Exclusive Networks UK boss on Brexit, how emerging vendors coped during Covid and starting strong in 2021

Graham Jones opens up to CRN about how Brexit has impacted business, why vendors are focusing on public sector firms and helping VARs move to cloud

Exclusive Networks has seen a bounce back in its figures since the Brexit deal was signed, according to its UK boss Graham Jones.

But Jones said the distributor is still taking the year "quarter by quarter", adding that 2021 so far has been strong for the firm and its partners.

"One of the hardest things last year was to bring new technology in because, when people can't meet, introducing new tech is an incredibly hard thing to do. But our new vendors have all got funnels and projects now," he told CRN.

"There's been a definite bounce in business - not a bubble. January was strong, February was strong across the board and March has been good. We have every confidence that it should last; but we're not arrogant about it and nor are the vendors."

These results are in stark contrast to the latter months of 2020, which Jones said was hit by the "double whammies" of the Covid crisis and an impending Brexit, which resulted in a lack of large deals for smaller vendors.

"We had a very soft close to the year with the smaller vendors because usually they have their prize one or two deals and there was definitely delays with hesitation over Brexit right up to two weeks before the end of the year," he said.

"December for us was lacking in the large deals, but we made up for it with the midsize deals. Then we had a cracking January because, once Brexit was cleared, we worked out how we were going to do things and saw the big deals come back. So January was a record for us, driven by those big deals."

One fallout of Brexit is that vendors are now focusing more on public sector deals as private sector organisations move away from the UK in favour of other European locations, Jones added.

"There's definitely a big push from vendors for public sector, UK-centric businesses," he said.

"The negative side of Brexit is that we're obviously now a net exporter to Europe and we have to move a lot of operations through to Dublin and we use that location to ship a lot of stuff into Europe.

"I wouldn't say there's been a mad rush away from the UK for private sector companies, but certainly I think we'll see during this year some of the bigger organisations, like the financials, move out. I think we'll see the larger infrastructure deals in those specific verticals move out to Europe - definitely."

The major challenges facing the cybersecurity distie is its positioning in the cloud market and seizing the opportunities presented by accelerated digital transformation, Jones said.

"We're moving away from the VAD stuff and the challenge now is how we can help the channel get into that cloud and make a profit out the cloud," he stated.

"It's that move to the digital world and what the role of a distributor looks like in that. What we're trying to do now this year is give VARs far more support in the move to that digital world.

"Pre-COVID, it was happening at a nice pace and now it's suddenly accelerated and I think a lot of the VARs are behind the curve. So we're now working on how we empower MSPs and MSSPs and help VARs on that cloud trail, where they can actually still make money and still be in control of the sale."