Sharp wants VARs to get into new verticals
Vendor divides commercial AV division into four to help further market reach
Following the launch of its commercial audiovisual (AV) division earlier this year (CRN 5 June), Sharp Electronics has appointed four dedicated channel managers and is looking for additional resellers to help it break into new verticals.
Andy Watts, national account manager at Sharp, and one of the new channel managers, told CRN: “We decided to divvy the commercial AV division up between four channel managers. I look after digital signage, hotels and betting; Derek Poole covers the leisure market, such as pubs and clubs, as well as medical and CCTV; Ioan Williams covers the traditional AV/IT/corporate channel; and Joanna McGeary looks after our distribution partners.
“We are looking for more resellers, particularly in the newer verticals that we are starting to target, such as CCTV, medical and CAD graphics. Our distributors look after the AV and IT resellers, but where a reseller has expertise in a particular vertical we would look to work directly with it.”
Last month, Sharp launched the world’s largest commercial LCD screen, the 65in PN-655E.
“The launch of our 65in commercial LCD caused a bit of a stir,” Watts added. “We have seen big interest from the digital signage market because you can produce a six-page poster on it.”
Chris Frampton, sales and marketing director at digital signage software vendor Dynamax, said: “We are currently showing Sharp’s new 65in LCD to our clients. We have got a very good relationship with the vendor. We have worked with it for two years and have done a lot of retail and railway station projects with Sharp. We bundle our software with its screens and then sell them as a package to our resellers. It is great now that it has got a dedicated AV division.”
>> Further reading: