Exclusive Networks UK&I MD Rob Tomlin talks areas the distributor will be ‘doubling down’ on in 2025

Tomlin breaks down his newer priorities since joining the group in April

Helping VARs attack the mid-market and growing investments in data security, these are just some of Exclusive Networks UK&I managing director Rob Tomlin’s priorities for 2025.

Tomlin joined the distributor in April after five and a half years at Dell, opting for a return to distribution.

Outlining his immediate priorities to CRN at the time, Tomlin stated he would be focused on helping partners exploit the market opportunity in cybersecurity, attracting new talent into the space, acting on vendor feedback and beefing up Exclusive’s services portfolio.

After getting to grips with his new role for the last six months, Tomlin reveals how these priorities have evolved into four core areas.

“Number one, it's taking that tapestry of all of our vendors, big vendors and fast growth vendors and helping them all work together and collaborate together.

“CIOs want that. They want solutions vs point products. And resellers want guidance about how you build those solutions.”

His second priority lies in the SMB sector.

“In the last three or four years we've been able to continue to really support our big customers, but also help support SMB VARs attack mid-sized customers.

“We sell to a lot of resellers, but we're going to be doubling down on investment in account management and product sales specialists, supporting the mid-market VARs as well, and sales into the mid-market customers.”

In April Tomlin said Exclusive saw opportunities to help support MSSP and CSP markets. This remains high on his agenda.

“Third is around MSSPs and CSPs. We find that customers are looking for outcomes, and not just and not just technology. And the MSSP customers that we sell to today are growing very fast, and we're going to be doubling down on investment to make our offerings more well suited for the MSSP marketplace.

“That involves adding more people, adding more ability for customers to consume technology versus buying licenses and buying product.”

Last but not least, Tomlin talks about his final priority for the distributor - data security.

“You'll hear all our cyber vendors talking about the fact that if the customer's data is not structured, if it's not secured, then the investments a customer makes in cybersecurity are at risk and maybe not always maximised.

“We're doubling down on that investment in data security with incremental skills, enablement, resourcing and our recent NetApp signing.”

At the start of the month, NetApp and Exclusive inked a distribution partnership to provide highly secure, data-centric solutions to channel partners in the UK and Ireland.

Vendor strategy

Tomlin tells CRN the primary reason for this renewed focus on data security is all thanks to the large-scale emergence of AI.

“In the world of AI, data is super important. And security is super important.

“There’s going to be some mega vendors that we haven’t heard of yet. And the plan is for us to add in more AI security vendors.”

He adds that Exclusive is being very “selective” in its hunt for vendors.

“Our plan is to be super important to the vendors that we have, offer dedicated resources to them, to not not just have them in our line card and hope that they sell.

“We don't take on a vendor unless we can do a really good job for them and make a major investment.

“Our plan is to grow our existing vendors at the rate of what the cyber market is growing, which is faster than the rest of the IT marketplace.

“The big focus for us really on the vendor portfolio is to grow the services around the vendors to make sure we do more support services, SOC services, and services to help our partners grow.”