EXCLUSIVE: Achieva inks distie deal with EnGenius
National distributor of mother and video boards, memory modules and components, Achieva, has inked a deal to distribute the products of wireless solutions vendor, EnGenius Network, in Australia.
Achieva country manager, Vincent Wu, said the products of EnGenius Network complement other brands it stocks – such as ACTi, Promise, QNAP, and WD – to offer total solutions opportunities for customers.
“These companies offer products that can be combined with EnGenius offerings to create custom package solutions,” he said.
The companies will target the hospitality, retail, shopping centre space, education, government departments, and warehousing verticals with the product line.
The distie has also collaborated with the company to launch a two tiered (platinum and titanium) incentive program dedicated only to EnGenius Network. Named EnPartner, the program offers technical updates, training, workshops, sponsored incentive trips, discounts of up to 50 per cent on newly launched products, and quarterly rebates amongst other things.
In addition, under the EnPartner program, participating resellers will be listed as an official supplier on the EnGenius website.
The criteria of the program are: resellers have to be partners of Achieva and they will have to commit to quarterly targets and training depending on the tier they are in.
“Since the vendor is new to Australia, it’s important that we make sure our channel partners are given the tools they need to better inform their customers on the advantages of our products. The EnPartner program is the first step in this, providing the knowledge they need while also rewarding their efforts,” Wu said.
In addition, the distributor has altered its business strategy. According to Wu, it will be focusing on the networking, security, storage and surveillance business portfolios and will continue to be partnering with vendors in these specific technologies.
“The market size for PC is shrinking, so it doesn’t make sense for us to continue bringing in mother and video boards of different brands. Hence, we made some changes to diversify – we started on this three years ago and we’re still evolving to suit market needs and mainly investing in these areas,” he said.
Wu said teaming up with these new vendors will enable it to also evolve from just selling boxes.
“The landscape is changing in the channel. Many businesses are moving away from box moving. We have to diversify and better understand what our customers need not want. We cannot ignore the changing channel.
“But we won’t be neglecting our core business too, that’s our bread and butter,” he said.
Achieva senior product manager, David Poke, said to support the company’s growth and expanding product line, it has recently hired three people within its business solution unit.
“We’ve got a bigger team – two of them are based in Sydney and one in Brisbane. They look after business development. We’re still a baby in this segment but we’re making progress and to support that, we will definitely further grow the team.”
Poke said the company is also working on similar partner programs with its existing vendors and also has a handful of vendor partnerships in the works. The channel can expect upcoming partnerships between Achieva and a player within the firewall software space as well as another with a back-up vendor.
“We’re in discussion with a few different vendors, most of which don’t have a local presence in Australia. We already have a number of hardware partners so for a while, we’ll be working on new deals in the software space,” he said.
