Derek Jones explains to Helen French what’s happening at dealer organisation Synaxon UK and and what members can look forward to in the year ahead…
One particularly pleasing aspect of the past few
months has been the number of new retailers signing
up to Synaxon membership via our new website.”
“EGIS is a comprehensive online resource that enables members to search for products across all our distributor
partners.”
How have the last twelve months been for Synaxon?
We’ve had a great year. As you know last year Synaxon UK was crowned Channel Service Provider of the year and earlier this year our 2011 National Conference was shortlisted as Channel Partner Event of the year.
Our membership has grown steadily and our team in Warrington is now at full strength with 11 full time staff.
Our fiscal growth – 2010 to 2011 – was 54 per cent and our subscribing members have delivered good growth to our growing number of partner suppliers.
All Synaxon members continue to receive exceptional service and support in helping them to enjoy significant benefits (reduced cost of sale) through use of EGIS, our information and procurement platform.
We have also been driving the message home about our iTrends reseller marketing package as well as our low cost e-commerce/e-marketing solutions.
One particularly pleasing aspect of the past few months has been the number of new retailers signing up to Synaxon membership via our new website.
We launched the new site through an announcement in PCR earlier this year and we are now averaging around ten new member subscriptions per month.
What would you say to resellers who haven’t joined up yet? What are they missing out on?
I’d say they are missing out on one heck of a lot and urge them to put us to the test.
I can entirely understand why some resellers and retailers might be apathetic or even cynical about dealer groups or buying groups especially in the smaller IT retail sector, 
but Synaxon is more than that – it’s a way of driving more sales to existing customers, generating new sales leads and expanding our members’ customerbase and of course reducing costs and increasing members’ profitability.
There are very clear cost-effective positives. If a reseller is considering joining a community my advice would be first and foremost join your trade association CompTIA. Following that, if you are looking for a commercial advantage take a very close look at how any potential dealer organisation is managed.
Has it got a solid track record?
Do they have sufficient resource to support your business?
Do they offer a good mix of exclusive services from vendors and suppliers?
Do they offer the tools that you require to grow your business or make it more efficient?
If you put Synaxon under the spotlight the answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes.
What do you think are some of the main issues facing retailers in the UK at the moment?
Well, obviously there is the continuing tendency for buyers to go online – and that’s something we can help them address very easily and cost-effectively though Clic2IT.
We can get them set up with a trading e-com solution, with their own logos, branding and pricing structures, with data feeds coming in from all of our major distributors, within hours.
It’s inexpensive and if properly implemented and coupled with our e-marketing system Clic2IT, delivers excellent returns.
Motivation is another big issue for resellers and retailers – the market is so tough and unpredictable now.
Being part of the industry and sharing ideas and experiences is important – and that’s also something you can do with Synaxon.
It’s also important to keep coming up with new offers and ideas all the time – which we do as a matter of course as part of our regular iTrends marketing activities.
Synaxon is of course huge in Germany – presumably you think that experience provides valuable, relevant insight for the UK community too?
Yes, in some respects, but in others it’s very different.
Synaxon UK benefits from all the tried and tested back-room processes that work so efficiently for the European operation, but the UK market and the UK channel is very different, so our approach in the UK is tailored to meet the needs of UK retailers and resellers.
In that respect, we’re an entirely different organisation. Of course, we continue to share best practice and our EGIS platform is a direct translation from the German version.
I’d also like to think that Germany is now starting to learn a bit from us. (I’m not sure if that extends to winning football tournaments though!)
Can you explain a bit more about EGIS and the other tools that you offer?
There are three main headings under which we provide member services – EGIS, iTrends and Clic2IT.
EGIS is a comprehensive online resource that enables members to search for products across all our distributor partners, check stock and availability and then place and manage orders. It’s tremendously easy to use, saves members heaps of time and money and can easily be integrated with the member’s back-office systems.
The main marketing activity is focused on our iTrends marketing package. This is a comprehensive mix of a personalised traditional mailers and e-marketing; the former goes out every two months, the latter every two weeks. In both cases, the communication is personalised for the reseller and details exclusive offers from multiple vendors that are not available anywhere else, the service is completely automated so that the participating member has an on-going lead generation service working in the background for his business. We also have the iTrends portal with heaps of tech reviews and other content.
Through Clic2IT, we offer members an easy way to set-up, run and profit from having an online ecommerce site. This really is a great service – we provide data feeds from our suppliers and the site is populated with data sheets and information. It even pitches related products to drive add-on sales automatically.
Any responses from iTrends marketing can be auto linked back to the on-line shopping basket.
You’ve just signed new distribution deals with Westcoast and Widget – what does that mean for members?
It means more choice, more exclusive offers and more benefits. As we add more active members and supplier partners, the benefits of being part of the Synaxon community multiply for both, when we add important new distributors, members get access to even more products and more choice.
The more supplier partners we have on board the more useful EGIS becomes to our members and our prospect members so the additional supplier recruitment into EGIS benefits the whole channel.
You’ve got your national conference coming up in Crewe on July 19th and 20th – can you reveal any glimpses of what attendees can expect to see and do this year?
Apart from me doing my usual ‘standup’ act and talking about whatever comes into my head, they can expect a great line-up of speakers and a distinct lack of pitches.
We are going to focus even more on provoking thought and challenging accepted wisdom this year – and there will be even more opportunities to network.
It will also be even more fun than it was last year – that’s a promise.
What’s next for Synaxon?
There are always new developments and plans but for now we are concentrating on making sure that our current membership base and our supplier partners are getting everything they should be getting in return for their support of Synaxon UK.
There will be enhancements and additions to our services – and we’ll talk about some of them at the 2012 UK Conference, and we also hope to be adding some significant new suppliers this year, enhancing profit opportunities for our members.
Are you looking for more suppliers to work with?
Yes, we are always looking for new supplier partners – and for new members who can benefit by being active in the Synaxon community.
Any vendor, distributor, retailer or any other channel business that would like further information can get in touch via the website www.synaxon.co.uk or call 0844 481 5844.