Compaq's Direct Marketing Screws Value Added Resellers
Resellers are being induced to register their equipment
sales for each customer, so Compaq can market directly
to customers. Resellers are holding registration data
back until Compaq's policies become more iron clad.
This trend may be good short term for shareholders and
parts of Compaq that want to go after DELL, but to the
rank and file VAR's and Distributors of Compaq hardware,
this whole situation stinks. One VAR I know is going
back to specializing in Hewlett Packard after years of
generating Tens of Millions in Corporate sales for CPQ.
His hardware margins were already razor thin, and now
that Compaq wants to dump their hardware on IS managers
directly, he's just too discusted to continue with CPQ.
Compaq may be cutting a major limb in order to branch in
to a whole new crowded direction. One can only wonder if
they will pull it off. Talk to any Distributor and VAR,
and they'll tell you that Compaq means little more than
low profits, and empty promises to them by now. I am
long Compaq as a shareholder, but am very leery of them
abandoning that part of the market that made them what
they are today, so my enthusiasm is somewhat abated. |
