In the current IT sector, there are now signs of a shift with distributors moving the goalposts in terms of what they offer into professional and cloud services.  In the UK this has seen some distribution companies such as Westcoast investing in its own datacentre whilst Exclusive Networks Group recently acquired IT services provider ITEC Intelligent Services.  But what does this shift of responsibilities mean for a reseller like Inspired?

According to Global Technology Distribution Council, this new trend is both desirable and essential for the resellers.  But with distributors moving into the resellers backyard, resellers may feel they will lose the relationship with their customers.

But this is not necessarily all doom and gloom.  If a distributor brings out a new service then there is no reason why we as a reseller cannot embrace it.  At Inspired, we don’t see this shift as encroaching on our business but as another opportunity to build on our existing relationships by expanding our services and in-house capabilities.

With resellers, vendors, distributors and service providers all going after the same thing – a comprehensive solution that incorporates products, services and consultancy – it has potential to create a tough IT battlefield.  Running a services business requires a different mentality than running a logistics business, so there is no reason a distributor will do it better.

Ultimately the threat posed by a distributor is no greater than a threat posed by a vendor.  Resellers will always need to be agile in adapting to business conditions and cannot rely on others not competing with their services.   In today’s competitive business world it is, after all, the relationships that count and for a company like Inspired we understand that it is more important than ever to build and maintain customer relationships to ensure a seamless service.