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Less than nine months after its formation, member companies of Advanced Technology Group (ATeG), the alliance formed by some of Europe's leading design-in distributors, are beginning to see real benefits from their close co-operation.
Virtual warehousing in particular is proving to have a significant positive impact on all of the companies' operations.
"It is still early days for ATeG, there is still a lot of work to be done and a long way to go but already we are seeing significant benefits from the Group company", said Lisalynn Carter, MD of GD Technik.
"The virtual warehousing concept has been a noticeable success giving all concerned access to a greater range of products and enabling us to offer our customers a wider range of inventory ex-stock at more competitive prices.
There is no doubt that the close co-operation between our companies has proved to be very good for product sourcing".
According to Bernhard Sonnentag, President of Ineltek: "Another major positive has been the strengthening of each individual company's line cards.
While the catalyst was undoubtedly Atmel, with each of us number one in our respective territories, the synergy that exists between the member companies is being appreciated by our other major principals.
We now have five major lines across the whole group, including Fujitsu Microelectronics and Hynix Semiconductor".
The ATeG line card now boasts over 30 franchises and the group is continually looking to add complimentary lines.
"Through our group we are able to offer our customers products from all these principals giving us much greater strength across the board", added Carter.
"We are not aiming for the broad line approach, our goal is to remain specialist design-in distributors.
This will always be our focus, only now we can offer much more choice".
All the member companies agree - ATeG helps them buy smarter.
It also brings more flexibility as the group is able to offer centralised purchasing for those companies who want it and local agreements for those who don't.
And what of the future?
ATeG's latest member Anatronic, with offices in Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao in Spain, and also in Lisbon in Portugal will also, for the time being at least, be its last.
The alliance's push into Italy and France will not be done through the addition of new partners.
Instead member companies are to establish subsidiary operations in these countries supported by an infrastructure of FAEs and sales representatives.
One of the major drivers behind the formation of ATeG was the need to be able to track worldwide business to the purchasing point.
With offices in Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Russia, Ineltek provides ATeG with a strong Eastern European presence.
For tracking designs that go to the Far East for manufacture, ATeG is currently looking at opening an office in China.
The last word lies with GD Technik's Lisalyn Carter: "The main objective of all the members of ATeG is to remain profitable while continuing to support our customer and supplier needs.
ATeG's close co-operation and strong presence across Europe is helping us to do just that.
Given today's 'difficult' market conditions the fact that we all continue to be profitable is something to be very proud of indeed".
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