CRN Interview: Stephen Halland, Acer

Acer America recently brought in Stephen Halland as vice president of ITS desktop and server business unit. Halland, who spent the past 17 years with ComputerLand and Ingram Micro, talked recently with Senior Editor Joseph F. Kovar about Acer's plans to use THE indirect-sales channel to improve its POSITION IN THE U.S. market.

CRN: Why did you join Acer?

HALLAND: That was thanks to a couple of guys here [who] told me that Acer has tremendous uplift opportunities in the United States.

CRN: And what were those opportunities?

HALLAND: Acer has had starts and stops in the United States. There's been a lot of pain. But the company is No. 2 in the notebook PC market and No. 3 overall in Europe. It's No. 2 in notebook sales in many places in Asia.

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Acer has a very strong position in many places. It's strong in Canada and rebuilding in Mexico and Latin America. We're relaunching in the United States, going back into retail. We're in Best Buy now, with another half-dozen retailers coming, including Wal-Mart, Costco and OfficeMax.

CRN: And the channel?

HALLAND: Acer is the last brand-name PC manufacturer that focuses exclusively on channels. We do business exclusively through the [partners]. We used to have an initiative called ShopAcer, but that was closed down a few months ago because it was not channel-friendly.

Over the next couple of quarters, you can expect a tremendous focus from Acer on engaging resellers. Everything we come out with going forward will be focused on the channel,both resellers and retailers.

We're currently in serious discussions with potential customers, and every opportunity will be fulfilled by a channel partner. We don't specify the channel partner; the customer does. And we'll do it all with the Acer brand, including desktops, servers, notebooks, tablet PCs and peripherals.

CRN: What is the current state of Acer's channel?

HALLAND: We have about 4,500 resellers now,mainly systems integrators, VARs and so on. We distribute through Synnex and Tech Data primarily. We're talking to Ingram Micro. %85 We also work with CDW, Insight, PC Mall and PC Connection.

CRN: How about the consumer electronics space?

HALLAND: We have tremendous capabilities and can build the products, but we're not sure if the interest is there yet.