«Much more than a box mover» - ABC Distribution & Retail

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XX & XXAWARD 2015 CUSTOMER SUMMARY
DISTI
«Much more
than a box mover»
In this interview, Istvan Galo, General Manager of ABC Distribution &
Retail Solutions, discusses how his company offers customized services
and where he still sees room for improvement.
by Marcel Wüthrich
Y
our company ABC Distri­
bution & Retail Solutions
won the Disti Award for
the first time. Were you
surprised? Istvan Galo: Honestly,
yes I was. But not because we are not
convinced of the value of our services.
It’s just that we did not actively
encourage our dealers to vote for us
and the award wasn’t on our radar
anyway. So we were surprised to hear
that we won. Our roots are in the software business. But we’re relatively
new in the classic IT reseller business, so that’s why it took us by sur-
prise. In any case, I think our tremendous know-how in software sales now
helps us sell consumer electronics
hardware and accessories. The customers value our method and approach
as well as the services that we offer,
and this applies to hardware sales as
well.
In the Online Ordering System ca­
tegory, ABC received the highest
scores across all sectors. Why is
that? What do you do better than
your competitors?
Here as well, we were a bit surprised
to receive the highest
scores, maybe because
we are very critical of
ourselves and are always trying to do our
work better. With respect to our online
shop: We completely
redesigned it two
years ago. We drew on
our past experiences
as well as the needs of
our customers. The
shop is very easy to
use and clearly oriented on B2B transac«Whenever there is an important
tions. It displays comrelease, we have to deliver 80’000 to
prehensive product
100’000 units in one day.»
information as well as
product availability,
Istvan Galo, General Manager of
ABC Distribution & Retail Solutions
which our customers
36 Swiss IT Reseller
value highly, as indicated by the Disti
Award. But, there is certainly still
room for improvement.
What kinds of improvement?
Optimization of search functions is
the highest priority. Search must still
be made better. We are also thinking
about how to display inventory availability in real-time. For example, think
about a reservation system for movie
tickets, where I, the customer, can
select the seats I want and those seats
remain blocked during the ordering
process until the order has been
completed. It all happens in real-time.
We want to move in this direction as
well. We plan to work on this during
the next one to two years.
If we ask your dealers, ABC is
described as a reliable and solu­
tion-oriented partner. Is that your
corporate philosophy?
Absolutely. We define our company as
an entertainment and consumer electronics distributor, but also a retail
solutions provider. We’re active in
both of these areas and that is what
we offer our customers. If a customer
wants it, we can assume the role of a
simple distributor, basically a box
mover. But we are much more than
that. When requested, we offer retailers customized solutions with
comprehensive services. This might
February 2016, reprint of IT Reseller 1/2 2016, © Swiss IT Media GmbH, CH-Thalwil
DISTI AWARD 2015 CUSTOMER SUMMARY
XX & XX
involve POS or management of returns and inventory, among other
things. But no matter what we offer
our customers, we always try to create
a win-win situation and bring added
value to the entire process.
Your dealers also value your lo­
gistics capabilities for their speed
and availability and the fact that
they have a direct contact at ABC.
How important are these points for
you?
These points are very important. Our
warehouse works like a Swiss watch
and our customers benefit from 25
years of experience. We can also utilize the know-how of our parent company Electronic Arts when we need to
send out large quantities of products.
You know, when there is an important
release we have to deliver a good
80’000 to 100’000 units in one day, as
opposed to just 5’000 or 10’000 units
on a «normal» day. We can handle this
thanks to flexible pools of employees
and we work continuously to align
our operations to business needs, not
the other way around. With respect to
direct contacts: Every customer of
ours has a contact at ABC. He or she
knows how to reach this person and
receives an answer within a defined
period of time. This is definitely
highly valued.
When asked about potential for im­
provement, one of ABC’s dealers
said that he thought it would make
sense to better align service prices
with actual costs so customers who
need fewer services can be offered
more competitive prices. Are you
thinking of going in this direction?
Actually we are already doing this.
Our customers can determine the service setup that they want and of
course they then pay only for the services that are used. If a dealer is not
satisfied with its level of service or
would prefer fewer services, we are
happy to take a look at that and adapt
our model accordingly.
And finally: What does ABC have in
the works this year for its dealers?
This year we want to expand our
accessories business, which we
started two years ago. Among other
things, we want to add new consumer
electronics to our selection – from
existing manufacturing partners like
Monster or B&O Play, but also from
new manufacturers. Our team was
just at CES in Las Vegas where they
checked out new products that might
fit for us. We also have a few ideas for
new services that will further simplify
our dealers’ lives. But we’re not pre­
pared to talk about that quite yet.
Customers also frequently suggest
new services, which we implement
and then add to our offerings.
less dramatic than in music or movies, for example. Eighty to ninety
percent of all games are still sold on
traditional disks, simply because of
the enormous volumes of data that
one game requires. For the manufacturers, digital sales are more likely
to be made with additional content
and add-ons. However, this has resulted in the industry producing fewer
games but more add-on content,
which is obviously something that we
notice. But the decrease is not as dramatic as in other areas. And something else: We are also seeing more
and more add-on game content that is
sold in physical form. I am referring
to the toy-to-life category, which includes digital games with physical
elements such as Skylanders or Lego
Dimensions. But one thing is for sure:
Retailers who have specialized solely
in the sale of software and games
must keep an eye on this development
and find a way to put their business
on a broader foundation. That is some­
thing that we do as well. ■
Does the slowdown of physical
sales in your traditional business
– gaming – have anything to do
with your increased focus on acces­
sories?
There is certainly some truth to this.
But I must also say that digitization in
the software and gaming business is
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February 2016, reprint of IT Reseller 1/2 2016, © Swiss IT Media GmbH, CH-Thalwil
Swiss IT Reseller 37
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