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 SUBSCRIBE NOW 1 year inclusive Swiss IT Magazine CHF 95.– (delivery in Switzerland, Europe CHF 190.–) 2 years inclusive Swiss IT Magazine CHF 150.– (delivery in Switzerland, Europe CHF 300.–) www.itreseller.ch/abo February 2016, reprint of IT Reseller 1/2 2016, © Swiss IT Media GmbH, CH-Thalwil Swiss IT Reseller 37