Rising Dell
According to research just released by Merrill Lynch (www.ml.com), the financial management and advisory group, Dell is continuing to increase its share of company PC spending. The research, despite being weighted in favour of the US (75 CEOs in the US, against 25 in the UK), shows that Dell is quietly carving out a name for itself amongst corporates. Merrill Lynch says that 78 per cent of its survey respondents reported that Dell was winning an increasing share of company PC spending, placing the direct-sell vendor way ahead of HP and IBM, who have, respectively, 44 and 42 per cent.
As I've said before, when Dell entered the market way back in the mid-1980s, the company claimed it was a direct-sell vendor, whilst quietly selling into value-added resellers. Today the company still makes that claim - all that has changed is that the firm's sales through indirect channels has risen considerably.
Computer 2000 claims business pitch is winning market share
Computer 2000, the UK arm of Tech Data, says its big push for a slice of the business-oriented retail market has gone down very well, despite the fact that its dealer promotions on specific products have resulted in per-unit margins being squeezed. The distributor claims that continuing adoption of IT amongst small businesses is driving increased sales of IT products in the retail sector and growth rates are way above that of the broader market.
According to Richard Hales, Computer 2000's general manager of retail, the distributor's recent attendance at a number of UK shows has paid off handsomely. The business end of the retail market, he explained, is growing fast and Computer 2000 has the product portfolio, the finance and the logistics to meet the needs of all the UK's retailers. 'The message we'll be sending to retailers is this: If you want the best deal, the best service and the best choice come to Computer 2000 - we will make it work for you.'
e92plus offers managed security services to resellers
e92plus, the IT security vendor, has launched a 'white label' managed security service for resellers in the UK and the Benelux countries. Barry Mattacott, the firm's marketing manager, said that pricing on the firewall service starts at 50 pounds per month to the reseller, who is then free to add a markup of their own to the customer. 'It's a modular service that allows resellers to offer various managed security services to the end user company, depending on what they want,' he explained.
According to Mattacott, in a typical company, the firewall might be managed by the company's or the reseller's IT staff during office hours, with e92plus' service providing out-of-hours facilities. Mattacott said that e92plus has created a 24x7 support centre at its Surbiton, Surrey-based headquarters and is making this available to company customers - through resellers - in the UK, the Netherlands and the Benelux countries.
Mukesh Gupta, the firm's managing director, said that the managed security market has experienced significant upheaval, with many of the early players falling by the wayside. 'Our reseller base is being offered a range of flexible options, from a completely managed e92plus-branded service for their customers, through to a white-label service. We can also offer flexible resource sharing, allowing resellers to take on some of the management responsibility and increase their margins,' he said.
Samsung launches standalone business IT division
Samsung Electronics has had a presence in the UK for approaching two decades, but its business operations have always been part of its consumer business. Now the company has launched its own standalone IT division, covering sales of PCs, displays and fax plus printer products. The move will allow Samsung to market its products into the business side of the market, routing sales leads through its dealers. In parallel with the launch of the new division is the firm's new integrated wireless printer and what is billed as the industry's only Intel-validated Centrino notebook.
According to Ashley Ford, director of Samsung's IT product division, his firm is not just focused on bringing products to market that look good or that are world firsts, but products that, without exception, increase functionality and efficiency in the business environment. 'As one of only a few true equipment manufacturers, Samsung is in the unique position of having control over all core components at every stage of the production cycle, allowing us to build products from the bottom up in line with the demands of changing business processes,' he explained. Samsung's X10 Centrino-based notebook, he went on to say, is based around this idea, with the entire machine based around Intel's wireless LAN-enabled chipset.
NEC intros new laptops at CeBIT
Amidst all the W-LAN and mobile phone gizmos at the giant CeBIT
Computer Faire in Germany during March, NEC unveiled a range of new laptops designed to keep it ahead of the competition in what has become a fiercely competitive side of the PC market. The two notebooks, the Versa S800 and S900 series, are notable for being billed as the world's thinnest and lightest. Coupled with the Versa T400, a new tablet PC and a new range of servers, the company reckons it has market sewn up. Chuck Wearing, NEC Computer's UK product manager, said that the new machines are aimed at the firm's corporate customers, who are now starting to embrace mobile computing in a big way.
The Versa S800 is claimed to be the world's thinnest notebook PC and is aimed at what the company calls highly mobile business users that require high power and performance along with portability and flexibility. The Versa S900, meanwhile, is a similarly thin, but small footprint, sub-notebook PC powered by Intel Centrino mobile technology. This new notebook, the firm says, has been integrated with wireless LAN (802.11b) and provides optimum battery life for mobile professionals.
I was impressed with the new notebooks, but was less than happy when I got back to the UK to talk to the firm's dealer-facing staff. Yours truly couldn't find the company's contact details on its Web site, which is rather strange for a company that claims it is so close to its resellers. You may have better luck...
HP resellers under-impressed with ProCurve pricing
The latest Microscope, a UK dealer channel newspaper, says that HP resellers are less than impressed with the pricing on the vendor's new ProCurve switches.
The prices are not too high, as often happens when resellers get annoyed with T supply companies but, amazingly enough, are too competitive. The trade paper quotes HP as saying it wants to overtake 3Com in the local area network switch stakes within the next 12 months, pushing HP into the second slot - behind good old Cisco, of course. That will take some doing, as we all know, but to accelerate its move down this path, HP has come up with some very aggressive pricing on its Procurve switch range. Microscope says that several HP resellers see the ProCurve range as being under priced against the competition - so under priced, they claim, that its difficult to make a solid profit from selling them. The trade paper says that some resellers are suggesting the ProCurve prices could have been 10 to 15 % higher, and still remain competitive in the sales channel.
The real reason behind the ultra-competitive pricing, of course, is that HP is looking to sign the largest of the large switch box resellers in the UK, beating Cisco as well. Jon Wetherall, HP's UK networking business manager, is quoted as saying that the company has the small and medium-sized business market covered, so it is in the enterprise market where HP is looking to expand. Interestingly, Microscope says that Wetherall and his team are in negotiations with between 10 and 12 resellers from Compaq's sales channel who currently sell Cisco and/or 3Com kit. Suddenly HP's pricing strategy becomes clear.
Computer 2000 UK, 0044-870-4010505 (GB), www.computer2000.co.uk;
e92plus 0044-870-2009292 (GB), www.e92plus.com;
Samsung Electronics 0044-20-83910168 (GB),www.samsungelectronics.co.uk;
Nec, www.nec-online.co.uk;
HP, 0041-58-444-5526 (Zwits), www.hp.com