Strong SME sales help Ramsac smash targets
Service strategy sees reseller go from strength to strength, and become a majority-Dell VAR
Reseller Ramsac has beaten its consultancy and services target by 170 per cent and its product sales target by 131 per cent for the month of October.
For the fist six months of they year, the VAR is 135 per cent of its target for services and 122 per cent of its target for products. Robert May, managing director of the firm, put the growth down to the SME market.
“We have had more sales in SMEs than ever before. Traditionally we’ve reported most business activity in our last quarter so this profitable business frenzy by end of quarter two is excellent news,” he said.
The reseller changed its strategy several years ago to begin working with Dell and offer more consultancy and services around the hardware.
“Although Dell doesn’t have a formal reseller scheme it has now accepted that it has got partners, and it sends account managers to us to give us demos and explanations on its new technology releases. It usually give us a visit about every quarter,” May said.
“PC- and server-wise, we are now about 90 per cent Dell. This allows us to wrap our own services around the hardware. Dell prices are Dell prices, you can see them on the web site. But with the other vendors it is always about the distributors fighting it out on offering the lowest prices and then what kind of discount they will give each reseller. Price becomes an issue. With Dell, you can’t lose a deal because you went in too expensive, with some other vendors you can.”
However, May said, he doesn’t attribute the firm’s growth figures to working with Dell. “Working with Dell has made it easier for our process side, in terms of pricing and orders, but we have been a Dell reseller for years so these latest figures are due to the market picking up and our change to become more services orientated and more of an outsourced IT department for SMEs,” he said.
Greg Carlow, managing director of reseller Repton, said he has always been wary of working with Dell. “Traditionally, there appeared to be no respect from Dell over who owns the customer. We have worked with Dell in the past with some storage contracts, but it is very rare,” he said.
Carlow said Repton also started the year well, although there has been the seasonal summer drop-off. “The run rate contracts are doing fine, even edging up a little. But the large contracts are still being delayed,” he said.