Distributor D&H and cybersecurity vendor ESET have similarly aligned strategies in which they are moving upmarket from their longtime bases in the SMB.
Chris Ralston, Executive Director of Vendor Management at D&H Canada
D&H Distributing has signed a new agreement with cybersecurity firm ESET that covers the Canadian market, following up an earlier deal that covers the U.S. Both vendor and distributor have spent decades as SMB specialists. However, much more recently, both have also begun to make aggressive moves to expand their presence into the enterprise. They thus see a strong alignment in their corporate strategies, which should help D&H Canada expand ESET’s business in Canada, both in the SMB space and more upmarket.
Slovakian-based ESET has a long-time relationship with Ingram Micro, but they decided to add a second distributor for Canada specifically to focus on the SMB market.
“That SMB-focused VAR community is D&H’s strength,” said Chris Ralston, Executive Director of Vendor Management at D&H Canada. “I also have good relationships with Bob Bonneau [ESET’s country manager], and Cam Leetham [Director of Channel Sales and Alliances at ESET North America]. We met again a year ago, and they saw value in what we provide, which is very different from what Ingram Micro does. We are both very comfortable with the business plan.”
The D&H Canada relationship with ESET follows up a pre-existing one in the U.S.
“D&H US has been selling ESET for a few years now,” Ralston said.
Ralston drew a parallel between D&H and ESET in that they both have very long histories in which they focused on the SMB space, but in the last couple of years, have modified their strategy to increase their presence among larger firms. D&H has established a Modern Solutions business unit, which has been successful in the U.S., to make partners able to sell more strongly upmarket with broad solutions sets, and which they say is off to a strong start in Canada.
“We have had strong relationships with SMB partners, and we will continue to do so,” he said. “It’s part of our DNA. We do want to grow upmarket. The TDSYNNEX merger opened that up for us, but it doesn’t mean we take our eye off the ball with our traditional customer base. ESET has a very good line card that serves the SMB very well, but they have been moving upmarket with cloud cybsersecurity. They want us to service the SMB market and help them grow in the enterprise space. Our strategies are aligned.”
Ralston acknowledged that D&H is still building out their security practice.
“We have 14 security vendors overall, of which Sophos, SonicWall, Microsoft and Cisco would be the most direct competitors to ESET,” he said.
“We are really investing in our security practice, and have been developing a laser focus on it, Ralston added. “We have dedicated personnel to go to market with ESET. Managed cloud is a key priority with us, for our MSPs. For partners who need more enablement around security, we have our Success Path for Security “[webinar series].
“We are bundling on our MSPs, and building out a cloud cluster offering with ESET which we think will be differentiated in the market,” Ralston concluded.
