On September 29th, a cocktail party was held on the spectacular terrace of the Hotel Gallia in Milan that celebrated a year of fruitful collaboration between Intermark Sistemi and Xilica, a leading company in the digital audio sector. CEO James Knight was present, with whom we obviously exchanged a few words.
2021 represented a sort of watershed for Xilica: for the first time the company has dedicated itself to directly supporting the Italian market from all points of view, from product to marketing, assistance on projects and after sales. As CEO James Knight put it, “the ability to tap into a pool of locally developed skills is particularly important now, with all the problems involved with limited product storage capacity.” From these observations the collaboration with Intermark Sistemi was born, with full mandate of representation in Italy on all aspects of the brand.
Another important element of the agreement is the lively channel of direct contact with the System Integrators of the Roman company, and the extensive network of resellers. This, continues Knight, “allows us, as producers, to create the optimal result for the final customer, because we have a global level of knowledge, but through local specialists; this allows us to develop projects simultaneously in the Corporate, Education and Government worlds, Intermark’s first markets of interest. Ultimately, we are really excited.”
The enthusiasm seems fully reciprocated. As Fabio Concezzi, CEO of Intermark Sistemi says, “obviously we knew the quality of the Xilica brand already before 2021 and, when we had the first meeting with James, we immediately understood that it would be a mutual opportunity. Just as, once we signed the agreement and moved on to work in the field, we were fully satisfied from a technical, commercial, and marketing point of view.” Not only that: “Collaborating with Xilica means counting on a wide range of products available – observes Concezzi – and already in stock, and it is a fundamental aspect in this phase of the market. Xilica is also an innovative company in processes and management: from the platform for ordering products to requests for support, from RMA procedures (Return Merchandise Authorisation) to the management of Leads, the work is fluid and fast.”
On the other hand, the global vocation of Xilica seems to respond to problems that are also global, which emerged in particular after the pandemic crisis. As Knight reflects: “Until 2020 the audio in a conference room was not so important for customers, today with the emergence of hybrid work it has been understood that the ability to hear well is crucial in doing one’s job. We have therefore gone from being suppliers of an asset of relative importance to being indispensable. With this background it is important to be able to count on a distributor focused in the Education, Corporate, Government sectors, primary markets for our solutions.” Unlike what it may seem, in fact, in the face of a wide range of products, Intermark is able to develop an ad hoc variation for each of these sectors, whereas other companies tend to prefer a more vertical line of action. “It’s a great match,” Knight reiterates, “and it’s the kind of relationship we want to create around the world, because as manufacturers we receive important insights in terms of product management, research and development.
In addition, we improve our ability to present high-performance solutions to customers who may not know them, and ranging from the world of Unified Communications to IT.” The results are already tangible, according to Concezzi: “Since the first demos our partners have immediately taken to the Xilica solutions; in the Corporate sector, for example, we have created installations in many meeting rooms or for boards of directors, but also in universities, in the universities of Milan and Rome for example. Last but not least: Xilica has a high build quality and performance, but the price has always been notoriously competitive.”
In short, it seems that a beautiful friendship has been inaugurated, and the first anniversary is now here to seal it.
