Channel awards
Simon Meredith gives the lowdown on a distributor and a reseller that could be due for recognition at this year's awards.
Distributor Wick Hill rises to occasion
Wick Hill's focus on security and its determination to help resellers increase margins should put the company in an excellent position to pick up a Specialist Distributor of the Year award.
The firm has also set its sights on the SME Distributor prize. Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill, believes success in this area means giving resellers what they need.
"One of the things we're particularly good at is selecting the SME products that the market really needs and bringing them to our resellers" he said.
For every winner or nominated company, the Channel Awards are an opportunity to see all its efforts rewarded.
"We have worked very hard to provide special deals through our 'Get more for less' campaign," said Kilpatrick.
"And we have put maximum effort into delivering more ways for our channel partners to generate product and services revenue, while maintaining the comprehensive value-add programme that we are known for."
Wick Hill is keenly aware of how difficult trading has been for many resellers, Kilpatrick added. The firm has run competitive trade-in schemes and tried to make it easier for resellers to add products to their portfolio.
"Our business with our partners has grown quarter on quarter and we have continued to deliver and improve on the services we know are important to our channel partners," he said.
CRN analysis
Wick Hill may be one of the few distributors achieving quarter-on-quarter growth. If VARs agree it has given exceptional support, it is in with a chance of winning an award.
Reseller Elcom banks on experience
A blue-chip client list, relationships with all of the major vendors and a strong focus on e-commerce give Elcom IT a chance of walking off with this year's Corporate Reseller of the Year title.
The company has been in business in various guises for more than 20 years.
But since a management buy-out in January 2002, it has kept a relatively low profile. The reseller employs 80 people and makes annual sales of about £62m.
Tony Davis, Elcom IT's managing director, said: "We get feeds from 16 major distributors every day and we feed data from our system to our customers so they can make it available to their users."
Few companies can offer the same breadth of services, and no one can offer as much experience in the channel as Elcom's seasoned crusaders, he claimed. More than half of its staff have been with the firm for more than five years, 70 per cent for three years and 13 per cent for more than a decade.
This makes a real difference, Davis claimed. "We have the experience and the continuity. That's why we've been able to hold on to many of our customers for so long," he said.
CRN analysis
Elcom IT is certainly a contender for the Corporate Reseller award, especially if customers support its claims that its online procurement system and experienced staff make a real difference.
Don't miss your chance for a nomination
There are only a few weeks to go before the 4 July deadline for entries to this year's channel awards.
There are eight awards for which a panel of 12 independent judges will select short-lists of six contenders. Readers of CRN and its sister title Computing will be asked to vote for one of these six companies to select the winner.
To enter you simply need to outline - in as little as 250 words - why you think your company deserves to be nominated for a specific award this year.
To find out more and place your entry, go to CRN's website at www.crn.vnunet.com and click on the Awards button. Entries must be in by 4 July 2003.
The eight categories you can enter are:
- Corporate Vendor of the Year
- SME Vendor of the Year
- Specialist Vendor of the Year
- Corporate Distributor of the Year
- SME Distributor of the Year
- Specialist Distributor of the Year
- Corporate Reseller of the Year
- SME Reseller of the Year
All CRN reader votes will be audited by the Audit Bureau of Circulation.