D&H Ends Year With Double-Digit Growth In Top Categories; Focusing On K-12 And New Resources For 2016

Areas Such as Servers, Desktops and Notebooks Showed Above-Market Growth This Year, While D&H Looks to High-Yield Markets Like Education to Spur Sales in the New Year

D&H Distributing, the leading North American computer products and consumer electronics distributor, announces the company has seen double digit growth over several categories in the second half of 2015, including high performance in key areas such as servers, monitors and displays, desktops, and notebooks; with servers leading the top selling categories in excess of a 55% increase. Overall growth for the past six months (June to November) was close to 7%, once again performing well compared to the growth of the general distribution market. In addition, D&H is looking toward still-emerging categories such as 3D printing solutions, and smart-office devices as possible growth categories for the future.

Much of the increase in the server category is due to D&H’s long-term support relative to the end-of-service date of Microsoft’s Server 2003 solutions, the deadline for which elapsed in July of this year. Throughout 2015, the distributor has urged its VARs to take advantage of upgrade opportunities that come along with a cut-over to a new server infrastructure, which often includes comprehensive upgrades of back office systems and ancillary networking solutions.

D&H has conducted major campaigns to support lucrative but complex vertical markets such as the K-12 education opportunity, which will be a renewed focus going forward in 2016. The distributor plans to continue the successful strategy of providing increased resources, tools and support around market opportunities that offer high sales potential for resellers, especially for those solution providers working in smaller regional markets.

The K-12 space is a complicated one to enter due to the regulations and minutia involved in government programs such as E-Rate, which provides funding to school districts for the purpose of upgrading their technology infrastructures. To that end, D&H’s latest K-12 initiative will include tools such as a new “E-Rate 2.0” Partner Services Marketing brochure template, a brandable document that allows resellers to leverage professional-quality messaging to generate demand and educate their end-customers. The brochure includes information on upgrading to a wireless infrastructure—a frequent technology demand in K-12 environments.

D&H will also offer a new Solutions Lab webcast on K-12 in 2016; plus online “Battlecards” with granular details on pricing and stats for market-appropriate products; and customer “kits” for select reseller groups containing extra marketing content to help VARs kick-start business in this space.

“Our formula for identifying prospective market opportunities has been successful for our resellers so far,” says Jeff Davis, senior vice president of sales at D&H Distributing. “It’s therefore a tactic we’ll be escalating, starting with the education market campaign in January. We foresee additional opportunities as emerging niches such as 3D and digital signage solutions become more mainstream in both price and functionality, opening avenues for resellers to foster new specialties. As a distribution partner, it’s our goal to stay on top these trends, delivering the most effective training and support. We want to make sure our customers are the first to profit from these developments in 2016.”

Growth Categories for D&H in 2015 Included:

Servers - 55.1%

Monitors/displays - 30.9%

Security - 29.2%

Desktops - 22.9%

Notebooks - 12.3%

Power protection - 11.9%

Computer accessories/bags - 10.4%

About D&H Distributing
As the nation’s leading technology distributor, D&H provides a wealth of resources to empower solution providers and consultants, delivering a broad selection of SMB categories, products and applications. The company’s offerings span server and infrastructure, SOHO and mobile applications, consumer electronics and gaming. D&H’s multimarket expertise, account-dedicated sales teams, sterling service and flexible financing options are unmatched in the industry.

With an impressive 97-year history serving as a trusted advisor to the reseller channel, D&H has been able to consistently reinvent itself based upon changing market conditions. The company prides itself on creating business partnerships with an astute focus on ease-of-doing-business, relationships, value, performance and service.

D&H ships out of five separate locations in North America, including its US headquarters in Harrisburg and its Canadian headquarters in Brampton, Ontario. Additional US warehouses are located in Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; and Fresno, CA. For more information, visit www.dandh.com.