Fujitsu: We need to be more focused with distribution
New UK sales director, Kevin Matthews, says Fujitsu may been to evaluate its UK distribution strategy
Fujitsu's newly installed UK sales director Kevin Matthews (pictured) has said the vendor needs to be "more focused" with its distribution strategy.
Matthews said with its five UK distributors - Ingram Micro, Tech Data, Exertis, Arrow and Entatech - the vendor may need to evaluate this line-up.
"It's too early for me to say whether it's five, three or two, I don't know," he said. "But what I do know is we need to be more focused with them. We can't just have five distributors providing stock and credit. We have to focus them in a certain part of the market where they can add value.
"Out of that five we have quite different profiles of distributors; Arrow is quite different to the others, and Exertis is quite different to Arrow. So it's too early to say whether we will consolidate or not."
Looking at the distribution industry as a whole, he said it is suffering from market changes, with "ever-reducing margins".
"If you look at the distribution landscape, there is a lot of change that affects them," he said. "Whether it's cloud delivery. If they are SMB focused, what impact is cloud having on that? Some are trying to develop their own cloud strategies. And I think it's quite a tough time for distribution.
"Some [distributors] are changing what they are doing, actually all of them recognise the need to change. I think some are on different elements of that change. They are just having to adapt to the market, so I have to exploit that and tell them where I think I can spot an opportunity to service that."
Earlier this month, Matthews told CRN that Fujitsu is going to benefit from consolidation and movement of other vendors, by offering partners a "more personal approach".
And he said the vendor is now looking to gain market share through the channel.
"We are bringing in new partners on and reinvigorating existing partners," he said. "We are stable and we are going to focus in certain areas and execute better. The channel programme is there and we need to get on and do the basics and out execute the competition."