Exol/Simms to exit Dell and pickup Fujitsu

Express Online (Exol) and Dell are parting company after three years, but it appears Exol has picked up the Fujitsu agency for New Zealand and will instead distribute Fujitsu’s full range of tablets, ultrabooks and laptops.

Paul Johnston, Exol New Zealand country manager, confirmed channel rumours that the distributor was parting company with Dell, saying it is a ‘mutually agreed parting of the ways and is very amicable’.

He says the three year relationship has been ‘a very good relationship’ but both agreed that going forward the best approach was for Dell to handle the channel direct.

Exol will work with Dell to transition the New Zealand business to Dell’s direct channel model. The transition is expected to be completed by March. The lengthy transition period is indicative, Johnston says, of the strength of the relationship between Exol and the vendor.

Meanwhile, Exol has been showcasing a range of Fujitsu tablets and PCs at Microsoft’s Reimagine events being held around the country to showcase Windows 8 and Office 2013.

Exol is understood to have picked up the agency for the full range of Fujitsu products.

Fujitsu itself has showcased 23 products developed for Windows 8 over the last four or five weeks, and among the products on show at Reimagine was a pre-production waterproof tablet, which Fujitsu says will be waterproof to one metre for up to 20 minutes.

The fully featured Windows 8 Pro device is described as ‘a bit of a unique selling point’. Also on show are 64-bit tablets, i5 tablets with detachable keyboards and fully featured laptops.

Fujitsu has no other distributor in New Zealand.