Christmas sales
Preliminary figures just in from retail outlets in the UK suggest
that, despite Christmas, sales of PCs in the retail channel were
not up to expectations. Coupled with the usual sales slump on the
business side of the channel, this all adds up to gloom in the PC
vendor business.
Fortunately for the UK reseller, however, the market is at last
starting to get behind value-added solutions, rather than slashing
prices and expecting the `box shifters' to do their own thing.
Only Compaq has cut its workstation prices without adding value.
But then, with the company in the number one sales lot in their
area of the market, they are sitting pretty.
HP to bundle Brio PCs with BT ISDN Internet
With another round of price cuts expected in February on its
high-end PCs, especially in the Unix arena, the pressure is now on
Hewlett-Packard to cut prices, or at least, add value in the
channel.
The PC vendor has responded to dealer pressure by bundling its Brio
range of business PCs with BT Highway, British Telecom's new
low-cost ISDN package deal for accessing the Internet. The bundle
will mean that business users can buy an integrated PC with
advanced Internet capability in an all-in-one solution. According
to HP, the customer will be free to choose their Internet service
provider but HP will be recommending BT's Connect To Business.
Known as the HP Instant Office PC, the system is billed as offering
business users a high-quality PC with a BT Speedway ISDN card
pre-configured and already installed on the PC.
As part of the HP BT deal, an engineer will install the BT Highway
line at the customer's home/office or office. After setting up the
PC, an HP representative will familiarise the user with the PC and
all the facilities offered in the package. According to Bill Hill,
SMB manager at HP, the small business sector is looking for
solutions to its business problems - not just innovative products.
`Recognising those problems and combining the best technologies
available into an effective and cost-efficient solution is what
this package is all about,' he explained.
Compaq slashes PC pricing
Just because you're in pole position in the PC sales channel
doesn't mean you can give up on staying competitive, as Compaq has
proven by slashing pricing on its Professional Workstation range by
up to 10 per cent.
The cuts average seven per cent across the machine range, which may
not sound a lot, but Compaq's prices are street prices, rather than
retail, so this is a fair amount off the end user price, Dealer
Info notes.
The price cuts mean that, in the AP range, a Professional
Workstation AP200 with a 350MHz Pentium II Intel processor, 64MB of
ECC memory, 6.4GB hard drive and ELSA Gloria Synergy+ 2D/3D
graphics card has been reduced by eight per cent to 1,195 pounds.
According to Sue Forkin, Compaq's workstation product marketing
manager, the firm's workstation market leadership has been built on
their reputation for outstanding price/performance. `These price
reductions are proof of our commitment to customers to offer
leading performance and graphics capability at an affordable
price,' she explained.
As news of the price cuts broke in the New Year, 1998 Q3 sales
figures from Dataquest just in show that Compaq has jumped back
into the number one position in the total UK Windows NT and Unix
workstation marketplace for Q3 1998 with nearly 28 per cent market
share - a lead of 6.6 percentage points over its nearest rival.
Sue Forkin said that workstation market has become fiercely
competitive since Compaq entered it two years ago. `Our strategy
has been to provide a range of powerful workstation computers that
are suitable for most customer needs at a highly competitive price
point,' she explained.
`With the Professional Workstation range, we are now able to
address all workstation customers, from the entry-level to the very
high end, with top-quality products, and the market share figures
are testament to our strategy's success,' she noted.
Security Dynamics discovers the value-added
potential
Security Dynamics has been supplying network and data security
systems for several years, primarily working through specialist
resellers. Now the company is breaking into the mainstream with the
appointment of Unipalm as an authorised distributor for its
products.
Unipalm, of course, was the company that started the Internet sales
ball rolling in the UK dealer channel. After a management buyout a
few years ago, the company has re-established itself as a
distributor of business Internet technologies to the mainstream
dealer channel.
Under its deal with Unipalm, Security Dynamics will have access to
this mainstream channel for the first time. While no-one is saying
that the firm's ACE Server, SecurID and Kane Security Analyst
systems are shrink-wrapped products, it does signal a move beyond
the value added reseller (VAR) for the IT security firm.
According to Security Dynamics, it believes that Unipalm will add
a great deal of value to its solid base of two-tiered distribution
partners without creating any unnecessary channel conflict. Miles
Rippon, Security Dynamics' UK channel manager said that there is
some potential with bundling the firm's products with other Unipalm
products, such as Checkpoint's Firewall 1.
`Bringing Unipalm on board clearly demonstrates Security Dynamics'
continual commitment to the VAR Channel and associated partner
programmes. Unipalm's uniquely-focused security business model can
only be a recipe for success,' he said.
`By Unipalm taking our products to the VAR market with a dedicated,
Security Sales Team, we expect that 30 new, accredited VARs will be
signed up by the end of the first quarter of 1999,' he noted.
Siemens discovers Star Trek
One of the most unusual PC bundles to hit the retail channel in the
pre-Christmas runup was Siemens' Star Trek Insurrection PC bundle.
The bundle, which hit the stores in mid-December, was timed to
coincide with the end of year movie release of the Star Trek movie
of the same name.The PC comes with a Star Trek game and poster, as
well as the world's first infra-red head-activated joystick. When
the headset is worn, head movements control the activity of
characters on screen, creating a new way of interacting with the
PC.
The Star Trek: Insurrection themed PC is based around one of
Siemens' latest Xpert-branded consumer PC models, the 7260C.
Pricing, as you would expected for the retail channel, is inclusive
of VAT at 780 pounds - not bad for 300MHz Celeron processor-driven
machine with a 3.2GB hard disk and 32x CD-ROM.
ACC Telecom looks for dealers
ACC Telecom, a discount long distance and international call
service provider, is looking for serious business dealers for the
first time. While the company has paid commission to `consultants'
in the past, this is the first time that the firm has been looking
for IT dealers to handle its business.
As part of the initiative, the company has launched a Dealer
Charter and has boosted its dealer support team with three new
posts. The company has also restructured the field support team to
increase the focus on pre- and post-sales services.
ACC Telecom's Dealer Charter is billed as offering dealers access
to quality support, training, collateral, a dedicated hotline and
customer usage reports. It also guarantees call response times and
regular contact with allocated dealer managers.
The charter comes as ACC has seen dramatic growth from its dealer
channel in the past year. What's interesting is that the firm says
that the dealer channel now represents the single largest source of
income for the company.
Dealer Info notes that the charter also details ACC Telecom's
investment in its dealer development fund. This scheme enables
dealers to receive free telemarketing and recruitment support as
well as advice from ACC's consultants on forecasting and growth
strategy.
According to Paul Marfleet, ACC's sales development manager, there
are lots of channel programmes out there to tempt dealers into
signing up with service providers, but many of these seem to ignore
the fundamental principles on which effective dealer/vendor
relationships are based. `It's one thing to offer dealers promises
of status and financial reward, but if service providers can't
supply mission-critical sales tools and technical back-up, the
partnership won't work,' he said.
Hewlett-Packard, 0044-990474747 (GB), http://www.hp.com.;
Security Dynamics, 0044-1189362600 (GB), http://www.securitydynamics.com,
Unipalm, 0044-1638569613 (GB);
Siemens Xpert, 0044-1252555312, http://www.sni-epc.co.uk;
Compac Computer, 0044-8452704000 (GB), http://www.compaq.co.uk ;
ACC Telecom, 0044-1814004400, http://www.accuk.co.uk