Scott Frew Distribution Central

Having already built and sold one highly successful IT business, in 2004, Scott Frew acquired Firewall Systems, a small, Sydney-based IT security company with impressive revenues. Two years later, revenue had increased seven-fold, with the company opening offices in Brisbane and New Zealand. As Scott began to acquire more businesses – in infrastructure, storage, renewals, voice messaging, training – he realised there was a gap in the market for specialised, technical-service distribution and channel support. In 2007, in an industry first, he disengaged all the generic distribution pieces from his business units, calling the remainder Distribution Central. Entering a market with global, trillion dollar competitors, Distribution Channel was unique in servicing the vendor, while its six independent, specialised business units managed the reseller channel. Scott believed this approach would enable the company, and its vendor partners, to capitalise on all IT distribution opportunities in the Australian and New Zealand market, without diluting the high level of specialisation required to service complex technology markets. In addition, Distribution Central differentiated itself by building its manufacturers a configurator that allowed them to develop a quote for a complex IT system in a matter of seconds – where previously this had taken days. Scott also built an asset management system that allowed manufacturers, resellers and end users see where their assets were physically located, whether they were under maintenance or due for renewal and their associated serial numbers, configurations and maintenance contracts. By 2007, Distribution Central, with multi-million dollar revenues, was listed at number eight in BRW’s Fast 100 Company list. Today, the company has 68 employees and a strong growth forecast. Scott’s future plans include making the process of buying IT even easier by building a Software as a Service (SaaS) model for the entire channel.