Kathy Gibson reports from Milan, Italy – As it celebrates its 50th birthday, Acer has reaffirmed its commitment to the channel.
Cristine Pez, director of commercial marketing and go-to-market at Acer EMEA, explains that the company’s go-to-market is 100% through the channel, to all of its target markets: SMB/mid-market; education; public sector; and enterprise.
Education
Pez points to Acer’s education market which is totally reliant on a strong ecosystem.
“Our journey in the education segment started in 2010,” Pez explains. “There were a lot of challenges, but also a lot of good projects that we built up together with our resellers and end customers delivering solutions to schools and educators.”
It’s not just resellers that are key in this rich ecosystem. The community of partners also includes Intel, Microsoft, Google, European Schoolnet and Unesco.
“Together with our partners we have built applications, solutions, and software – even furniture.”
Working with this close ecosystem, Acer has been able to design solutions specifically for the education market. “We listened to schools, talked to teachers and their resellers, and
designed devices for their needs,” Pez explains.
Today, the eco-friendly range includes laptops, tablets, miniPCs and OPS for K12 customers. Commercial desktops, Chromebooks and peripherals add to the new target market of laboratories.
Acer also addresses higher education with AI PCs, Chromebook Plus, workstations, ProDesigner and SpatialLabs solutions.
Pez points out that the Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum indicates that 93% of European companies expect artificial intelligence to transform their business by 2030, while nearly 40% of current skills will undergo significant changes and technological transformation will lead to the creation of 170-million new jobs.
She believes this scenario clearly shows that unlocking the potential of SMBs and education through digitalisation is not merely an opportunity, but a strategic imperative for European competitiveness.
SMB market
Acer has also had success with the SMB market sector, where trust is a major factor in every purchasing decision.
Small and medium-sized businesses are at the very heart of the European economy: 26,1-million companies, accounting for 99,8% of all active businesses, generate 52% of the European Union’s added value total.
“The SMB needs to have trust in what they’re bringing into their companies,” Pez says.
To make sure they can trust their supplier, she points out that several elements need to be present:
- Skills and training – AI adoption and digital transformation require structured company-wide training to build the right skills.
- Try before you buy – being able to test and experience technologies helps SMBs to select the right AI and digital tools.
- Security first – cybersecurity remains a central pillar for success in digital transformation.
- AI-ready talent – SMBs need people ready to operate in their environments – AI and digital transformation are key to success.
- Local community engagement – SMBs are deepening their role as anchors of local economies, contributing to community resilience and strengthening local engagement.
“To be able to deliver all of this, we need proximity – and we do this with the reseller channel,” Pez says.
New partner portal
To further strengthen this strategy, Acer has announced the Acer Channel Partner Portal – a digital platform which is already active in five countries (Italy, the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands) and is set to cover almost the entire EMEA market by the end of June.
The portal brings together all the tools partners need to operate more quickly and effectively in a single environment: from immediate pricing requests on available products to registration for bid opportunity, from product consultation and comparison to continuous training through the Academy, as well as access to marketing materials, loyalty programmes, information about extended warranties, and support services. The portal is also an integrated access point to channel programmes, fostering synergy, visibility on opportunities, and greater coordination among all the ecosystem players.
“Investing in small and medium-sized companies means investing in the future of the European economy,” says Pez. “The new Acer Channel Partner Portal is not just a digital tool, but a real strategic support platform for our partners designed to simplify the adoption of advanced technology, accelerate processes, and create new growth opportunities.”