Nick Tidd, the new face of D-Link in Canada, admitted to CDN that he has put himself back in the hot seat with his dual roles at Taiwanese-based manufacturer. But, with one subtle difference from his days at 3Com – the market doesn’t believe D-Link will go belly up tomorrow, he said.
“This, to me, was the most compelling job and D-Link was struggling here in Canada with no voice. They were a tree falling in the forest and it’s up to me to be that voice and tell the market about the value proposition and the product portfolio,” Tidd said.
As the recently named general manager of D-Link Canada and channel chief for North America, one of Tidd’s first tasks will be to augment the D-Link channel program in Canada. He said that he’s not pleased with the current offering. For example, it does not have configuration tools and robust marketing collateral, and there’s not enough Canadian case studies.
“I’m not going to come in and destroy what is built. It’s incumbent upon us to give our partners the tools and other ingredients that make up a great channel program,” he said.
One thing Tidd will not do is add more partners that could potentially dilute the market for existing D-Link VARs. “I don’t believe in share shift just to get new partners. Those that partner with us will reap the benefits and those that are starting to partner with us will have to work for those benefits.”
A few things in D-Link’s favour are high margin rebates, low cost tech support, and a Canadian warehouse for RMA. D-Link Canada also has a facility in Oakville, Ont. that stocks products for its own supply chain.
“Distribution will look at our Oakville facility as a blessing because it reduces stock. They can import from across the street. It saves on gas. This puts us in a far better position because none of my competitors stock any products in Canada, let alone in North America,” Tidd said.
The speculation in the market was that Tidd was brought on board to bring D-Link’s VoIP and unified communications offerings to the next level. However, Tidd countered that, saying he has to bring all of D-Link’s products to the next level.
“The growth will come from the business solutions offerings and it will help the channel move upstream. We are going to take all those products and bundle them together and show them the margins they can make not just on the product sale, but in the after market as well,” Tidd said.
With his Canadian GM duties, Tidd will work with the business solutions group in Canada to create and facilitate the sale of business solutions products for the channel, including stackable switching, wireless, IP, storage, IP surveillance and VoIP with Microsoft as a partner.
“I’m going to work with the market place to drive demand for the products and have the channel fulfill it,” Tidd said.
As the defacto North American channel chief, Tidd will also be responsible for creating a compelling reseller offering the can encompass the entire product portfolio along with providing awareness, training and partner enablement.
D-Link has released more than 200 new products in the last 24 months in an attempt to expand its market reach into the business sector. Tidd added that the strength of D-Link’s product portfolio lends itself well to the medium enterprise space, but with better value for the money.
“When you start to look at the horrendous list prices in the market place we’ll be a revelation to end users,” he said.
However, this job will come with risks for Tidd. The first risk will be trying to sell to people who believe they will never be fired for buying Cisco. “We’ll have to look for tech-agnostic buyers who want better value for their money.”
That means an approach that will primarily focus on SMB.
The other risk is based on the perception that D-Link is a retail-only vendor. Tidd said there’s no doubt this will be the hardest challenge he’ll have at D-Link.