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THE SAFE CHOICE FOR
INDUSTRIAL MEMORY AND DATA SECURITY

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Distributing with a difference.

WHY WORKING WITH A VALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTOR, CAN HELP YOU GET THE MEMORY COMPONENTS YOU NEED THIS YEAR..

At Nexus, we distribute memory.  Secure memory.  Memory trusted by military organisations all over the world, memory that stands the test of time, and memory that can survive in the harshest environments known to man..

 We partner with our clients, using our industry experience and engineering knowledge to ensure that you get the right memory product for your application, that it will do what it needs to do, and that it’ll stand the test of time.

If you’re…

  • Struggling with lead times…
  • Need some technical expertise to ensure you’re getting the right memory for you…
  • Want the securest form of memory possible…

…we can help.

To request a chat with us just fill in the form on the right of this page or call us on 01794 301439.

Who are Nexus Industrial Memory?

We started way back in 1987, and quickly became the UK’s first and most focused distributor of specialist memory products for harsh environment applications (like industrial, motorsport, rail and renewable energy) and situations (embedded or as part of an IT infrastructure) in which security is of paramount importance.

Fast forward 35 years, and today our sales engineers have supported hundreds of engineers in your position with advice and guidance to ensure the memory solutions provided are sufficiently reliable, rugged and secure enough for their intended applications.

And how can we help you?

As engineers ourselves, we understand the technical challenges you face and the commercial pressures you’re under to ensure your products and systems function as intended, are future-proofed and brought in on time and within budget.

If you’re after a data solution that will help you with:

  • Data logging
  • Updating firmware
  • User identification
  • Parameter/calibration uploads
  • Securing communications
  • Restricting use
  • Feature enabling

…you’re in the right place.  But it doesn’t end there.

Our memory products are the most rugged out there, so whether you need them to be able to withstand significant impacts, extremes of temperatures, or even medical sterilisation, we’ve got you covered.

Worth a chat, engineer to engineer?

Whether you’ve got a concept you think our products could be right for, or you just want a general conversation about what we do and why it works, we’d love to talk – here’s just some of the areas we can guide you on:

  • Memory – capacity, speed and interface
  • Form factor – IC, card, module, removable etc..
  • Durability (suitability for harsh environment)
  • Security (e.g. encryption)
  • Accessories and development kits
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Complete support for the first half of your project’s lifecycle

As engineers ourselves, we understand intimately the importance of designing in products that can be supported throughout your project’s lifecycle.

Our Datakey product has been around for over 35 years, and continues to be the data solution of choice for leading organisations in all sorts of fields.

However, our support begins before you even start designing.

Talk to us, and we can help you select the most suitable memory, providing you a development kit to make it easier for you to move from concept to implementation de-risking your test and integration, and helping your products to enter service and systems to go live as soon as possible.

Whether you want to talk to us about your current project, your next one or even discuss (in confidence) what could have been done better on a previous project, we’re here for you.

Use the form in the top right corner of this page to book a no obligation chat or call us on 01794 301439 now.

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Nexus – the exclusive distributors in the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia – have been helping customers successfully integrate Datakey products for 35 years.

FLEXXON LOGO Trademark

Nexus – is an appointed distributor of Flexxon in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Austria and is the exclusive distributor of Datakey products in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia.

Nexus have over 35 years experience helping engineers in the provision of memory-based products that are designed especially for those situations where commercial is simply not secure enough, not rugged enough and/or has no guaranteed long-term availability.

Value added distributorUnfortunately, it’s a fact of life that most distributors are just a local presence for their suppliers. They take orders. And they hold some stock. Thankfully, in the B2B engineering sectors, it’s somewhat different as there is, quite rightly, an expectation that value should be added. So, what is a value-added distributor? And what exactly is the nature of that value?

Publishing company Investopedia says:

The term “value-added” describes the economic enhancement a company gives its products or services before offering them to customers. Value-added helps explain why companies are able to sell their goods or services for more than they cost to produce. Adding value to products and services is very important as it provides consumers with an incentive to make purchases, thus increasing a company’s revenue and bottom line.

Regarding the ‘incentive’, we’re of the opinion it’s also about giving customers ‘confidence’. That’s certainly our experience, and we’ve been supporting customers in a variety of engineering sectors for more than 35 years.

A value-added distributor will always take the time to understand their customers’ requirements. Even when a customer has an idea of which product will meet their needs, there is often an alternative which might be a better fit; better in terms of functionality, price or availability (as lead times are always a factor).

Also, a good value-added distributor will not be suggesting alternatives as a means of upselling. There’s no point pushing to sell higher profit products that aren’t 100% fit-for-purpose and/or which aren’t available in quantities to support the customers’ product development and manufacturing schedules. That’s not the way to build long-term relationships.

It’s Good to Talk

If there’s to be any push in the value-added distributor-customer relationship it should be to understand and to help.

Case in point: One customer had purchased two SlimLink II readers, where the product is a stand-alone programmer for memory tokens and connects to a host pc via a standard USB port. As a courtesy, we wanted to check the customer had everything they needed but their company policy did not allow them to discuss their projects. But then they ran into a few technical problems and were asking questions of us while maintaining they still could not tell us what they were doing with the readers.

After jumping through a few hoops to allow the sharing of information, we learned they had been dismantling the readers to embed within their product. We were quick to recommend that a Unitroller II would be better. It is a single-board interface unit that also accepts tokens and interfaces via USB. It costs less than a SlimLink II reader and there’s no dismantling required to embed it into a product.

We saved the company time and money, plus the Unitroller II board has a short lead time. Most importantly, we now have a very good working relationship with that customer.

All You NeedDatakey development kit

If a value-added distributor has access to development kits, they should be offered to their customer as early in the development cycle as possible. It allows them to provide the best possible level of support to the customer as they develop their product.

In the above example, had we been in discussions at the start of the customer’s project we would have recommended a SlimLink II development kit (pictured right). It contains 2x memory token samples, a SlimLink II programmer (which the customer had been buying on their own), a PCB board mount receptacle, a panel-mount receptacle, cables, software drivers, source code and documentation.

They would certainly have been able to fast-track their project by using the kit for product development and then switching to the Unitroller for embedding.

As mentioned, we have a good relationship with that customer, and though things could have been done more efficiently the end result is the same. They have the right parts for their products, and we’re pleased to be supplying those parts.

In summary, a value-added distributor should always be prepared to go out of the way to add value. It’s what they’re there for. It’s certainly what we’re here for and although this blog turned out to be more of a case study, we hope it answers the questions we posed at the start: So, what is a value-added distributor? And what exactly is the nature of that value?

 

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