The computer industry sales positioning goes in cycles. For the last couple of years direct sales have dominated. In part this is because the OEM can retain profit margin, without having to slash profit to partners and that tends to create an unhappy ecosystem. Holding profit closer to home was critical to companies recovering from the huge losses a few years ago. (Yeah, we may like to forget that it happened, but 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 were rough in the tech industry.)
The difficulty with moving to direct only is that personal attention, technical assistance, and various other necessities are all too frequently abandoned because the sales teams cannot scale to handle all the requirements.
Intel and Microsoft traditionally have strong partner models. They both create fundamentals while their partners build upon their products and handle the majority of sales. HP may be taking an important step in moving the trend back to partners too. CRN reports that HP is changing its model and shifting accounts back to VARs. Good for HP.
HP To Push Thousands of Named Accounts To Channel, CRN
Let's look at how this might help Tablet PC buyers. It will help companies that vary purchasing frequency and volume, particularly in times just prior to a major release -- say like Windows Vista -- because the volume requirements to maintain account status is frequently lower at a partner than direct. They can go to a VAR and get a good price plus the attention and flexibility that they need. Another example would be a public school district is interested in building a one-to-one computing environment. They want a full service shop that will help them identify weaknesses in their existing infrastructure as well as post-sales support. A regional topic expert, who focuses wholey on academic institution deployments is a great option.
All-in-all, partners offer choice. It's good to see companies putting effort into the channel again.
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