UK channel M&A activity brings 'bad luck' for DataCore
Storage vendor admits recent acquisitions have made its channel reach smaller, but vows never to go direct
Storage vendor DataCore has admitted that it is rethinking its business model in the UK, after experiencing what it describes as a run of "bad luck" due to channel M&A activity.
Speaking at the SNW Powering the Cloud conference in Frankfurt, the vendor conceded that it has not experienced the same success in the UK as it has across other EMEA regions due to continued consolidation among its reseller and distributor partners, leaving it with a smaller channel.
DataCore recently worked with distributors Arrow ECS, Avnet and Magirus until the latter's recent acquisition, which prompted DataCore to serve Magirus its notice in light of its integration with Avnet. During the distribution reshuffle, DataCore ditched Arrow ECS, with which it said it worked "by default", ahead of signing up storage distributor Hammer last week.
On top of the tumultuous distribution landscape, the vendor claimed its reseller base has shrunk at a rapid rate, leaving it with about 200 active UK partners and a narrower market reach. It cited Centia's 2007 takeover by Arrow as another bout of bad luck.
But the vendor has pledged that it has no plans to take any of its UK business direct to subsidise the channel.
Christian Hagen, vice president of EMEA channel and sales operations, said: "We are no way going to sell direct in the future so long as I am responsible. I am not afraid of new [ideas], but we currently do not want to... jeopardise the [channel] business."
Hagen added that by working with more focused companies, he thinks further market reach can be gained.
"Resellers [in the UK] get bought out by another systems house and [that] contributes to the fact that in some areas, we are not as developed as we would like to be," he said.
"We are addressing this by re-analysing the market and focusing on distributors where we see real benefit. Hammer, from my point of view, is smaller and focused and has direct access to all the kind of people we need rather than being handed around organisations [within bigger distributors]."