Remember when value added distributors were special? It was back when the term really did mean distributors that added value rather than just distributors that said they added value but were never too specific about what that value was – and on the occasions when they could be enticed to explain what their value added proposition was, it sounded remarkably like the stuff they’d always done.
No wonder there’s a move to replace VAD with a new term: full service distributor (FSD). “Full service distributor is an evolution from the term value added distributor [VAD],” explains Data Solutions director Michael O’Hara. “Pretty much every distributor out there, globally, claims to be a VAD which has diluted the understanding of its value.”
While he would usually describe Data Solutions as a specialist distributor, O’Hara accepts that FSD is “probably a more succinct way to describe the service we give our customers”. O’Hara suggests that an FSD provides “a range of services to a reseller partner that covers sales, technical, marketing, financial and logistics”. The FSD’s goal, he believes, is to ensure a reseller is proficient on a vendor’s technology and that it maximises revenue in the market from selling that technology.
“Our goal is that the reseller sells and implements the best solution to its customers that will maintain and improve their strong relationship. There are literally hundreds of different services a FSD can offer. These services depend on not just the vendor the distributor is representing but also the reseller the distributor partners with,” O’Hara adds.
Commtech general manager Gerry Harvey sees the emergence of the FSD as a natural consequence of market events. “Traditional IT product distribution is constantly under threat from the force of disintermediation,” he says. “As ‘inside sales’ teams forge direct vendor to customer links, the traditional distribution processes of transport, stockholding and logistics are seen as basic services, offering little in the way of value add. This is especially the case in an increasingly software world where utility is often transmitted, not transported.”
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