One of the big stories this year is Dell’s partnership with distributors such as Ingram Micro and Tech Data.
I was at D&H Canada’s open house last night and I notice not one but two Dell Canada executives.
During my interview with D&H CEO Michael Schwab and Canadian GM Greg Tobin, they made it clear to me that D&H Distributing is not interested in a partnership with Dell.
However, D&H does help Dell on the peripherals side for its Web site business. For example, Sling Media products are available on Dell.com along with several other products D&H currently distributes in North America.
D&H is a drop ship partner for Dell and many other E-tailers. Schwab told me that D&H is the engine for many E-tailers in Canada.
But, Schwab said that D&H’s value is with strategic vendors in markets they serve and in the categories the distributor serves. D&H has Acer and HP as vendor partners in hardware.
“We are not looking to expand to a level similar to Ingram Micro or Tech Data has today. Part of our value is in having that extra knowledge about the products we carry. We are a strong go to market partner with vendors. So no we are not currently interested in adding the Dell line through D&H,” Schwab said.
Schwab also pointed out that D&H is not interested in any private label or white label business. An example of this is Ingram’s V7 line of flat panel monitors. Schwab and Tobin respect other company business models, but said that they do not want to copy that model for D&H. Schwab is more interested in evangelizing brands from his vendor partners in the market place.
“We are not going to create our own brands and be in competition with our vendor partners who have established strong brands already,” he said.
The open house was a great event for channel partners. They were many fascinating vendors on hand such as Cisco with its PureDigital Flip camera, TalkSwitch with its SMB phone system and other vendors such as NetGear, Cyber Power, and Western Digital.
Two quick hits before I go. Zeno Ricci, Targus’s first ever Canadian employee is celebrating 20 years running the organization. CDN congratulates him.
Further congratulations goes out to the staff at Lenovo Canada for donating more than 40 ThinkPad laptops to the Heart and Stroke Foundation for its Ride for Heart, a charitable event where 12,000 participants cycle or roller blade down the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.
The event was challenged by the many participants who pick up their accreditation on site as well as managing all that paper, which needed to be categorized, sorted and filed outside before the event started. With Lenovo’s help the ThinkPads were placed at 30 stations for pre-event registration and it has significantly reduced the administrative headaches and helped to smooth out the pledge process as well.
