Maverick unveils new arm aimed at IT VARs
Distributor to focus on both AV and IT products
Audiovisual (AV) distributor Maverick is launching a division to focus on both AV and IT products to take advantage of the converging technologies.
The new division, dubbed Convergent, will have a 12-strong team and focus on selling the high-specification products from Maverick’s existing portfolio as well as products such as a video over Cat 5 solution from Cabletime; Crestron’s automation products; and Mediasite’s webcasting and content management system.
Jon Sidwick, managing director of Maverick, told CRN: “It’s all about converging technologies – we have recognised the fact that both the AV and IT markets are moving closer together. The IT resellers now realise that a lot of the high-specification AV solutions hang off their networks.”
More than 60 per cent of Maverick’s business is to IT resellers and Sidwick predicted that this will grow to 75 per cent next year.
“We’ve still got a strong core of AV VARs, but over the past two or three years the number of IT resellers we sell to has increased. The opportunities are so vast in AV that by encouraging more IT resellers on board it won’t necessarily take any business away from the AV resellers.”
Darren Lewitt, divisional director at rival distributor Midwich, said he thought the firm’s strategy was late to market. “We’ve been selling AV and IT products to both AV and IT resellers for a long time,” he said. “We actually class ourselves as an AV distributor these days with an IT portfolio, rather than an IT distributor with an AV portfolio, as the majority of our business is now AV.”
Rob Bamforth, principal analyst at Quocirca, added: “Whether it’s the convergence of voice telecoms or AV, it’s all converging into IT so it makes sense for Maverick to target IT resellers.”