DEC has revised its UK marketing strategy and is no longer restricting third party involvement in what are termed strategic sales. Approximately two years ago DEC started to pursue a marketing strategy which operated to cut out third parties from strategic or greenspace sales into large corporate accounts and certain other market sectors such as defence. Third parties were encouraged to pursue markets in areas termed whitespace which DEC considered non-strategic such as medium-sized and small businesses and highly specialised markets. This differential has now been dropped, or as DEC phrases it we have enhanced team selling in strategic accounts. In other words DEC is tacitly stating that this strategy was not working as well as the company had hoped. Under the old strategy DEC set up a discount agreement with its customers whereby a direct hardware sale from DEC resulted in a contribution to the customer’s discount credit. From now on the hardware component of a turnkey sale by a third party will also contribute to this discount. Presumably some large customers that wanted a bespoke solution were turning to non-DEC hardware, since they had no discount incentive to stay with DEC kit. Further down the market map where the target is companies with one to 100 employees, DEC is creating two new distribution channels. Before this announcement DEC had two main reseller channels – its OEM curtomers that added software or hardware of a bespoke nature to DEC products, and its Authorised Distributors which resell DEC computers in an unmodified form to its installed user base. These will remain but will both be split in two creating four reseller channels. A Value Added Reseller side will splinter off from the OEM gang to resell DEC kit with packaged solutions, while some Authorised Distributors will become Value Added Wholesalers: these will appoint and resell to Value Added Resellers and will include software or hardware add-ons when they sell on to resellers. The resellers will then supply added value on top of this through products or support. DEC believes that the the Value Added Wholesalers, which it will appoint in July, will be more effective than DEC itself could be in getting personal computer dealers and firms specialising in multi-user systems to carry DEC kit. To encourage companies to sign up as Value Added Wholesalers DEC is offering them an extra 5% discount on products to cover the management cost associated with supporting their resellers. DEC is also improving the discount to all four reseller channels on MicroVAXes and RISC-based products to get them moving in the market. This new policy is pan-European and DEC claims the US is developing a similar app roach. However, smaller European countries may elect not to create a Value Added Wholesaler channel if the size of their market does not warrant it. – Katy Ring
