Exeed to shift headquarters

Apple distributor takes new office, new training facility to follow next year

By Simon Eskow, Auckland | Friday, 07 December 2012
Exeed, which earlier this year purchased the Renaissance distribution business, is shifting its Auckland headquarters.

The move from its current building to a new location several blocks away in Parnell, will be completed on December 14.

"It’s quite a lot bigger and at the moment, because of the temporary nature of where we are, we have our office split into two halves," says managing director Justin Tye. "Ideally we’d like everyone to be in the same space, to operate in the same culture and style we have."

The move accommodates the increased business associated with Exeed’s acquisition of Renaissance, especially its Apple business. Exeed is becoming an authorised Apple training supplier, and has set aside space in its new building for workshops. But not just for its Apple business.

"I’d even see us offering courses around Windows 8 integration," says Tye.

Tye says the integration of the two distributor businesses is almost complete, and in addition to shifting locations, Exeed has hired Matt Rummel as its commercial sales manager, to help free up management and develop the distributor's burgeoning commercial business.

Rummel comes to Exeed from Harvey Norman where he served as the retail chain’s national sales manager.
"The first few months after the acquisition were about consolidation and getting the systems right and the processes that the agencies operated under that we brought on board sorted," says Tye. "We don’t bring on that many at once and not the size that Apple is."

A byproduct of the acquisition, Tye says, is that new vendors that have begun to query Exeed as they consider a "distribution mix" for their paths to market.

"My next six months is going to be focused on maximising the opportunity from the acquisition from what we brought over and what we can now leverage," says Tye.

Tye foresees the uptake of BYOD investment to be one of the drivers over the coming year, as Windows 8 devices present a form-factor challenge to Apple and, Tye says, Android devices as well.

"There’s some agreement that once the security aspect of BYOD is nailed, and it is easy to separate the home component of the OS from the more secure work component, you will see a lot more companies start to promote it," Tye says.

Exeed’s portfolio includes Airwatch mobile device management, and Ruckus wireless networking.

"But generally, though, the big gain for us next year is we’re betting the battle between Windows 8 and iOS is going to heat up," says Tye. "It’s easy to see that now there are a number of choices of popular form factors. That’s a nice opportunity for our industry, I think."