DSGi set for battle in UK enterprise market

DSG International: The firm expects to grow its team to 100 specialists over the next year.

DSG International (DSGi) Business has thrown down the gauntlet to its VAR rivals by forming a team geared to tackle the mid-market and enterprise space.

The firm, under which both the PC World Business (PCWB) and Equanet brands sit, initially revealed its intentions to a national Sunday newspaper to target firms of 300-plus employees with its brand new Advanced Solutions division.

Speaking to CRN, Russell Flowers, group sales director at DSGi Business, said the firm hopes to cause a stir with the division, which will initially comprise 60 specialists, but will grow rapidly to more than 100 over the coming year.

“We can now take care of customers’ complex solution requirements ­ on contracts worth anything from £10,000 to a multimillion-pound monthly deal,” said Flowers. “It also means that we will be bidding for contracts that ordinarily we could not have done before.”

Flowers said the division will also pit DSGi against channel businesses that have traditionally operated in the enterprise space.

“Some of the lower-end system integrators will also be affected as smaller customers go for our support offerings,” he said.

However, DSGi’s plans were played down by the established players.
Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter, said: “I am concerned, but it is not in my top 100.”
Ross Miller, chief executive of Trustmarque Solutions, said: “I always welcome competition because it is good for the market, but a lot of enterprises will ask ‘who is DSGi Business’?”

Peter Critchley, marketing director at Morse said: “The kind of contracts it would go for would be the commodity-compute type, rather than the global support and consultancy services that a firm such as Morse offers. It will probably compete more with lower-end corporate resellers. We will watch its efforts with interest.”