Pan-European distributor Magirus is embarking on an aggressive growth drive following the disposal of its Enterprise Infrastructure Division (EID) to rival Avnet.
The firm completed the deal with Avnet last week following European Commission approval and has already set its sights on expansion.
Andrew Binding, vice president northern Europe at Magirus, told CRN: “It is great that the deal has gone through because it means we can really concentrate on our new business activities. Our future is bringing new technology to market and we are working with our resellers to jointly identify areas that add value in terms of technology or new skills. We are confident of getting the business back to the size it was before the EID sale within a short time.”
Magirus has also expanded the scope of its Strasbourg-based support centre, which covers VARs selling its security and intelligent network offerings, including vendors such as Aladdin, Blue Coat, NetAsq and Check Point, across Europe.
The multi-language centre now boasts three service-level options that vary according to reaction time, prioritisation and availability. It is also offering add-on service modules that allow VARs to select the degree of support they need to supplement their own offerings.
Binding added: “Not all our partners have the skills to be able to support the technology and they can use Magirus to provide some of that backup. At the moment the centre covers mainly security products because it is a key objective to grow our security division, but we will see this portfolio expand.”
Colin Herridge, IT consultant at VAR Nexxian, said the support centre was invaluable.
“We can ring the centre 24 hours a day and get hold of a person who is knowledgeable and can fix 90 per cent of problems over the phone. Most vendors do not really offer this kind of support to resellers unless you are much higher up the food chain. Having someone like Magirus that understands our problems and needs is key for us,” Herridge said.
Magirus completes disposal of EID to Avnet