All - Looks like IBM is also (finally) getting into the Web PC sales game, and they are trying to do the 'Compaq dance' to avoid alienating the channel...
IBM begins pilot of Web-based PC
sales
By Dan Briody
InfoWorld Electric
Posted at 2:50 PM PT, Feb 19, 1998
IBM is gearing up to begin selling PCs over the Web this year and in the process is
sweeping away the final vestiges of the reseller channel's former bread and butter: hardware
sales.
Though Big Blue is being careful to include its business partners in the move to Web sales,
which IBM officials coyly timed only as "very soon," the switch portends the new reseller
landscape focusing on services.
"Clearly the trend is that traditional resellers are trying to migrate rapidly to a more
services-based model," said Charles Smulders, an analyst at Dataquest, in San Jose, Calif.
"That is a tricky skill to acquire due to a lack of skilled workers."
A pilot program is already in place, according to Bill Hughes, vice president of
communications at IBM, but the difficulty in how to be fair to all resellers remains an issue.
"You can see how complicated this is," Hughes said. "It's hard to reconcile this with our
business partners. If a buyer doesn't care who the reseller is or where the systems come
from, do you make it random? We think we have found a way to do that and are close to
announcing it."
IBM remains confident it has found a solution that will not alienate its business partners or
cripple its offerings in the channel, but analysts warn of a very delicate situation.
"The challenge goes beyond fairness; for instance, how do you set one price on the Web
site with several resellers fulfilling the order?" Smulders asked. "This can lead to confusion
in the market. And it is very hard to manage the emotional aspect of the channel. Even
innocent companies can run into trouble."
IT managers are content to let the business partners fight it out.
"As long as they are just adding another purchasing option and not taking one away, it is a
good thing," said an IT manager at a Fortune 500 company.
IBM, in Armonk, N.Y., can be reached at ibm.com.
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Please direct your comments to InfoWorld Electric Deputy News Editor Carolyn April
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