How this VAD used online quizzes to win business

DataSolutions’ Michael O’Hara reveals the tactics it has used to win new partners through lockdown

Irish VAD DataSolutions has used lockdown trends to its advantage, winning business through its regular online quizzes, according to its MD Michael O'Hara.

O'Hara lamented the loss of in-person meetings customers at the onset of lockdown, but since then the distie has developed its Service Powering Success initiative, which included webinars with F1 bosses and investment advisors and its weekly quiz, which attracted over 200 regular participants over the 10-week period and brought in new business.

"Webinar fatigue was setting in so we tried to make ours that little bit more interesting and appeal to our partners," he explained to CRN.

"The [10 at 10 quiz] was a fantastic way of keeping connected and relevant. We had 108 different partners take part. Out of that, we had about 29 new partners that we had targeted in our database that we weren't transacting with or in conversation with that actually took part in the quiz and that we have now connected with and transacted with since."

Dublin-based DataSolutions - which counts HPE, Citrix and Check Point among its vendor partners - took its first steps into the UK datacentre market in 2016, a move which has caused its revenue to soar. O'Hara remains optimistic about continued growth, particularly in its security portfolio.

"Obviously we're kind of a bellwether for the channel, being a distributor, but business has been good and I would say probably reflects a lot of what our partners are experiencing," he stated.

"We're seeing strong growth, particularly in our security division. The last time we spoke I used the word "fledgeling" and we're starting to see that now gain traction - it's been growing exponentially.

"We did a lot of the security legwork last year in winning partners and we're starting to see the benefits of that this year."

O'Hara fingered the mass pivot to remote working earlier this year as a boon for the security market and anticipates that the demand to tighten security will have a similar effect next year.

"Working from home is here to stay and we need to make sure it's resilient, that's what we're starting to see in the market," he said.

"I think it'd be a very good year for security across the board as a result and going into next year there'll be pent up demand for those spends that haven't happened yet and I'd be quite hopeful that next year would be a good year again."