Thinking that distribution in Europe is the same as in the United States would be a serious mistake in your market approach. Apart from linguistic problems, the main differences stem from the history of computing itself.
 
IT distribution in Europe was developed in opposition to direct distribution in the United States. When it comes to technology, the big American players have always preferred to take a direct customer approach, largely because the technology was expensive, difficult to explain and required specialists.
 
It was only when computing became democratized and the price/volume ratio was reversed (the price decreasing and the volume increasing) that IT companies turned to the large distribution chains and wholesalers, but their initial DNA was still geared to direct sales. When American (or Japanese) companies wanted to set up in Europe  various barriers: linguistic, legal and commercial, soon made them realize that a direct approach just wouldn’t work. They therefore turned to other companies to represent them (publishers,  importers, wholesalers), often buying some of them out after a while. 

In the United States, with just one language you can work a market of over 320 million inhabitants, and if you then add three other languages (Spanish, Portuguese and French) you can reach a market of nearly one billion people. In Switzerland there are 8 million in habitants for 3 languages… In Europe there are 750 million inhabitants and 24 official languages with as many fiscal and social laws as there are countries.

This means we have a very granular economy and this granularity implies significant physical distribution costs, high financial risks and  high costs for market education …which is the wholesaler’s job.

To sum up without giving an archeological lesson on the economics of new technology:

Jack Mandard, Founder and CEO

A graduate of IPAG, Jack has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years and has held various positions in marketing for software publishers and manufacturers. His previous position was Director of Marketing Europe for Borland International.

Véronique Cales, Financial and Administrative Manager

Véronique joined compuBase in 1995. She has strong experience in the field of financial and administrative management having  previously worked in the food industry for IRIS Industries.