Новости

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Wortmann turns 25
2011-10-19
For its jubilee, German PC assembler and broadliner Wortmann (which also owns subsidiaries in Austria, Benelux, France and Switzerland and works with channel partners in several other countries, among which Ukraine and the UAE) has recently invited more than 5000 partners in its Hüllhorst 18000sqm premises of Hüllhorst, about 100km West of Hanover, in Northern Germany. 2500 of them stayed in the evening for a "small" Oktoberfest. These figures would, by themselves, blow the mind of many channel event organisers in Europe!

Today, export accounts for about 15% of Wortmann's business, that is about €60m out of which its French subsidiary made €18m and distributed no less than 20% of its desktops. Compared to other PC assemblers and, or course, any A-brand vendor, Wortmann offers a real BTO service, down to any sparepart which it can supply for any set time to its dealers if necessary : almost no other PC assembler is able to carry this level of service.

Its distribution business, which weights for about 50% of its global business, is mainly centered on Germany, and only covers 20% of its export activities. But why would a PC assembler be also a distributor, all the more as margins are lower in this business ? For Wortmann, distribution is an historical activity. “Today, it allow us to regulate our stocks and to act as a one-stop shop for the complete solutions our resellers need. And, as we have huge stocks for our own PCs, resellers can be assured of product availability and fast delivery”, says Robin Wittland, member of the supervisory board of the company. Its latest partnership shows that vendors like this strategy : after being OEM distributor for 17 years, System Builder distributor for 6 years and Office Full Package distributor since last year, Wortmann has further strengthened its partnership with Microsoft by becoming Open Distribution Partner. This partnership, which is usually limited to the main distributors, is valid in whole Europe and will allow Wortmann to distribute pre-installed licences to major accounts. Another step to help Wortmann grow its distribution business out of Germany!

Beside its PCs, notebooks and servers, Wortmann also makes and distributes more unusual products. ITdistri has thus discovered a business of rugged, embedded PCs for the army, or medical systems for the healthcare market. These two lines of products are mainly sold directly, as these markets are considered as atypical by Wortmann. The vendor also has an activity of OEM builder for small appliance vendors. It already works with Reddox, SecurePoint, Ucopia or Synerway, for which it builds up their security or storage appliances. Compared to Chinese OEMs, Wortmann is able to work on small quantities, with a better reactivity and lower freight costs. For SecurePoint, it even goes farther as it also has taken in charge the sale of the systems, while the vendor focuses on technical development and after-sale support. There again, these specific products are a part of the one-stop shopping strategy of Wortmann, which has dedicated technical and sales engineers.

Following: photo coverage of Wortmann Jubilee

One of the first Wortmann PCs ever built

Military embedded PCs : another discreet activity of Wortmann

With 5000 people during the day and more than 50 vendors (from Asus to Samsung, through AMD, Microsoft or Oki), Wortmann's Jubilee may drive many channel event organisers mad

OEM-built UTM are another discreet but profitable businesses of Wortmann

Because it also uses its stocks for its PC assembly business, Wortmann's resellers can be assured of an optimal availability for any product

Among its services, Wortmann can pre-load any software configuration on the PCs it distributes

With “only” 2500 people, Wortmann's Oktoberfest was a very good demonstration of the German efficiency in logistics

Like mother, like daughter

Given the action, one can guess that foreign resellers adopted quite rapidly the German customs

Highlight of the show, the German comic Mike Krüger made the public weep with laughter, except for a few non-German speaking people

Contrary to popular belief, the evening was far from over at the time this photo was taken

Beer was quickly able to overcome the language barrier!

More Microsoft for Wortmann
2011-09-08
PC assembler and distributor Wortmann has been granted by Microsoft distribution rights for its volume licences and full package products in whole Europe. Resellers will thus be able to get these products through Wortmann offices in Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Ukraine.