InTechnology CEO on how disties can stay ahead of the curve

Mark Winter speaks to CRN Australia exclusively on what he’s learned from the past 25 years of business.

To be ahead of the curve in IT distribution, leaders need to have their ears to the ground to understand where the market is going, where the next “big thing” is coming from.

Gold Coast based distributor InTechnology recently celebrated 25 years of business, CRN Australia sat down with its CEO and founder Mark Winter to understand the current trends for distributors and where he sees distribution going.

Operating across Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific, the business specialises in communications, mobility, security and location-based technologies, working with providers including Spok, Spectralink, Quuppa, AiRISTA Flow and Sidos Systems.

One of the big challenges as a niche distie is to make sure you’re ahead of the trends and bringing in new technology to the market, before the vendor gets too popular.

“You might bring on a product, and you'll bring that product on from a virgin state. In other words, no one's done anything [with that product] in the country,” he said.

The distributor will build on that vendor, brand and technology, then suddenly five years down the path, when you’re having a lot of success, the vendor starts to work with other disties.

Winter explained how this impacts not only his business but other niche disties.

“You build that vendor, brand, and technology, then fve or six years down the path, when you've got some great revenue, some great customers, some great reference sites. The "That’s always been the challenge. For us, you've got to be constantly on the lookout for where the market's going, where the trends are going,” he said.

“That's one of the reasons that we spend, a lot of time in understanding what the international markets are doing.”

Winter said he spends much of his time overseas talking to customers and partners about global trends and how he can bring them back to Australia, New Zealand and the Asian market.

“We're very much early adopters of technology, from a distribution point of view, but at the same time, it gives us the ability to be visionary,” he said.

“We look at where we think the market is going to go, then playing in that market, and sometimes we might play in that market for two or three years before it really starts to take off.”

Looking at the distributor ecosystem, Winter explained what he is seeing.

"There are still key players in the industry, but in the niche space, some distributors are being swallowed up by the larger fish,” he said.

“In some cases, we've seen some of them close when it's gotten too difficult.”

The relationship between partners and disties

Winter explains the ideal relationship between partners and disties.

“When you've got a good relationship with a partner, it's week to week, day to day contact. It's not call me when you need me,” he said.

“It's that personal relationship that our team has with our partners, that they can go, ‘hey, what are you guys working on? How was your week this week?’

“It's a conversational thing, rather than a sales process,” he added.

Winter also noted that the relationship between partner and distributor doesn’t always need to have a monetary value attached to it.

When they speak to a partner, it’s not because the partner has a problem, it’s because the partner is looking for an outcome.

“We'll basically work with them to help them come up with the right solution,” he said.

"Sometimes it may not be something we sell, that we represent, and that's okay, there's more value in being able to give somebody some advice, than just trying to sell them a product.”

Where he sees distribution going

In this market, you cannot be a technology generalist, you need to specialise, according to Winter.

“You might have a division that does this, or three or four people in the organisation that does this,” he said.

“Most partners, they're not 300 people partners, a lot of them are small, so a lot of the partners that we deal with are 10, 20, or 30 people. But they may be dealing with Commonwealth Bank, or they may be dealing with Ramsey Health Care. They are dealing with bigger organisations.”

From a distribution point of view, Winter explained that adapting to where the markets going, or leading the market is important.

“Having that knowledge, and being able to impart that knowledge on the end customer, the partner is a challenge,” he said.

“You've got to have the skills and to do that and you can’t learn it here in Australia. Most of the education is overseas, you've got to head over to Europe or to the US and face to face to understand it.”