Distie shift has paid off, says Promethean

Interactive flat panel vendor Promethean says its decision to move from conventional distribution to a fulfilment model has paid dividends.

In late 2018 the company appointed Multimedia Technology as its Australian distie, but charged it with a focus on fulfilment. At the same time, Promethean imported a reseller accreditation model it had imported from its UK and US operations to Australia.

That program, said Alistair Hayward the company’s head of ANZ and UK & Ireland, saw Promethean add six new local staff to work among partners and

“It rewards partners for showing the right behaviours,” Hayward said, naming brand promotion and articulation of the company’s value proposition as key activities.

Promethean has assisted by making it easier to demo its products, an important element given they are hefty devices intended for use in classrooms. It’s also ensure its deal registration protects pricing for resellers who find opportunities.

“We are very good at policing it,” Hayward said.

Hayward said the company feels no pressure from the likes of Cisco or Google has they bring business-communications-centric products to market. But he thanked Microsoft for promotion of its Surface Hub products, saying that’s done a lot to validate the market without making a dent in Promethean’s stronghold in K-12 education.

New resellers are welcome, as Hayward said current reseller feedback suggests the market is not saturated. But the company will move slowly.

And it thinks it has a good opportunity to offer: he said white-label products as Promethean’s key competitor, but said vendors behind such products struggle to match the “show up and teach” experience Promethean tries to deliver. That experience comes from software, and the combination of code and screens, he said, is far stickier than selling displays alone.