After a period of transformation, the channel organisation is looking to meet ambitious targets and continue to carve out a solid position in the hardware and services realms
Perceptions often lag in the channel, and those who think they understand Synaxon might discover the channel group has evolved significantly in recent years.
In some respects, the line can be drawn in 2020, with the pandemic marking a significant moment for the organisation’s market approach.
Mike Barron has been the company’s managing director since October 2019, so he has driven the strategy that has seen Synaxon bolster its position as a trusted partner to the wider channel ecosystem.
“Post-pandemic was the biggest shift. When I became MD, the world was a different place,” he said. “Not being able to service the partners in the way we had done before, with events, was a big change. Events were a big part of our community.”
The pandemic spurred a reinvention, with the business starting to make changes to the way it worked with partners. “The biggest change that came out of that was we then started transacting directly with our partners,” said Barron.
Until that point, the strategy had been to leverage Synaxon’s purchasing power by working with a distributor to negotiate the best possible terms on behalf of partners.
Following the pandemic, that effort came in-house, and Synaxon started to act in the manner of a master reseller, gaining terms from vendors to pass on to its partners.
“We took that in-house and controlled that ourselves from 2020. That business has grown to doing just over £6m of turnover last year. That’s us talking to vendors like Lenovo, Dell and HP, and being on their radar, purchasing through distribution, with bid pricing still sorted, in the main, by the vendors. And we’ve got some real buying power now,” said Barron.
The ability to go to a major player, such as HP, and outline spending ambitions that run into the millions has put Synaxon in a strong position. At the same time, the business continues to work with distribution for those partners looking for that transactional option, and that business is growing.
We’ve got a very, very big target,” said Barron. To support that ambition, the business has recruited more staff and is continuing to add heads as it moves deeper into 2026.
Working with distribution provides an opportunity to engage more with the long tail of the channel and help vendors widen their channel bases.
“Automation, efficiency, delivering cheaper business into distribution, and monitoring, maintaining and growing that business from that area of the channel – that’s still very much what we’re about.”
Underpinning a lot of those efforts is its EGIS cloud-based e-procurement platform, which provides pricing and availability from multiple distributors with the option to place orders.
“They can very easily save a lot of time and money. Press a button, and an order is generated. The systems then talk to each other, and tracking details come back automatically,” he explained.
Right products, right time, right price
Given the current price rises the channel is facing on a range of hardware products, the importance of communication is paramount. Tools such as EGIS should enable greater visibility of availability and costs.
We focus on good account management, looking after smaller partners and making sure they’re aware of the right deals, the right products, at the right time
Mike Barron, Synaxon
“We put a lot of focus on good account management, looking after these smaller partners and making sure they’re aware of the right deals, the right products, at the right time, which is very difficult at the moment,” he said.
Synaxon has also continued to expand the portfolio of vendors it works with, recently adding Asus and Acer to the fold. The experiences of Lenovo, Dell and HP have shown how the business can generate sales.
Looking out across the rest of the year, Barron said the challenge is to help partners work through price rises, ramp up the Acer and Asus business, and keep the evolution of Synaxon going.
There continue to be a number of partners that could benefit from working with Synaxon, and Barron is keen to reach out to smaller resellers and managed service providers (MSPs) that are not selling hardware along with their services.
“When we talk to partners and MSPs about their pain points, we pretty much know what they’re going to say – that because of their size or levels of purchasing, they don’t get the account management, good pricing and credit lines they’d like to get. Well, we can provide all of those services to smaller partners and MSPs, so when we hear them express these frustrations, it’s a reassuring sign that we’re providing exactly what they need.”
