Time relaunched as TimeUK.com
Time UK Factory Limited, the company created when Time, one of the UK’s major manufacturers and retailers, hit the financial buffers in the summer of last year, has opened a direct sales operation. The company, which acquired the manufacturing facilities from Granville Technology when it went into administration, last year, has rebuilt itself by supplying PCs and plasma TVs to trade customers in the UK and Europe.
Now the firm is moving back into supplying the end user public with an off-the-Web direct sales operation.
According to Salim Husan, Time UK Factory’s director of product development, the company has been supplying a varied range of retailers and trade customers. ‘Although we knew it would be difficult to find a single trade customer the size of Granville, there are many potential UK and European customers that together would, in time, see similar levels of production at this site again,’ he said. ‘The launch of the direct sales arm TimeUK.Com will provide us with an additional route to market, but we do not intend to compete with our trade customers.’
Not everyone is happy about the effective relaunch of Time Computers, as the company is being run from the same factory and backed by two of the original founders who were involved when the company sank into administration last year with debts of 70 million pounds and the loss of more than 500 jobs.
The new operation, however, appears to be operating on a much smaller scale, with around 30 staff at the moment, a figure that is expected to rise when the direct sales operation starts full operations in March.
Computacenter’s management goes West
Computacenter, the veteran business reseller chain, has announced that discussions surrounding a management buyout have not led to an offer and, as a result, have been terminated. The end of the talks follows on an announcement - made with a great fanfare - last November that discussions had started with a group led by computer entrepreneur Sir Peter Ogden and Computacenter’s management. So what went wrong? Nothing, but the cessation of discussions has coincided with an announcement of a trading update for 2005, which shows group profit for 2005 is expected be somewhere in the range of 32 to 34 million pounds - somewhat more than originally expected. Trading on the third quarter of 2005, says the company, was slow, but the position improved in the fourth quarter.
The best guess is that the improved fourth quarter trading meant that the price for the MBO was higher than expected. So where does this leave the management buyout? It’s difficult to say, as, not unexpectedly, Sir Peter and his crew are not talking. If PC trading conditions continue as they are, then a buyout could still be on the cards later in the year.
Novell shuffles its channel licensing
Novell is changing the way its major customers licence their software, effectively dispensing with the old Corporate Licensing Agreement (CLA) and replacing it with a more standard named-user or per-computer licensing model. To be known as a Master Licensing Agreement (MLA), the new program starts in March and will continue to be sold through Novell’s indirect sales channels.
As part of the changes, Novell is also adding maintenance options to its MLA, and says that most customers will benefit from the changes. The changes will also simplify the number of contracts that resellers have to deal with, something that Novell claims is good for its dealers.
BT offers broadband voice services
BT has launched a range of Internet telephony services for business users. Known as BT Broadband Voice, the services will be sold through BT’s indirect sales channels.
DMSL, BT’s main distributor, say that the offer is a opportunity for all channel partners and small-to-mid-sized enterprise resellers in particular, predicting that it will become one of the major success stories of the year in the communications market.
Rental of the service, which routes telephone calls across a company’s broadband connection, costs 19.99 pounds a month, in return for which businesses can make calls free of charge to any standard UK phone number, up to a maximum call duration of 60 minutes.
John Carter, DMSL’s managing director, said that Broadband Voice is going to be a major opportunity for BT partners addressing the SME market in 2006 and beyond. ‘Small businesses will be able to save a fortune on their outward-bound call costs and we’re expecting them to be clamouring to sign up for the service.’ According to Carter, resellers come into the frame as many small businesses will need advice on the equipment required, and how to set it up. ‘This is technically Voice over IP, but there are no computers involved other than the normal broadband router, Broadband Voice is running over BT’s own IP network and all you need is the router and a normal phone with touch-tone dialling. While that is simple enough, we know from experience that SMEs will want to be reassured that it will work and that there is someone on-hand to help them make it work - that’s where the reseller has a role to play.’
As well as adding value for small business customer by introducing them to the BT Broadband Voice, Carter claims that resellers will earn a commission of around 40 pounds for every customer they sign up. While this is a relatively small figure, he said, when it is combined with separate sign-up fees for broadband contracts it can be substantial.
A partner who signs up 100 new customers for both services over the course of a year would earn up to 8,000 pounds in commission and would also receive re-signing fees annually. ‘This is a opportunity for 2006. It is almost as big as broadband itself because just about every business that can benefit from having an ADSL connection can also benefit from Broadband Voice.
OpenPSL offers OpenView training
OpenPSL, a division of Bell Microproducts and sister company of long-running distributor Ideal Hardware, has become the first channel partner in the UK accredited to deliver HP OpenView training to resellers and their customers. According to the firm, HP Education has licensed its training material to OpenPSL, making it the UK’s only channel company delivering HP OpenView training.
By modelling coursework to reflect customer implementations - in effect making the training part of the implementation - the firm claims that resellers and their customers will benefit by being able to apply knowledge of different HP OpenView modules as they are deployed. Antony Molloy, OpenPSL’s practice manager, said that the company can target the courses to the exact needs of the customer environment. ‘By taking the elements that are relevant to a particular customer and tailoring the course accordingly, we can reduce the number of days required and train more people within that time’. The firm can offer training at customer sites for as few as three people. ‘As a value added distributor we focus on helping resellers engage with customers at all levels, achieve faster customer tie-in and see greater margin return on OpenView sales.’ Fiona Monteath, European product leader for HP’s Education division, said that OpenPSL was chosen because of its history of successful OpenView projects. ‘Making the training part of the implementation process means more successful projects with more confident customers, fewer outages due to customer error and greater customer return on investment,’ he said. According to Monteath, by using its expertise to broaden the base of trained OpenView engineers, OpenPSL is delivering on HP’s strategy of growing engagement with its channel and with HP’s customers.
Time UK Factory, www.timeukfactory.com;
Computacenter UK, +44-870-240775, www.computacenter.co.uk;
Novell, www.novell.com/offices/emea/;
DMSL, +44-0870-8506111, www.dmsluk.co.uk;
OpenPSL, www.openpsl.com.
Steve Gold (sg@mail.com)