More than a feeling
It's very fashionable these days to conclude the PC industry is in terminal decline, thanks to all the shiny things on offer from the likes of Apple. Furthermore tech distribution has long been a tough business for similar reasons.
But as we've found out from talking to smaller, nimbler disties such as Target Components - which has managed record revenues throughout this difficult economic period - there remain plenty of opportunities for those who are prepared to literally think outside the box.
Another such company appears to be Boston, which despite its name is based just down the road from us in Hertfordshire, and who we recently visited. We spoke to sales manager Neil Kalsi, and he explained that Boston has experienced massive revenue growth over the past four years.
The secret of this success is not such a big secret - focusing on complete solutions rather than just reselling product. Companies have been claiming they're ‘moving from being box-shifters to solution providers' for decades, but it's amazing how slow many have been to implement these fine words. "The old Boston just used to sell the tin, now we offer full solutions," said Kalsi.
Like other companies that have thrived during the downturn, Boston has viewed it as an opportunity. It could be argued that a recession sorts the wheat from the chaff, and Kalsi is determined to be the former. "Where some people are battening down the hatches, we're doing the opposite," he said.
One of the areas of diversification Kalsi is most proud of is selling servers and workstations into certain specific industries - especially those that require extra high performance. We were taken on a tour of the Boston labs, and one workstation immediately caught our eye.
The Detonator is made by the aptly named Hardcore Computer. You can see the pix ‘n' spex below, but the most remarkable thing about it to us was that all the components are immersed in inert coolant. This takes liquid cooling to a whole new level, and this is something which isn't typically made available as a turn-key solution to end users or the channel. We've seen others do it in the past though none, as far as we can tell, have been production systems available through the channel.
It's the discovery of this sort of thing that gives smaller companies a fighting chance in this recessed, globalised market. Boston has realised there is still plenty of potential in the PC/server reseller market, you just need to know where to look.
