technologyreseller.co.uk 17 in the TechZone, with different vendors dotted around. We can fit about 80 people in here.” Statement of intent Maynard, who describes this as ‘a very exciting time’ for the company, believes the TechZone will help Nimans to differentiate itself from other AV distributors that don’t have such facilities. “Looking across the distribution landscape, there are a lot of broadliners that are quite happy to ‘stack it high’. That’s not how we want to position ourselves. One of the successes we’ve had in the video space is being able to work with customers, understand their requirements and put together a solution that fits their needs, instead of trying to shoehorn them into something that isn’t quite right. It’s really important to us that we’re able to work with customers in that way and not just sell a box…At the end of the day, we want to bring a customer on board and keep them sticky to Nimans.” ‘Really positive’ feedback from partners who attended the opening suggests that the Tech Zone is already having the desired effect – particularly amongst local partners and their customers who would previously have had to travel to vendor facilities in London to experience products first-hand and to discuss their needs with technology experts. “One of the things that surprised me today is the distance people travelled to get here, with some coming from London and even further south,” explains Marketing Director Matt Smith. “To hear them saying they can’t wait to bring their customers here and the distance they are prepared to travel to do so shows how much they value what we are doing here.” To book your visit to the Nimans TechZone, please complete the booking form at www.nimans.net/techzone a remote participant around the space, demo specific products and do shootouts against different options.” Customisable space Hargraves adds that the rooms are easily customisable so that, while video, AV and associated accessories are the TechZone’s main focus, the space can quickly be adapted to highlight other Nimans technologies, including telephony and security products. “If someone wants to see something like a Yeastar or Mitel phone system, we can quickly spin it up. The table in the big room has equipment built-in which enables us to connect desk phones and showcase cloud telephony very quickly. That sort of adaptation is what we’ll keep doing,” he says. Maynard adds that adaptability matters because as well as using the TechZone to support its own partners, Nimans is encouraging vendor and reseller partners to make use of the space for their own purposes, whether that’s to demonstrate a solution to a customer or to hold a product launch, training session or customer event. “Already today, one vendor has asked to use the space for their sales meeting. Because the space is so customisable they could bring in dozens of people for a sales meeting and then break out into technical sessions afterwards. Or a partner could hold an open day for customers their toes in AV and initially rely on our installation services. Then, as they win more opportunities, they say ‘OK, now train us on this. We need to get x number of engineers trained up’. We handhold them until they’re confident enough to do it themselves. I think that’s where we set ourselves aside from the competition.” Three rooms The TechZone, which builds on and expands Nimans’ existing presentation/ meeting room and video demo space, consists of three light and airy rooms, kitted out with AV and meeting room technologies from key vendors such as Yealink, Viewsonic and Hikvision on the commercial display side and Yealink and Jabra on the audio and video side. These include: an 80-person presentation suite equipped with video conferencing technology, which also has space for refreshments and product displays; a demo/showroom devoted to meeting room technology, including room booking panels, control panels, video bars, meeting room boards and audio products (speakers and headphones); and a second, bigger demo/showroom featuring large commercial displays, including an ultra-wide (105in) model, an LED video wall – Nimans’ first LED wall installation – and a large boardroom table. The TechZone has been created for face-to-face interactions, but, as Hargraves explains, it also includes video conferencing technology to support virtual meetings and remote participants. “Before we created this space, over half our video demonstrations were virtual and that is something we’ll continue to support. We’ve tried to put the right products in the right areas, so that when we need to do something virtually, we have the right camera angles, the right microphone coverage to enable us to walk DISTRIBUTION
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