The ABC's Of How UDT Grows Education Sales

United Data Technologies (UDT) (VARBusiness 500 rank 460) is a heavy-hitter in the education market: Seventy-five to 80 percent of its business is K through 12. The solution provider has also been focusing on growing its line of business in higher education, as well as in state and local government and some commercial interests. President and CEO Henry Fleches talked with us recently about increasing business during an economy that may be on the brink of a recession.

ChannelWeb: With the soft economy, how does UDT plan to grow in 2009?

Fleches: We don't have a bullet-proof plan. The solutions we drive in the market can be designed for business continuity. We provide solutions for disaster recovery, [which is important with those] storms down the Atlantic. We'll continue to build relationships around enterprise environment. We do approximately $4 million to $5 million in Cisco business, and $5 million to $7 million in the AV space. Eighty percent of our revenue is HP-related product, services and software. We have a very strategic, fantastic partnership. We win and lose with them. HP's channel programs, though not perfect, are evolving and changing with the times.

ChannelWeb: What technology would you say has the most potential during the next six to 12 months in the classroom?

Fleches: Areas of technology we see growing are data centers, AV and VoIP. AV has taken off, and we expect to grow it substantially. We've had good success with AV, and with interactive classroom equipment as well. It falls in line with schools' focus on delivering technology to students. Just because you have PCs doesn't mean test scores will go up. Education delivered through technology offers a more complete, interactive solution. For example, 80 to 90 percent of fourth graders have cell phones. They are interactive. Whiteboards as part of an interactive classroom are connected to a projector, sound system and then to slates or notebooks. Depending on the need of the environment or the subject, that is how we tailor our offering to the customer. It's been more difficult to get schools to change phone systems. So, in terms of revenue drivers, VoIP is not there yet.

ChannelWeb: What concerns do educators have?

Fleches: Can I put in a new intercom system with my current network? What technologies can I put on my existing infrastructure? We offer structured cabling and VoIP solutions. As a building goes up we are in there from a voice/data and video perspective. When a special application arises—for instance, you can't run video over Cat 5 cable— we are in there. We can help move or build a data center. We provide generator units. We take technology to the client computing edge. Tablet, handheld, PC, notebook: We offer customers options from the data center to the edge. And, although we've been in the higher-education market for some time, we're continuing to expand.

ChannelWeb: What's the biggest difference you've noticed with doing more government work?

Fleches: Things do happen slower. But the government segment has matured incredibly. IT is used more and more. We're in our infancy in the federal market. But there is great opportunity there especially since UDT is minority-owned. State and local has potential for growth, but we are concerned with state budgets. We're seeing fewer dollars for solution providers, unless you are in managed services. Traditional run-rate of purchases in this segment is not as high as it could be because of the economy. Competition is up in public sector because others are coming in, so there are more folks fighting for fewer dollars. Also, schools are building less, [which is] a trickle-down effect due to real-estate slumping; we are keeping an eye on that. Having said all that, we are still aiming to grow SLED [state, local and education] by taking share from competitors. In the commercial space, the midmarket of 100 to 1,000 users is also a tremendous opportunity.