technologyreseller.co.uk 13 TR: What are the needs of your customers and how do you address them? JC: If you’ve got a European distribution business, what you want is a onesize-fits-all model. But that won’t work in cloud communications right now because the countries we serve – the UK, France, Germany and Benelux – are at different stages of cloud communications adoption. In the UK and the Netherlands between 58% and 60% of end users have already moved their communications from an on prem to an off prem scenario. In France and in Germany, the penetration rate is about 20 to 22%, so the go-to-market in those markets will be different. How we address our resellers’ needs is by giving them the tools and services and vendors to help them move their customers from an on prem to an off prem scenario. Places like the UK, the Netherlands and Benelux, and the Nordics, have entered a second phase in which people are moving from one cloud platform for communications to another, so our role there is slightly different to what it would be in France and in Germany. www.konekt.tech ago, way before my time. We looked at it. We liked it. We thought it fitted really well with the rebranding and what we wanted to do; we can play with the word Konekt quite a lot in our branding and messaging; and it sums up what we want to do with our partner community and with our vendor community. TR: What does the sale of your hardware division say about distribution today, because there’s always a conflict between people wanting specialists and people wanting fewer suppliers to deal with? JC: Let’s be clear, everyone has talked about the death of distribution for the last 25 to 30 years, and it hasn’t happened, and it won’t happen because distribution continues to evolve to meet the needs of vendors and resellers. As long as distribution continues to evolve, it won’t die. But if you stand still and don’t meet the needs of your vendors and your customers, of course you’re at risk of dying. With Konekt, I really believe that we are evolving to meet those needs and are in a fantastic place to continue those growth rates I spoke about previously. When it comes to the separation of the hardware business, what we’ve done is give it to a company that’s a specialist in that area, so they can take the business and help it thrive. in terms of its transactional model. So, if we take that AI, automation, digitalisation approach, and then wrap around our magic sauce, which is our technical capability, we’ve got something that’s really fantastic for the industry. Re: your Nisha AI question, that is absolutely part of what we are doing inside Konekt, because we still absolutely need that capability. TR: What are your priorities for the new business. Are you going to go after new vendors? And are there any particular areas you’re looking at? JC: The three priorities that I’ve set in the business are to selectively expand our vendor landscape – we are deep in conversations with a number of new vendors already and that will continue as we expand our ecosystem around cloud communication; to launch new services to extend the capacity and the capability of the channel – so we’ll start to build out more services around AI-related subjects for cloud communications, which is really exciting; and to replace our systems with new one ones – our ambition is to have the first version in place at some point in April next year. TR: Where does the name Konekt come from? JC: Konekt was a name that was used for a project in the business a very long time INTERVIEW DCC Technology rebrands as Nexora Konekt is not the only new name in distribution. At the start of this month, DCC Technology rebranded as Nexora to unite 2,500 employees in 27 specialist distribution businesses across Europe and North America with a shared purpose and identity. The name, a compound of Nex (next) and Ora (energy), was chosen by Nexora’s own employees for its evocation of progress and momentum. The rebranding of DCC Technology follows the sale of Exertis UK’s IT businesses to private equity investor AURELIUS and its exit from lower-margin IT activities in France, Spain and the Netherlands. Nexora’s remaining businesses include specialists in professional AV, enterprise infrastructure and lifestyle-enhancing consumer technologies, notably Hammer (previously Exertis Enterprise) in the UK and Europe; Comm-Tec in DACH, Italy and Iberia; Azenn and Connect in France; Captech in the Nordics; and Almo and JAM in North America. Together, they deliver $3.6 billion in annual revenue. Commenting on the new name, Nexora CEO Clive Fitzharris said: “This is an exciting milestone for our business. Nexora reflects who we are today and where we are going, a community of specialist businesses built on deep expertise and strong partnerships. It is an identity and direction which captures our energy, our ambition and our belief in the power of technology to enrich lives.” www.nexora.com
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