OCSL rebrands to push away from being 'just an HP VAR'

VAR wants to be independent from vendors as it branches more into services

OCSL has rebranded its messaging, visual marketing and positioning in a bid to be seen as more of a service provider and less of an HP reseller.

The VAR's CMO, Jane Ayres, said the rebrand was about repositioning the company and sharing its new perspective with its customers.

"We have done a complete rebrand of everything: messaging, visual and positioning-wise for the business," she said. "It's starting from the ground up, looking at ourselves in the context of the market and where we want to be as a business. It is really about how we share our fresh perspective with the world. We were trying to reposition ourselves. It's about looking at how we can bring a measurable difference to our customers."

Martin Hess (pictured), OCSL's chairman, added that in the past the VAR has been seen primarily as an HP partner, but now that almost half of its business is through services, the company wants to be more independent from its vendors.

"If you look back at the history of OCSL, it became the company that it is on the back of a very close relationship with HP. OCSL's point of view was very much shaped by HP's point of view. Now we have our own point of view and we are charting a course to be independent from any vendor. Obviously HP will continue to be an important partner for us, but it is not going to shape everything we do. We think we are now big enough, and have a clear enough understanding of where we are going that we can chart our own course into the future," he said.

"We have made a lot of investment in our services capabilities. We have developed an applications and project management business, and we are advising customers in a consultant role. Just under half our revenues are services now. Not long ago, if you asked people in the industry who OCSL were, the HP channel would have said ‘you are an HP VAR' and those outside the HP world probably wouldn't have had a strong opinion about what OCSL does. So I do think there was work to be done there."

Hess said the company has had double-digit growth this year but remained tight-lipped on the details. He added that in the next two years the goal is to reach £200m in revenues, and he believes the rebrand is key to achieving that goal.

"We don't want to stay the size we are. We want to be double the size we are, and to get there we have to chart our own course. We won't get there if we are just an HP VAR, although in terms of partnerships HP is still very important to us," he added.

"The rebrand gives us a good reason to re-engage with customers and get them to understand what is different about OCSL. We think that the rebrand is going to be one of the main things that allows us to double our business in the next three years. I think it is getting us into a lot of conversations, and it has generated us a lot of interest."