Last month, Jamie Brothwell, Chief Sales and Commercial Officer for Exertis AV, spoke about some of the changes that had been happening within the Exertis AV business. This month, AV News Editor Bryan Denyer (BD) spoke to Jon Grundy (JG), Exertis’ Head of AV Solutions, about his views on how their business has evolved.
BD – For readers who don’t already know you, can you please provide a little background on yourself and what you do?
JG – I am Jon Grundy, Head of AV Solutions for Exertis AV, and I have been with the business for around three and a half years. I’ve been involved with the AV and UC&C industry for a little over ten years, having previously worked at Imago, and subsequently at ScanSource, following their acquisition of Imago.
BD – Jamie spoke a little about the new culture, specifically within the Exertis AV business. What effects have you seen both internally and externally?
JG –There is no question that all the hard work we have put into recruiting the right people has a massive internal and external effect. Our processes are so much better in terms of how we train people and work together as a team and with our vendors and customers. Our employee engagement score now regularly sits around 86%, which is up hugely from where it was three years ago before Jamie took over. Externally, I think the sales numbers speak for themselves… In 2022, we were 25% up, and a further 15% in 2023, and this year, I believe we will be up significantly again.
BD – Jamie spoke about SAP and the warehouse working well. How much easier has that made life for you and the team?
JG – Without a doubt, both those projects have massively changed our capabilities, especially when coupled with significantly improved stock profiling. When I was first introduced to Al Coyne, our Commercial Director, we talked about getting back to basics which is what we have done. Of course, there will always be areas you can further improve on; for example, we recently introduced a new two-person ‘white glove’ delivery courier for larger and high-value products, so the work is never done, but for sure the SAP and warehouse improvements have helped us grow our business and made life a lot easier for us and our resellers.
BD – What were the areas that you have personally been focused on since you started your role?
JG – I have spent a lot of my time looking to support our resellers, whether they are system integrators or VARs. I wanted our AV business to become a truly specialist business unit that just happened to be part of a larger business, and I reallyfeel that we have now achieved that. We now have a dedicated team of 70 focused purely on AV and collaboration, which includes sales, commercial, purchasing and marketing, to enable the level of focus required to deliver above-industry standard service levels and bespoke solutions from concept to installation; furthermore, offering post-sale support including renewals and 24/7/365 support.
Within our core Exertis AV business, we support over 6,700 unique resellers, approximately 1,400 of which are within the AV function and managed in some form. The strategic/managed partners are managed by external-facing Business Development Managers, Account Directors, and Account Managers. The unmanaged accounts are profiled and targeted by our internal acquisition teams.
BD – How has this been achieved?
JG – Nowadays, we will only bring on a new key vendor if we are able to fully support them by having all our backroom team trained on their products and how to sell and support them before launch. There is no point in having a technical product if you don’t know how it works and how it fits within your business and your customers. We have an in-house dedicated AV presales team to support our sales teams, our vendors, partners, and their customers across a range of technologies and solutions.
BD – Jamie talked about the credit relationship with Chubb being important to not only Exertis AV but also your resellers. How is that the case?
JB – The way the credit insurance and finance industry works means that many technology companies and distributors often use the same insurance or finance company to insure their business. This can become a real issue if one of the other companies already has a significant project/exposure into a particular account, as it means you can’t always obtain the credit line you need. By having an exclusive arrangement with Chubb, we don’t experience that issue, so we are able toprovide a full line of credit to our partners. If they choose to share more information on the project and end user, our finance team will often go above and beyond that limit to ensure that the partner can get the credit they need. It’s proven to be a real differentiator for us, just like the 24/7/365 technical support.
BD – Jamie also talked about the demonstration facilities and stock you now hold. Can you tell us more about that?
JG – We spoke in depth to all our customers about what would help them in their day-to-day business. In addition to increased stock and next-day delivery, they pushed us for a higher level of tech support and demonstration stock. They asked us to create spaces where they could bring their end users to demonstrate the solutions they sell. That is why we now have over 50 of our own meeting rooms in Burnley, Basingstoke, and Snetterton fitted out with the key brands on demonstration. We also installed all those rooms ourselves as part of our internal training. After all, how can we understand the needs of our customers if we haven’t experienced the installation ourselves? If the reseller or end user can’t access our facilities, that is no issue. We have now invested over £100k in demonstration stock to ensure that we can either send out or hand deliver what they need. We can even help set the kit up, leaving the reseller more time to spend with their client.
BD – So, does Exertis AV offer an installation service as well?
JG – We offer a range of professional services to enhance our partner’s skill set and bandwidth – whether this is our state-of-the-art commissioning and pre-staging facility, or boots on the ground via our experienced in-house engineers, we can assist our customers in delivering projects in true partnership. Additionally, we work with a range of trusted 3rd party service partners to ensure we have the expertise and capacity to deliver for almost any project. Most of the leading system integrators we deal with, and even some VARs, already have their own installation services. However, if they don’t have the required experience or are struggling for resources, we can help with that. Just to be clear though, we only offer that service as a ‘trade only’ service via our channel. We don’t offer that service to end users directly, of course…
BD – I know Exertis AV is really focused on sustainability. Why is that such a key topic for the AV reseller?
JG – I am sure all of us, as parents, feel a real responsibility to our children to look after the planet; I know I do. That said, sustainability is now another major differentiator in helping an SI or VAR win a major project. We have found that most Blue Chip and Governmental bids are weighted significantly in terms of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) and sustainability. By partnering with Exertis AV, our resellers can show they have a supply chain partner dedicated to this key subject—another differentiator for us and our resellers.
BD – Can you provide some examples of your commitment in this area?
JG – We have an internal team of eight people, all dedicated to our sustainability journey and credentials. Currently, we are working towards ISO 14001. We have already installed solar panels and EV charging in our main UK locations and invested in an EV fleet. We also have a strong 2nd life and IT asset disposition offering, preventing old equipment from going to landfills and risking client data while releasing value back to the client where possible.
BD – So, what does the future hold for Exertis AV?
JG – We still have many ongoing projects, from developing our LED offering and audio business via some of our existing tier 1 brands, to bringing on some complementary new brands. We recently launched our new in-house marketing team, which is solely dedicated to AV and UC & C and not centralised as previously. Our vision is to continue bringing more AV and UC & C specialism into our team and deliver the best products and support services available from any UK distributor. We want to be the best AV and UC&C distributor in the UK.
BD – It’s been a great pleasure speaking with you today, Jon, and I look forward to seeing where this journey takes Exertis AV over the coming years.
JG – Many thanks for your time, Bryan.
