The Future of Distribution in EMEA

In the last session of the afternoon, three distribution leaders discussed a gamut of challenges and opportunities. From online marketplaces to the cloud, they debated the challenges and opportunities facing the industry.

The guest speakers were Managing Director of Westcoast Alex Tatham, Vice President of Westcon-Comstor, Russell Blackburn, and Louka Loucas, senior channel manager at AVANT.

Tatham was bullish about the future of distribution. He said the headwinds distribution faces are nothing new, and the industry has always been able to adapt and thrive.

“I’ve been in distribution for 25 years and that has been said to me for 25 years. The fastest growing business in the UK is distributors who [are] doing more and more. Somehow, they seem to be adapting to those challenges. I think you’ll find the distributors are extremely adaptable to whatever situation is required.

“The cloud was going to ‘kill off distribution’ three or four years ago,” he continued. “Well, the fastest growing cloud providers in the country are distributors in the cloud space and managing marketplaces. So I don’t see this disintermediation. I see the distribution doing much more on behalf of their resellers, and particularly as resellers change to become MSPs.”