Times are changin'
In the wake of Carphone Warehouse, the cellular reseller, scooping
up most of Tandy's UK stores after Christmas, the cellular company
has committed itself to continuing to sell PCs through the Tandy
sites, but the question is whether end users will actually buy from
the stores, given the presence of Byte, PC World, Tiny Computers
and other computer superstores on the high street.
Times may changing at Novell as well as at Tandy, however, as
Murray Treece, the company's channel sales director, has abruptly
left the company after three and a half years with the networking
firm. The official reason is that Treece wanted a change of
direction and a new challenge, but sources suggest that major
changes are under way at Novell UK. This seems rather strange,
given that the networking giant has clawed its way back after a
couple of years in the wilderness.
Treece has left to join Telinco, a small Internet service provider
(ISP) in the North-West of England. Treece, who is widely regarded
as a key figure in Novell's return to fame, will be sorely missed
at Novell UK. Perhaps his defection to a small ISP indicates that
the Internet really does have a rosy future?
IBM cuts rebates, upset dealers
Dealers were less than pleased in mid-February when they learned
that IBM was cutting its distributor rebate on hardware from 20 to
17 per cent. Distributors, not unexpectedly, responded by passing
along these margin reductions to their dealers. To say that IBM has
shot itself in the foot with this move is an understatement. Sales
figures for Q4 of last year from IDC show that Big Blue's UK PC
sales lost market share. You can expect that trend to continue.
Undeterred by adverse reaction to its rebate cuts, however, IBM has
taken the wraps off the PC 300 GL Small Business Series (SBS),
which it describes as a complete desktop solution for small and
growing businesses.
Backing up the new machines is IBM's SystemXtra program, as well as
an interesting option for dealers to sell the machines without any
pre- loaded software. With a price level of just 489 pounds for the
entry-level Celeron 333 machine, the `no software' pricing makes
the new PCs quite competitive.
The SystemXtra program, meanwhile, offers small business users a
complete PC, software and training, through their dealer on a
leased basis. In addition, the program also offers users a change
to upgrade their machines every two years, as well as cash back for
unused equipment.
Northamber in TV documentary fiasco
Northamber faced a public relations disaster in mid-February after
the BBC broadcast a TV documentary about the distributor in its
`Workers at War' series.
During the show, staff relations at the distributor were shown to
be less than rosy, with the MD of the firm, Henry Matthews, seen on
screen telling a middle manager to give one of the company's best
sales representatives a two months session working in the warehouse
after he had complained about his brother being terminated by the
company.
Adrian Cobley-Webster, the distributor's training manager,
meanwhile, told staff - in front of the cameras - `Thinking is
dangerous. When you think, negative pictures start coming into your
mind.'
Industry reaction to Northamber successfully making itself a
laughing stock was less than favourable. The problem appears to be
that the show offered a rare glimpse into the world of PC sales,
and that viewers have presumed that the show was illustrative of
the PC dealer industry as a whole, rather than just one company.
Microsoft goes from strength to strength
Despite computer magazine criticism of its latest Office suite,
Windows 98 seems to have pushed Microsoft back into the limelight,
at least as far as resellers are concerned.
The software giant reports that sales of Windows 98 and associated
business software are buoyant, and has just kicked off its third
Direct Access quarterly briefings for independent resellers,
consultants and Microsoft certified solution partners.
The program, which originally started last September, runs from
February 16 through until the end of March, and is free to attend.
As a result of feedback from early sessions, Microsoft has started
a free telephone support service for its dealers. Each time a
dealer attends a Direct Access quarterly briefing, buys a Direct
Access Action Pack or attends a Direct Access training course, they
will be entitled to free support calls.
Kate Batson, Microsoft's channel development and small business
manager, said that the Direct Action program has seen more than
7,000 resellers attending in the last four months.
`They've told us that the events are a great way for them to keep
in touch with Microsoft's products, while also giving the
opportunity to meet Microsoft staff in the flesh,' she said, adding
that resellers have indicated that they value technical telephone
support.
Azlan moves Cisco warehouse to the Netherlands
Azlan has baffled its dealers by moving its Cisco warehousing
operation from York in the North of England over to the
Netherlands. The move appears to be a cost-cutting exercise, but it
has been publicly slated by competitors, who point out that Azlan
can no longer offer same-day delivery on Cisco kit as a result of
the changes.
In fact, competitor RBR Networks claims that it has secured three
major customers with sales worth around two million pounds as a
direct result of the Azlan move.
According to Rory Sweet, RBR Networks' managing director, the
business was won because Azlan customers were worried that the move
of the warehouse to the Netherlands would hit delivery times.
`I don't understand it at all. It will mean that Azlan will have
difficulty sending anything to UK customers for same-day delivery,'
she said, adding that, if something goes wrong with an order, the
firm won't be able to correct it the same day.
HP unveils next generation of Vectras
After several weeks of waiting, Hewlett-Packard has at least
unveiled its new range of Vectra PCs for the business marketplace.
The machines are notable for their claimed high levels of
efficiency and lower operating costs.
The machines kick off with the Celeron processor, rising up through
the Pentium II chipsets and include Pentium III-based machines as
their flagship offerings.
According to HP, the new Vectras offer users the widest choice of
options, since they are available in three form factors: compact
(half-size casings), mini-tower with six slots and a desktop
version with 4 x 4 expandability.
All the machines have a new easy-access chassis. HP claims that
this allows IT managers to remove the outer case, slide out the
motherboard and remove components - all without using any tools.
This feature,the company says, can cut maintenance time by up to 80
per cent.
The bottom line to this is that a high-power 400 MHz Pentium II
with 64 MB of memory, 8.4 GB hard disk, Windows NT and Ethernet
connectivity, sells for around 985 pounds.This about 20 to 30 per
cent more than some of the business mail order specialists such as
Insight (www.insight.com/uk) and Novatech (www.novatech.co.uk) are
charging, but it does give HP dealers the chance to offer business
machines that are good value for money and offer the best mix of
features.
IBM, 0044-1256-343002 (GB), http://www.ibm.com;
Microsoft UK, 0044-870-601-0100 (GB), http://www.microsoft.com;
Hewlett-Packard, 0044-1344-365467 (GB), http://www.hp.com;
RBR Networks, 0044-1285-647001 (GB)