PC Retail

NanoPoint is the UK subsidiary of MaxPoint, the German manufacturing group and supplier of high-end PC peripherals, headquartered at Ahrensburg near Hamburg.

Founded in 2004, NanoPoint forms the UK distribution arm of the MaxPoint group, which has brands in Europe, Asia and the United States, each with its own focus and specific clientele. While the focus of the group is mainly on the manufacture and supply of PSUs, the result of the varied specialisation is that NanoPoint can draw upon a wide range of products to bring a broad portfolio to its clients.

As an example of this, a look at a few of NanoPoint's suppliers in the PSU sector shows the variety of clientele that the company can cater for. Tagan produces a range of power supplies aimed at gamers and enthusiasts, Seasonic produces a range of high-end efficient, reliable and silent units and Etasis manufactures PSUs for server applications such as redundant PS or IPC.

The MaxPoint Group claims it always aims to satisfy its clientele and offers a well-adapted overall portfolio in the power supply market.

However, the business is not limited to the power supply sector; other strong products include high-end PC cases, keyboards and laptop bags. The company's product portfolio also extends to server racks, external enclosures, NAS systems and Backplane systems, as well as SOHO and RAID partition systems.

NanoPoint has seen some profound changes to the market over the last year and, like many businesses, has found that its core business market is shrinking.

"Many new brands have joined the power supply market and it is now flooded with a huge range of wattages and features," says NanoPoint's Nathan Walters. "However, many budget power supplies are now available. The power supply is the heart of any computer system, providing power to components, and I must stress that the importance of providing stable and efficient power should be a top priority when building any system, which is why we only offer high quality and premium brands, such as the Icy Box. The last twelve months have been very positive for this product. With such a huge range and support for all types of hard drive, it is important for us to be constantly updating our product portfolio to ensure that the latest features and technology is supported."

As befits a national distribution arm, NanoPoint's goal is to use the service and product portfolio of the whole MaxPoint group to offer innovative products, but with service as a prime focus. Walters attributes the success of NanoPoint to this emphasis on good customer service, as well as to the continuing research and development that is undertaken by its partners at MaxPoint and RaidSonic.

"The most important thing to look out for when purchasing any type of product from anywhere is a good service and quality," continues Walters. "NanoPoint offers a great service and a very high standard in quality products. Our sales team will treat all accounts with care, ensuring that you're purchasing the correct product for your needs, and will keep all account holders up to date with the latest products."

NanoPoint places a strong emphasis on good quality products such as its IB-NAS4220-B, a two-bay network attached storage device for 3.5-inch SATA hard drives with RAID support that can allow seven servers in one.

"This is a very good seller at the moment and during the launch of the product we struggled to meet demand for the first month as we were overwhelmed with the response."

NanoPoint has also branched into the lifestyle storage market by offering fully functional multimedia players. Its key product in this category is the IBMP3010- HW, which has wireless capabilities, allowing media files to be shared from a network, and includes a record function and HDMI interface. The firm also continues to see popularity with all Tagan power supplies for both the modular and standard models.

For the time being, with the economic climate making things difficult for all businesses, NanoPoint is looking to continue to maintain its highly stable operation. However, Walters maintains that having a relatively small team makes things much easier during such times and the continuing strategy of honing its ability to forecast demand and cultivating excellent relationships with its long-term customers means that NanoPoint is able to keep ahead of the market with new ideas and innovations for the future.

"For a manufacturer it keeps us out there in the field with many different solutions to offer," he says. "So raising the company profile and gaining more resellers who can purchase direct from us will be our aim over the next twelve months. We are also looking to take back the market share which has previously been lost to budget brands who do not offer the quality and premium kit that is available from NanoPoint."