EXCLUSIVE NETWORKS
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“We signed an agreement to distribute NetApp, a tier one vendor and similar to other leading vendors we have in our portfolio,” he says. “It’s simple. No data, no business. If you can’t get to your data, you can’t operate in many businesses today. If you haven’t secured it well, if you haven’t backed it up well, you haven’t got access to it, your business doesn’t exist. We’ve seen that with very large logistics companies that have not been able to ship things because they’ve got no access to their data.” The addition of NetApp is just the latest key vendor Exclusive Networks has a relationship with. “We’ve been growing our key vendors very nicely,” says Rob. “But we’ve also been growing very fast in the world of AI and data security. AI is causing fantastic growth in the IT ecosystem, the challenge is if you want to do security well and you want to secure all the data you’re creating, you need to have very well-structured data.” Keeping ahead Of course, with cybersecurity, the key is to stay one step ahead of the myriad bad actors that are out there. Rob explains that Exclusive Networks has a global vendor team that works with larger vendors to influence them to make themselves relevant to partners and end user customers. “But they are also looking for the next unicorn vendors that you’ve never heard of,” he adds. “There are so many vendors that are coming out of Silicon Valley, Israel, Australia that are AI data vendors, or automation vendors, or security vendors. We’re looking for new vendors that complement the platform vendors. Then there are lots of plugin vendors that address what’s needed with those other vendors. “It’s an ecosystem. Our job is to review the ecosystem constantly and bring in those vendors
that enable our customers to help keep the bad guys out and to help their customers remain agile to those threats.” Training is also an important aspect and Exclusive Networks is a global training provider. “We do something like 30,000 training sessions a year,” says Rob. “Nearly all the vendors that we distribute, we’re an authorised training centre for, which gives people that sense of comfort when they’re dealing with us. But we train their customers as well.” Disrupting the marketplace Looking forward to 2025, Rob is keen for Exclusive Networks to continue to disrupt the marketplace. “We just do things differently,” he says. “We are so agile compared to our US- headquartered distributors. We make decisions on credit, on payment terms, on risk in minutes, not weeks. We hire ahead of the trends. If we see an opportunity, we decide to make investments. We invest money in marketing, which creates pull through for our vendors and customers. “One specific thing is payment. One of the biggest challenges right now is getting a CFO to sign off an investment. They know they need to make it, but they don’t want to spend their cash. They also don’t want to use leasing because they see leasing can cost them more. But our Exclusive payment solutions are fabulous. We’re able to enable a customer to commit to a five- year deal with a vendor or a three-year deal, secure that beneficial pricing, but pay monthly, quarterly, annually. I’ve been in this game for 25 years and distributors don’t do that. “We just do things differently and it goes back to the initial point I made: we’re trying to do things in the Exclusive way, and that Exclusive way has been quiet for the last decade. But we are being more vocal now to help our partners grow at a faster pace in this fast-growth market.”
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One of the biggest challenges right now is getting a CFO to sign off an investment. They know they need to make it, but they don't want to spend their cash. They also don't want to use leasing because they see leasing can cost them more. But our Exclusive payment solutions are fabulous.
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