In January, Acer Africa reviewed its channel strategy and as part of its long-term strategy, appointed Tarsus Technologies as the South African distributor for its entire range of servers, notebooks, desktops, and soon to be launched handhelds.
The announcement was followed by the appointment of a dedicated team at Tarsus to focus on expanding Acer`s market share and extending the Tarsus channel. The team brought itself up to speed quickly and was able to take the new products to market in record time.
Mark Campbell, GM at Tarsus, says that even though the agreement was only signed with Acer at the beginning of January, the company had its stock, databases, price and customer lists in hand and was already conducting business in the third week of the same month.
"By the end of February, Tarsus had recorded an exceptional month of sales on Acer products. This is the first time where our initial period of business, on a new product range, produced revenue beyond our expectations. Traditionally, when new distribution deals are signed, it takes three or even four months of preparation before the distributor is geared up to take the new products to its customers.
"In this case we beat the norm and have been functioning at full steam in what has turned out to be a very receptive market. The take-up of Acer in the market in the limited time Tarsus has been promoting it, has been nothing short of phenomenal," adds Campbell. "Our speed-to-market has increased both Tarsus and Acer`s market share and scope in SA, as well as expanded our customer bases."
To date, the positive response from the channel has proved the decision correct. "Acer has a high-quality brand in the market and the channel sees great value in being able to add its products to their range of offerings," concludes Campbell.
He adds that Tarsus has the rights to distribute the full range of Acer products, making it the obvious stop for channel players wanting premier products and service.
Share
Tarsus Technologies, the value-add distribution arm of MB Technologies, is rated by suppliers and channel partners as SA`s leading hardware distributor for its stability, service ethos, product knowledge, excellent support, competitive pricing strategies and channel focus.
Distributing a wide range of products from the world`s leading manufacturers, including Acer, APC, HP, IBM, OKI, Samsung, Tally, and supplementing this range with its own brand - the Tarsus PC - Tarsus focuses strongly on long-lasting partnerships with its suppliers and resellers. In line with this philosophy, Tarsus provides a comprehensive range of services to its resellers that enables them to add value to their own offering, and assists them in growing their business.
It is this service offering that has afforded Tarsus a number of channel accolades. The latest include: Channel Executive Awards - 2002; Best Distributor Overall - 2002; Compaq`s "BDG Distributor of the Year" award - 2001 and CRN Outlook Awards - 2002.
More information about Tarsus is available at: http://www.tarsus.co.za