Digital Equipment Corp in the UK is bringing in a new low-cost distribution channel in a effort to sell Alpha RISC-based machines into those small and medium-sized businesses that hitherto have bought just the occasional personal computer from the company. In a changing market, with hardware prices and margins slipping, the company has found that it is dealing with purchasing departments, rather than corporate data processing managers and that these departments are applying the standard purchasing techniques used for buying bog rolls, [hygienic tissue, for US readers] in the memorable language of Benny Placido, sales manager in the volume partner organisation. Its response is to build a small sales force that makes no direct sales: instead it will be working with DEC’s Value Added Resellers, to try and crack the non-DEC market. The low-end Alpha servers, running Unix and Windows NT are being touted as their main weapon. The company says it expects the new distribution channel, which currently has just eight regional sales staff, will generate UKP50m in the first year and it has built a list of 6,000 companies that have bought the occasional DEC product in the past. Support comes from a revamped DECdirect operation, now dubbed Digital Merchandising. Meanwhile the existing 350-employee direct sales force continues to plug away, selling the high-end VAXes into existing major accounts.
