IT ChannelVision Europe: Partners Forecast Robust 2008 Sales Growth

Solution providers at IT ChannelVision 2008, which is owned by ChannelWeb parent Everything Channel, a division of United Business Media , said hot products like notebooks for gamers and services muscle are fueling robust sales growth this year.

Nick Boardman, CEO, of Rock Group, a $25 million UK system builder that is sharply focused on the notebook gamer market, said that business is doubling year over year. "It's pretty explosive growth," he said. "The fact that we making gaming laptops means we're in a pretty good place."

Rock Group, which is competing against Dell's Alienware brand and Hewlett Packard's VooDooPC brand, has carved out a huge, fast growth niche in the laptop notebook business. Rock Group's average notebook sells for a whopping $3,000 in the UK, said Boardman. He said 66 percent of all laptops in the UK sell for below $1,400.

One big reason for Rock Group's success is its ability to bring the latest and greatest gamer technology to the market before the likes of Alienware and HP VooDooPC brands, said Boardman. He said gamers love Rock Group's technology and its maverick status. "Our customers don't want to buy a Dell or a Ford," said Boardman. "Our biggest competitor globally was Alienware and overnight that brand was destroyed when Dell bought the company."

The biggest challenge, said Boardman, is competing against the lower prices that Dell has enjoyed from chip giant Intel. Though that has become "less of an issue" since Dell began using AMD processors, he said.

Stone Group Computers, a $110 million UK company that focuses on the public sector marketplace, expects it sales to be up 25 percent this year, said Sam Kazerounian, Director of Stone Group Computers. He said Stone Group just received a $56 million cash infusion in the wake of a management buyout.

"I am a very happy man today," he exclaimed. "I will tell you why we are successful today and why we'll continue to be successful in the future: we make life easy and convenient for our customers. They buy from us because we are a lot easier to deal with than the big multinational companies."

"Every customer is different," said Kazerounian, noting that Stone Group provides a wide range of services like asset tagging and pulling together multiple products for fast delivery. "There is nothing special or clever about it. We listen to what the customer needs and then respond."

Kazerounian said his company's biggest challenge is making sure all involved continue to listen closely to customers. "Most companies fail because they don't listen," he said. "We bend over backward to make sure we give the customer whatever they need. As long as we can make money at it we're happy to do it."

Kazerounian, who has logged nearly 25 years in the IT business, said the fact that Intel and Microsoft and to a certain extent AMD control so much of the industry is bothersome. What irks him is sometimes the less than fair policies that come from the industry giants. "But I am realistic," he said. "I wouldn't expect anything different after 25 years. We differentitate on the quality of service we deliver. That is the only way we can survive."

For his part, James Symon, a UK account Chief Technical Officer for systems integration giant EDS, said he sees some of the economic woes fueling some business opportunites for EDS as companies look to outsource some IT operations. "I'm not optimistic or pessimistic," he said. "It's about middle of the road. There is definitely a maturity happening in the marketplace."

One strong growth area that EDS is playing in is the software as a service marketplace, he said."That seems to be quite strong," he said.

As for the biggest challenge going forward, he said it is making sure that the company is agile, delivering world class customer service, and focusing more on business processes than simply technology. "It starts with business processes and being able to have good conversations about business and then talk about technology choices."