CRN Exclusive: Channel Chief Veteran Dunsire Named President Of Arlington Computer Products

Scott Dunsire, a 25-year channel chief veteran who was named one of the top five sales leaders in 2017 by CRN, is taking a job as president of Midwest solution provider powerhouse Arlington Computer Products.

Dunsire, who for the past decade has driven robust channel sales growth at both Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP, takes the helm with the Buffalo Grove, Ill., company on the march to double sales over the next three years.

Dunsire, a highly respected channel veteran who has been a fixture on CRN's annual Most Influential Channel Chiefs list, said he was attracted to the job by the no-holds-barred "customer-first" culture put in place by ACP CEO Arly Guenther.

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"The relationships that Arly and the team have built with customers are unbelievable," said Dunsire, who has followed the rise of the 33-year-old ACP from a catalog product provider into an award-winning CRN Tech Elite 250 enterprise solution provider. "What attracted me to ACP is the great culture. ACP has been delivering for customers for over 30 years. That says a lot about the culture that Arly has built. It is a customer-first culture. It is all about making sure you do whatever you have to in order to keep customers happy. Everything starts with meeting the needs of the customer."

Dunsire said he is looking forward to spending a lot of time over the next 30 days meeting with customers, ACP employees, and vendor and distribution partners. "I am going to spend a lot of time listening to understand what do we do well and what do we need to do more of," he said. "This has been a very successful reseller for over 30 years. I am not here to change the world. I am here to enhance and improve upon the great things that ACP has already done."

While at HPE, Dunsire was credited for delivering across-the-board improvements and stepped-up commitment in every channel segment. Before his role at HPE, he was vice president and general manager of U.S. Channels and SMB Printing and Personal Systems for HP, and a vice president of U.S. Business Channels for Lexmark.

Dunsire said his more than 25 years driving channel sales with partners of all sizes has provided him with the skills to move to the other side of the fence overseeing the day-to-day sales and operations of a $100 million solution provider business. "I have spent so much time in the channel working with different partners that I know what works and what doesn't work," he said. "I am indebted to HPE and HP for the opportunities that they gave me that prepared me for this job. It's a team sport. I am looking forward to leveraging my connections and contacts in both the vendor and distribution communities."

Dunsire takes over day-to-day responsibilities as ACP is making significant investments to drive the business into the cloud era. "We are going to focus first and foremost on growing the business organically through practice areas like security, managed and professional services, cloud and device as a service," he said.

With top-tier partnerships with HPE, HP, Dell EMC, VMware, Cisco and Palo Alto Networks, Dunsire said vendor engagement and distribution partnerships will be key to the company's growth. "Bringing new technologies to customers in conjunction with vendors and distributors is one area I will focus on," he said. "We are going to look at services and what we can do with distribution to be more efficient."

ACP will also double down on vendor strategic account planning and engagement with vendor end-user sales teams and top executives, said Dunsire. "Targeting the right set of vendors to work with that fits our skill set allows us to bring the right solutions to our customers," he said. "This is about bringing discipline to the process. Making sure we have a more holistic approach to how we measure the relationships with vendors and customers is an area I am going to focus on. There has to be a cadence."

ACP is also going to consider potential acquisitions including born-in-the-cloud resellers as part of the sales growth offensive, said Dunsire, who has developed tight relationships with many solution providers over the past 25 years. "Building out some of these new practices requires the ability to recruit the right talent," he said. "If there is a successful partner that can complement our strategy and be part of the family, we will look at that. This is about acquiring talent with the right skill set to have the conversations with customers."

Key to success in the current IT landscape is being very selective about vendor focus with an emphasis on services, services attach and OEM services, and security, said Dunsire."We need to make sure our vendor partners understand what our skill sets are so we make the right combined investments together," he said.

Dunsire said he is looking forward to working with Guenther and 20-year ACP veteran Senior Vice President of Professional Services Darren Wesley to drive sales growth. "The timing in bringing Scott on as president could not have worked out better for ACP,’ said Guenther. ’We have worked with Scott and his teams for over a decade. His leadership, talent and industry experience will have an immediate impact."

Guenther said Dunsire's "commitment to excellence" and "outstanding customer experience" is second to none. "At ACP from top to bottom, high customer satisfaction is embedded in our culture and Scott will continue that focus," he said. "Scott is super talented and we are very excited about the energy and new ideas he brings as the president of ACP."

Wesley said Dunsire's strategic sales leadership is going to be key to expanding ACP's professional services footprint. "Scott brings tremendous value to ACP as we build out our managed services offerings including our cloud services and our video surveillance practice," he said.

ACP Vice President of Client Solutions Tom Turkot, for his part, said adding Dunsire to the ACP management team is a game -changer for the company. "Scott's relationships and industry knowledge will pay huge dividends almost immediately," he said.

Dunsire credited Guenther with building a world-class solution provider with top-notch talent that has navigated every twist and turn of the IT market over the past three decades. "I love the fact that I get the opportunity to work side by side with an entrepreneur like Arly, a technology services pro like Darren, Tom and the rest of the team," he said.

Dunsire said he is also looking forward to meeting ACP team members. "I am honored to be part of this organization," he said. "It is a phenomenal group of smart and hard-working people. I am looking forward to getting into the trenches with those employees every single day."