After taking out the top Kiwi distributor awards for both Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP New Zealand late last year, Exeed is gearing up for another strong year with the vendors.
Justin Tye, Exeed managing director, says the distributor is looking forward to a 'pretty successful year' with the vendor, which has been a significant part of Exeed's business since the distributor was formed 14 years ago.
The home-grown distributor took out both Distributor of the Year for both HP New Zealand and HP Enterprise in their inaugural New Zealand channel awards last year.
In announcing the win in November, Simon Bell-Booth, HP New Zealand wholesale account manager, dubbed the distributor 'a powerhouse throughout 2015'.
Tye says Exeed is looking forward to the benefits of dealing with the two smaller, more agile businesses.
"I hope we see the company being able to be more agile in both the enterprise and PC space," he says.
Tye says any large multinational dealing in small markets such as New Zealand that have the ability to respond to a technology or price shift and can compete consistently, are a partner Exeed wants in its stable.
"The bigger you are, the harder that is to achieve. And I think that's where we're looking for the gains in HP. They're going to be able to respond quicker to changes in the market, whether technological or price pressure.
Tye says the two new companies remain 'decent sized businesses' with local footprints that reflect a strong commitment to the market, but which should be capable of faster responses to price pressures in particular.
"Technically, their products are pretty strong.
HPE holds a dominant position in the New Zealand servers, Tye notes, with 'storage doing well and networking doing a lot better'.
HP's PCs and printers – now the domain of HP – Inc have also traditionally performed strongly locally, frequenting the number one slot or thereabouts.
Tye says print has been a focus for Exeed and the company is keen to grow that market for HP.
"HP in Australia has a really good print business and we'd like to see distribution play a part in helping them grow a bigger footprint in their multifunction print business this year, with a renewed focus on that," he says.
"I'm very hopeful that the business will step up a notch in storage and networking; respond in multifunction print, particularly PCs and laptops and new technologies in that space, and we will see some good outcomes this year from both organisations.
