D&H Pushes Green Technologies, Emerging Vendors To Channel

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D&H Distributing enjoyed a particularly strong fiscal 2010, reporting nearly 20 percent revenue growth over what was a turbulent and unpredictable 12 months. But the SMB-focused distributor has been thriving in large part because D&H has walked a particularly fine line: the company doesn’t dilute its line card with scores of competing products and vendors and instead stays focused on its key partners. But at the same time, D&H has made a point over the years to find diamonds in the rough -- smaller, emerging vendors with compelling technology -- and make strategic bets on those gems.

Rob Eby, D&H’s vice president of purchasing, spoke with CRN at the distributor’s Mid-Atlantic Technology Show earlier this month in Hershey, Penn., and discussed some of his company’s recent initiatives, such as focusing on green technologies, emerging vendors and even smartphone technologies.

You have a “Greenhouse” aisle on the exhibit floor for green technologies. How did that get started?

We did it first on the West Coast (at D&H’s West Coast Technology Show) earlier this year and it was very, very successful for us. People were very interested in the technology and how they could save energy with it, whether it was SSD or a certain type of [power-efficient] hard drive. At the end of the show we actually gave away a [Vespa S 150 gas-saving model] scooter. Then we had another green initiative that ran through the back half of our fiscal year; every time a reseller bought a green product, which was labeled with green leaf, they would then get points to win a hybrid car. We did that in the U.S. and did a similar program in Canada with a scooter. And it was great. We saw the sale of green products skyrocket. It does seem like something that people are really interested in now, because not only are the products good for the environment but the technology saves them money on energy consumption and other things within the office space.

So from your perspective, do you feel like the technology is changing as a whole today and becoming greener?

Well, let’s talk about the processors that are coming out now. Even small businesses have server rooms today. So by using more energy efficient CPUs and hard drives as well, that lowers both the consumption of electricity and not only that, but the server rooms don’t get as hot. So you’re saving money on air conditioning and climate control costs, too. Now I think people are really becoming cognizant of the technology as a way to save a lot of money. And then you also have the recyclable packaging materials, too. More and more of our vendors are going to eco-friendly materials like recycled cardboard instead of plastic, and if they are still using plastic clam shells well then they’re using recycled plastics for that, too.

You also have an Emerging Technology aisle on the floor. What are some of the technologies or vendors that have sparked interest among your customers?

Well, I’m a big fan of PogoPlug and MyDitto. It’s that cloud technology that’s becoming the buzz word. And those two companies are in that space. For example, PogoPlug lets you set up your own home network and PogoPlug’s device sits there and it allows you to access all of your content and data. If you plug your hard drive into it, it becomes its own little virtual network out in the cloud and you can access that information through the Web.

And there’s something interesting about the mobile market happening right now. I read a study the other day that said 70 percent of time users spend on their iPhone is for data rather than voice. So for smartphones, the majority of the time you’re using it for data. And for regular cell phones, it’s the opposite and the percentages almost flip-flop. People want to feel connected constantly with their home software and data and all that content. And the same thing applies for small businesses; having something like PogoPlug would work there as well.

Next: Smartphones, Tablets And The Future Of Mobility

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