Actualités

Tech Data changes its European organisation
2012-02-06
Tech Data Europe has unveiled changes to its European organisation which will enable it to optimise its efficiency whilst enhancing the support for its country operations. As a result of its acquisition strategy in Europe and the diversification of its distribution business, a new European Executive Board (EEB) has been formed to represent the company's technology areas and country and business operations. The EEB will drive the strategic direction of the company's European operations and ensure it takes advantage of the growth opportunities that exist in both its traditional IT business, its specialist divisions and its services. In addition, to provide greater focus and consistency in execution, the European country operations have been divided between two Regional Senior Vice Presidents. One will be led by Andy Gass who will be responsible for the following country operations: Belgium & Luxembourg, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The other will be led by Jonas Elmgren who will have responsibility for Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. Both Regional Senior Vice Presidents will report into Néstor Cano, President, Europe. "The formation of an EEB and two regional operations will enable the company to be even more efficient and agile in its decision making at a strategic level, while allowing us to benefit from the strength and experience of country managers in their own markets," said Néstor Cano, President, Europe. "These changes are consistent with our major business goals and provide our country operations with the opportunity to take full advantage of the technology areas in which we operate, utilising our existing pan-European infrastructure and resources, whilst they focus on excellence in execution in sales and marketing to develop and grow our business."

The EEB members are:

• Néstor Cano, President, Europe
• Alain Amsellem, Senior Vice President, Finance & Business Operations
• Andy Gass, Regional Senior Vice President
• Henk Makaske, Senior Vice President, Triade (Consumer Electronics)
• Jonas Elmgren, Regional Senior Vice President
• Nimesh Davé, Senior Vice President Broadline & Processes
• Rod Millar, President Brightstar Tech Data (Mobility)
• Simon England, Senior Vice President, Value Added Business, responsible for Azlan (Enterprise), Datech (Design Software) and Maverick (Professional Audio Visual)
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Tech Data leaves Brasil
2011-12-19
Broadliner Tech Data has decided to close its Brasilian subsidiary. The closure is due to Brazil’s complex tax, legal and regulatory environments, which make it difficult for the distributor to generate a sufficient return on invested capital. The American broadliner will continue to do business with Brazilian resellers, but will handle those transactions as export business, through its Miami-based facilities. The closure will cost Tech Data between €15m and €18m in fourth quarter operating income, between €5.5m and €7m in foreign currency exchange losses and between €5.5m and €7m in taxes, after tax-deferred assets in Brazil are written off. Those numbers could push the company’s combined net losses on the closure up to €32m for the quarter.

Tech Data sues LCD panel makers over price-fixing
2011-11-28
Broadliner Tech Data is suing several LCD panel makers, alleging that they formed an international cartel to fix prices over at least a decade. The distributor claims from the start of 1996 to the end of 2006 the manufacturers conspired to "fix, raise, stabilise and maintain prices" in a lawsuit filed with the federal court in Tampa, Florida. The filing claims the panel makers (including Samsung Electronics, LG Display, Sanyo and Sharp) met and communicated to "agree to eliminate competition and fix the prices of LCD panels and LCD products" that were to be sold in the US. The conspiracy extended to the manufacturers own corporate subsidiaries and affiliates, as well as co-conspirators to "prevent price discrepancies" among the cartel members. This stymied normal downward pressures on price during periods of oversupply or technological change leading to "unusually long periods of high prices and profits", Tech Data stated in the filing. "As a result of the conspirators' unlawful conduct, plaintiffs paid higher prices for LCD products than they would have paid in a competitive market," it added. Tech Data said that during the decade it "suffered damages" due to the conspiracy and is seeking to "recover the overcharges paid". Presumably the distributor will not be passing on any proceeds – should it win the case – to reseller customers that bought TVs, desktop monitors, notebooks or mobile wireless handsets containing the LCD makers' panels during the cartel's activities (source : Channel Register).

Tech Data launches its TDCloud initiative in Europe
2011-11-22
Broadliner Tech Data has launched TDCloud, a comprehensive channel programme that will provide resellers with access to a broad range of cloud-enabling solutions and services from its vendors. It will also offer extensive educational, enablement and activation resources that will help resellers develop cloud-based value propositions and accelerate profitable new business. This European launch follows a recent, successful launch in the US. Tech Data Europe has been collaborating with Cisco, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Symantec and VMware to develop a channel programme that takes full advantage of its market reach and the focused value-added capabilities of its Azlan enterprise division. The products, services and resources being made available from key vendors through the TDCloud initiative will enable resellers to add cloud solutions to their existing portfolios or develop and offer their own private and public cloud services propositions. The programme is organised into three distinct streams, designed to meet the needs of the main approaches that resellers and service providers are taking to the cloud.

• Cloud Reseller leverages existing public cloud infrastructures and resources to enable VARs to sell cloud solutions without the need of costly infrastructure integration. Typical products that Cloud Resellers will most often take to market will be Microsoft Office 365 and similar offerings, backup and disaster recovery services.
• Cloud Builder helps VARs build private clouds for their end-user customers, either on- or off-premise. Typical products required by the Cloud Builders are servers, storage, networks, security, and virtualisation solutions.
• Cloud Provider leverages Tech Datas online Stream One and integrated XaaS portfolios to put resellers at the heart of the services supply chain including utility-style billing. Cloud Providers will use a range of SaaS, Microsoft SPLA, VMware VSPP, security and utility services.

Tech Data is setting up a special Cloud Basics Portal and will be running a series of Discovery Boot Camps, cloud workshops and other educational events for resellers in the first stage of the programme. Dedicated business managers will manage participating reseller and vendor engagement followed by targeted business development activities, investment in localised expertise and technical Centres of Excellence. Further developments will see additional vendor products and services added to the Cloud Reseller, Builder and Provider portfolios.

The effective launch will be scaled over the next months over the different countries where Tech Data and TD Azlan are present in Europe.

Distributors lose industry share in 2011
2011-08-31
According to the last Canalys report, the growth of the distributors does not match those of the rest of the industry. The Canalys IT Industry major vendor (Apple, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Google, HP, IBM, Intel, Lexmark, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP) grew revenue 18% worldwide on average in the first quarter of 2011. In comparison, the big four distributors (Arrow ECS, Avnet TS, Ingram Micro and Tech Data) managed 11%, with many smaller distributors faring worse than this. Distributors have blamed recent disappointing results on excess inventory, poor retail demand, sluggish sell-out and weakening economies. They have comforted themselves by making peer group comparisons where sales-out data shows "we are performing as well as the others, so please blame the market for our results, not us!" And while these reasons are valid justifications, Canalys argues that distributors need to see the bigger picture and realize that for the first time in a decade industry trends are conspiring against them.

According to the report, distribution thrived for the last 10 years thanks to rapid notebook and netbook adoption and the virtualization of the server room, with two-tier distribution at the heart of the routes-to-market for both B2B and B2C vendors. But the growth drivers of the industry have now changed. Mobility is still booming, but now on the back of smaller devices, notably smart phones and pads, which are more and more sold either directly or through service providers. The server and storage markets are healthy, driven by data center activity and cloud applications. On top of these industry changes, the world economic growth is mainly coming from economies beyond Western Europe and the US, where the top 4 distributors are at best weak, at worse absent (MEA, Russia, Japan, etc.) : in these countries, local distributors will outgrow them, with already some local giants like Merlion in Russia for example. All of these factors combined are set to cause headaches for distributor executives for at least the next two years. The report concludes with a list of recommandations for the distributors to follow, if they wish their growth to match the industry, one of which is to go East as soon as possible…