VARs told to utilise education opportunity

Reseller enjoys large increase in turnover as it tells channel to make the most of lucrative sector

Audiovisual (AV) resellers need to utilise value-add opportunities and add focus in the education sector to swell revenues, according to VAR Bullet Point.

The firm has increased turnover by 61 per cent and profit by 226 per cent over the past year, claiming additional support and services to the education whiteboard market are mainly responsible for fuelling business.

Chris Deeley, managing director of Bullet Point, said: “We started seeing schools as a real target for the IT sector and this currently accounts for around 80 per cent of our business.”

Deeley believed that IT resellers moving into AV have raised awareness in the sector, but a high standard of service is still needed to drive business.

“Success in the interactive whiteboard sector is achieved by not merely box-shifting, but offering additional services that can result in extra business,” he said.

“In the next 12 months we want to consolidate our position in the schools sector and look towards local professional services, videoconferencing and possibly further and higher education projects.”

Martin Large, chief executive at distributor partner Steljes, believed that resellers who focus on one technology will continue to succeed.

“Bullet Point is one of a handful of firms that have driven interactive whiteboards into schools.

“In education we are far from putting a board in every school, but government funding should continue for the next three to five years,” he said.

Jon Sidwick, group director at distributor partner Maverick, said: “We have got a strategic relationship with Bullet Point and are heavily involved in the development of its business. We are delighted with its success and are happy to be a part of it.”

Colin Messenger, senior business consultant at Decision Tree Consulting, was unsurprised by Bullet Point’s success in the interactive whiteboard market and believed that the sector will maintain its current steady growth.

He noted that interactive whiteboard sales in 2001 were 11,000 in the UK, with 2005 expected to tip 90,000.

“Resellers have been very successful in this market and it is a segment that has grown well over the last three to five years,” he said.

“Services are crucial with the whiteboard market as you need the board, the projector, the insulation, the training and the software. Bullet Point has been good at supplying all of these,” Messenger added.