Compusys is buried under Stone

Boardman: We wanted to create one strong brand name

Stone Group is ditching its Compusys brand for servers and will re-invent its Rock arm as a gaming-only outfit.

From 1 August, the Stone brand will be used for all of the system builder’s servers, desktops and notebooks outside of the high-end gaming market.

Nick Boardman, who headed up Rock before Stone acquired it last year, has seen his job title change from mobile technical director to product development director.

Boardman told CRN: “We had three reasonably strong brands but we wanted to create one strong one. Rock was synonymous with consumer gaming so the only caveat is we will keep that separate.”

Boardman revealed that notebook outfit Rock will launch its first gaming desktop in September.

“Stone makes more than 100,000 desktops a year so there is a real opportunity for Rock to leverage its economies of scale and take the fight to Alienware,” Boardman explained.

The new machines will offer a three-year warranty as standard.

But Phil Meredith, sales director at rival Overclockers, said Rock would be facing a “hard battle” in the desktop gaming arena.

“A three-year warranty is a differentiator, but it is not the be-all and end-all for gamers,” he said. “Most upgrade within 12 to 18 months.”

Tony Riccardi, sales and marketing director at rival system builder Mesh, admitted Stone’s unified brand approach could work.

“We have all seen how well multiple brands work with an organisation like Acer or Volkswagen -­ and yet the same levels of success can also be attributed to single-brand companies like Apple,” he said.