'It's going to be like having a big brother' - Exclusive and Ignition execs on future of emerging tech business

Andy Travers and Sean Remnant on keeping Ignition separate from Exclusive and why emerging vendors will always be important in distribution

Exclusive plans to keep Ignition separate business as it draws up plans to scale the emerging tech distributor across its international footprint.

The French distributor acquired Farnborough-based Ignition Technology earlier this week in a move to grow its emerging tech business.

Speaking to CRN, worldwide sales and marketing boss at Exclusive, Andy Travers, said Ignition will become the new and emerging tech brand of Exclusive.

Ignition will retain its management team and branding post-acquisition, he added, claiming that it's important to keep Ignition as a separate and autonomous business.

Travers said that there are plans to scale the Ignition business across Exclusive's 40 countries globally, and expects to make headcount investments to bolster Ignition's geographic reach.

"We won't expand out Ignition straight away to those 40 countries, but it gives them a very clear and accelerated path into new geographies," he said.

"The plan isn't completed yet in terms of where we go first but it will definitely involve new personnel."

Travers said that it isn't "totally decided" whether some of its own emerging vendors would be transferred over to Ignition, claiming that it was ultimately "down to the wishes of the vendor".

The Exclusive exec added that there was "a very obvious match" between Ignition's vendors and Exclusive's X-OD platform but said there were "still discussions to be had" about how Ignition will leverage the as-a-service platform.

Ignition's chief strategy officer, Sean Remnant, added that Exclusive will act as a "big brother" and enable it to take its offering global.

He said this acquisition will be "very different" to what usually happens when a large distributor acquires a smaller peer.

"I've been in I've been distribution for 25 years plus and this process is normally cyclical; you get a small distie, it's acquired by a big one and then the small one disappears. And then it's cyclical. This is very different," he said.

"So I can imagine a lot of people saying ‘what's going to happen to Ignition?'. The benefit this time is actually we get to grow, we've got the big brother to back us up and we get to go global - and that's huge."

Remnant said that emerging vendors looking to crack the European market would usually either go to Ignition or Exclusive. The acquisition will mean that Ignition will be able to pass on vendors to Exclusive as they build success and maturity.

He said this removes the inherent risks of being an emerging tech distributor in eventually losing the business to a larger competitor.

"What we can do for the vendor is actually offer them a journey. We can take them on, give the white glove approach, and then pass them on to Exclusive when they need that next phase of development. We get to do what we love every day still, so yeah, we're excited."

Travers said that Exclusive has always had a strong heritage in nurturing new tech and has never shifted its focus away from its emerging vendor business.

He added that investing in emerging cybersecurity vendors will be a key differentiator for Exclusive amid competition from other global players.

"I think offering that service to reduce complexity in what is a very highly fragmented market from both a vendor and a partner base is really key to us as a differentiator," he said.

"To double down on it, and to be able to provide that service globally, I think really stands us apart from the competition. And I think it's going to make us attractive from an emerging vendor point of view as well."