NZ goes Parallel with HP in Australia

 Sydney-based distributor Parallel Solutions has replaced broad-based rival Tech Pacific n NZ as out-of-warranty trade parts contractor for HP.

TechPac New Zealand had exited its Master Parts Reseller (MPR) contract, which it had held for about two years.

Parallel Solutions had been an out-of-warranty trade parts contractor for HP Australia for about a year, a factor which operations director Chris Russell said drove the 5 January deal.

'I think, because we've proved ourselves in the Australian market -– we're in the process of signing an [extension] to the Australian contract -- they put in a good word for us with the HP management team and when HP exited, our name was put forward,' he said.

Russell said discussion had begun last September or October and included a visit to HP in NZ's capital Wellington. 'We put a proposal together ... and within about two or three weeks, they rang us,' he said.

Parallel Solutions had opened a facility in Christchurch on the South Island and would source parts from HP's Singapore-based Parts Market Place (PMP) e-commerce hub.

TechPac NZ's MD, Tony Butler, had reportedly claimed out-of-warranty parts were not lucrative for the massive distributor.

However, Russell said he believed that HP trade parts turnover across the Tasman could be worth more than the predicted NZ$200,000 each year.

'I don't know where that figure came from. But NZ$200,000 for TechPac is a drop in the ocean. Our overheads are a bit lower –- we'd be happy with NZ$200,000 for the first year,' he said.

Further, Parallel Solutions was planning a big marketing push to ramp up its trade parts sales for HP. 'In NZ, we need to claw back some of the lost opportunities in that market,' he said. 'But it is definitely a gamble.'

Russell said he had heard that NZ customers had found sourcing out-of-warranty parts in that market –- even for major vendors -- difficult.

'That's what we're hearing from our clients at the moment. They're saying “Oh, geez, you guys are like a breath of fresh air here”. I think sourcing parts was a fairly hard process and I think a lot of NZ clients had gone and found parts-sourcing elsewhere,' he said.

Pivotal in the push would be a new website Parallel Solutions was piloting to NZ customers and an LG Aria 130 VoIP-based customer contact system for both Australia and New Zealand, he said.

'We've opened a branch in South Australia and we're using that as a pilot [of IP telephony], testing the lines between Adelaide and our Liverpool (Sydney) office, although not our main logistics office in Moorebank (Sydney),' Russell said.

If the pilot was successful, Parallel Solutions would roll it out across Australasia. An Aria 310 had already been installed in the Christchurch office, he said.

HP had provided 'fantastic support' for Parallel Solutions in its ventures, Russell said.