Ambitious Nimans rings the changes

The distributor's sales director James Perkins talks to ChannelWeb about a year of upheaval

James Perkins: Networking is our best-kept secret. You will see us as a much bigger presence in that space

Acquisitions, senior management changes, new and expanded vendor partnerships – the last year has been one of great change for Nimans.

In March last year, the distributor bought rival Rocom and this summer all the company’s distribution operations were brought under the Nimans banner. In July, Nimans became the first Avaya distributor to announce it had been handed access to the vendor’s new data portfolio, following last year’s acquisition of Nortel.

Last month, annual accounts revealed Nimans had broken the £50m sales barrier in 2009. Chief executive Paula Gillings recently departed the distributor, while new arrivals include Richard Carter as business development director, Mark Curtis-Wood as head of networks and James Perkins as sales director.

ChannelWeb caught up with Perkins to discuss the changes of the past 18 months and what the future holds for Nimans.

ChannelWeb: How big a challenge was the integration of Rocom? Is the process complete now?
James Perkins: With any merger, especially the two biggest players in the market, there are people, logistics and stock challenges, but we have now come through all those processes. There has been no negative impact to customer experience.

CW: Has the merger had any impact on resellers’ credit lines?
JP: Credit limits were kept. We worked to maintain them and enable resellers to do business with us to the best of their ability. There has been the odd one who did not like to deal with Rocom or Nimans, but they have been few and far between.

CW: Where does the move towards services and different sales models leave distributors?
JP: In terms of how resellers move over from product revenue to monthly billing revenues, it is not about the technology, it is about the business processes, such as commission. It is a positive thing and it should make it easier for cashflow management, but when your world has been designed around [upfront] revenue and selling units for a number of years, it takes time to change. We see internally, as well as externally, that there are a lot of upfront investment costs. But your revenue is more stable over a three- to five-year period.

CW: Will the move towards services benefit smaller distributors? How
can UK players compete against the increased aggression of the US
broadliners?
JP: I could see people with much smaller warehouses playing a much bigger role. You do not need the massive costs of warehousing broadliners. They have a machine they have to feed with volume. They are having to buy so-called value distributors to do what they have tried to do organically.

CW: Has the Avaya distribution channel become increasingly competitive? How can Nimans compete against its rivals?
JP: There has been an exercise in adding more distributors and putting them under pressure to deliver numbers. They have had a number of back-end processes to sort out that have made the distribution channel painful, but we are through those and are very much looking forward. We want to take market share from our competitors.

CW: To what extent have voice and data resale channels converged? Is Nimans pushing VARs towards convergence?
JP: At the low end, about one-third of the voice base still work on minutes,
connections, services and maintenance business. About a third are already selling networking, though maybe not at the high end. The other third has a watching brief. Some of them have the capability to do it themselves, some of them share or outsource it to other channel businesses. That will continue to happen.

CW: What are Nimans’ key objectives for the coming months and years?
JP: Networking is our best-kept secret. It is a good proportion of our profit. You will see Nimans as a much bigger presence in that space. We are going to be providing solutions to traditional voice and data dealers. Our retail division, which supplies high-street retailers, independents and e-tailers, has also come into its own. We are looking to expand our range of care products too, and will be looking to add new suppliers. There is certainly a growth strategy over the next three years.