Read the last sentence. Always good to have a VAR on your side.
Fez
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VARBusiness
July 05, 1999, Issue: 1517
Section: News & Analysis -- Fast Forward
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VAR Loses IBM Approval, Turns To Dell For Comfort
Lawrence Aragon
Cookeville, Tenn.-Stephen Burgess was more than a little surprised when he recently received a "Dear John" fax from IBM Corp.
The president of $1.5 million TCS Technologies, based here, Burgess has resold IBM PCs since 1995. He recently read about IBM PSG's vow to build closer relationships with small and midsize business (SMB) VARs in the May 24th cover story in VARBusiness (www.varbusiness.com/ main/222main.asp), and looked forward to a continued partnership. But the fax revoked TCS' right to represent IBM PSG as a PC reseller beginning this October.
"Resellers who do not meet their commitments" are being dropped, says Diane Godbee, author of the letter and IBM's PSG Contract Operations manager. Back in February, IBM PGS changed its minimum requirement to $50,000 in sales annually.
Burgess admits sales are down, but says it's due to IBM component failures. He says TCS can't afford to stock components from every PC vendor, so it orders parts from IBM, which takes a couple of days to deliver.
IBM has a pilot program to get distributors to call VARs with low volumes. But it's too late for TCS. As a result, it has turned to Dell Computer Corp., which boasts low failure rates, not to mention one new VAR supporter.
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