actimax13m-plus*

97.Cancom12.8m

98.Maindec ComputerSolutions12.5m

99.Tracline12.4m

100.Comcen ComputerSupplies12.4m*

1-100 index

Graydon provided the sourcedata for this list. However, in anumber of cases, we haveadded data, or enhanced the

data we were given to accountfor acquisitions, extended re-porting periods, breaking outUK-generated sales, breakingout appropriate divisionalsales and/or currency conver-sion at a historically appropri-ate exchange rate.

All rankings are based onannual filed accounts withCompanies House, except inselect cases where they arebased on first-hand informa-tion or informed market re-search. Where we havedeviated from the source data,it is marked with an asterisk.Do not hesitate to contact usat [email protected] you have anyqueries.

Data partner
http://www.channelweb.co.uk/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.channelweb.co.uk/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

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Documents

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