Revealed: Dell's first Australian distribution partner

Dell has appointed Altech Computers as its first Australian distributor with the two companies announcing a deal covering Dell printers and consumables in Australia and New Zealand.

Thirteen of Dell’s single and multi‐function monochrome and colour laser printers were made available through Altech, which would also manage cartridge fulfillment for selected models.

The agreement was a culmination of months of preparation by Dell’s printer business, which it claimed had grown both in headcount and products following major product launches last year.  

“Where we had six base models we now have 14,” Ben Guthrie, Dell's Software and Peripherals brand manager, told CRN.

Dell's printer range included enterprise commercial models to small or SOHO models, but lacked large format A3 printers. 

Up until now, Dell lacked the distributor coverage in Australia that it had in New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East and in the US.

Asked whether Dell's new-found distribution partnership in Australia would extend to its PC and laptop range in the future, Dell's A/NZ channel partner director Jay Turner told CRN that he'd "never say never". 

Dell was “always looking” at extending its first Australia distributor beyond printers, he said.

Turner pointed to Altech’s  "logistical capability" which included warehouses in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Auckland as the deal sealer.

Altech would expand Dell’s footprint and capabilities for small and medium sized business printing supplies and increase speed of supply, enhance depth of knowledge and enable greater face‐to‐face customer engagement.

"This agreement shows our commitment to ensure [partners'] requirements are better met,” he said. "This made sense to make sure they’re getting the right products.

“We’ve had quite a lot going on over the last six months or so. Our customers want even more access to printing and toner supply. There’s been a mountain of work inside Dell - we’ve been investing in people, we have focused business development managers for A/NZ and Ben [Guthrie] has over 20 years printing experience,” Turner said.

Antony Sheen, managing director of Altech, said adding Dell’s printers will "greatly enhance our position in the distribution market and increase the breadth of choice for resellers".

"Altech welcomes Dell to its distribution family and we look forward to a long and mutually rewarding partnership,” Sheen said.

Partner recruitment

Turner put a call out to resellers to reach out to Dell and Altech to resell its printers claiming the two “were open for business”.

And he said Dell partners could partner with managed services providers (MSPs) for new opportunities.

New Zealand

Under this latest agreement, Altech became Dell’s second distributor in New Zealand. Simms was the first Dell distributor to be named in that country.

Turner claimed business with Simms had “grown” in New Zealand in the past 12 months, but stopped short of giving a reason as to why it did not extend the Simms partnership to Australia.