Pinnacle Buys European VAR, Boosts Visibility

"Buying Aspan gives us an owned facility in Europe," said Michael Sayre, president of Columbus, Ohio-based PDSi. "We found that in doing our global repair program, customers preferred we have a real investment in the region. We have gotten a lot more involved in the repair side of our business, and that was the reason for buying Aspan. We want to continue to grow our repair service and, to do that, we need presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and also in the Asia region."

PDSi has done business through Aspan since 2006, providing repair services to customers in Europe from their facility. Both companies offer high-end computer-related repair and logistics services for some of the world's largest OEMs that build products using computer technologies.

"We've done some business globally for 10 to 15 years. But you start running into turnaround time and freight time," Sayre said.

Often, equipment was shipped from Europe to Ohio for repair, and then back to the customer. "A lot of what we are doing is with higher-end equipment, so with the time and shipping, we were becoming less competitive," he said. "Some of that will continue to come here, but lower-level repairs in particular, can be done in the region. Since we've made the announcement, we've definitely seen an uptick."

PDSi is both a CRN Fast Growth company (#50) and a VARBusiness 500 solution provider (#271).