Gap Marketing director celebrates 10 years in IT

Renato Catalan, director of Gap Marketing and Management tells CRN what it’s like working in the channel as he celebrates 10 years in the IT industry this month.

Catalan has worked on both sides of the fence, starting at Achieva Technology Australia in 1999 before setting up his own company in 2003.

“I remember clearly how dynamic and competitive the IT distribution industry is and how important your reseller base is so vendors will take notice of distributors,” he said.

“I was able to get my induction in this industry by promoting brands like ASUS, Western Digital, Seagate, Sapphire, Creative Labs, Intel and AMD.”

Catalan now works with 600 resellers for rebates, training and event launches.

Storage vendor, Western Digital was his first client as well as ASUS, Fujitsu PC, AOC Monitors, NVIDIA, Philips Liteon, Kingston Technology, GIGABYTE United and MSI.

“Five years on and to date we conduct dealer training, dealer roadshows, channel promotions, dealer rebates, game events and in-store promotions,” he said.

“Our most recent event was implementing Australia’s first Quest for Green Computing campaign with Western Digital and GIGABYTE. We had over 50 system integrators that registered to be part of this awareness campaign.”

For Catalan, the best part of working in the IT industry is that everyone must connect one way or another, because technology does not operate in isolation, and employees must integrate with other partners whether it is software, hardware, solutions or the internet.

The worst bit is the constant erosion of profit margins and commodisation of technology in the channel, he added.