BT blasted by channel for reseller acquisition

BT came under close scrutiny from its channel last week after it bought its second VAR in six months and released details of its new reseller strategy after a two-month waiting game.

The acquisition of TNS last week, just months after its previous acquisition of VAR SkyNet in May, has been questioned by channel players who remembered the vendor’s previous venture into the reseller arena. In 2003 BT-backed reseller Open Orchard, which went head to head with BT’s own channel partners, was folded back into its parent division, BT Retail. BT admitted at the time that Open Orchard had not served the market any better than its own channel (CRN, 13 October 2003).

The deal with Shropshire-based TNS, which operates in the LAN market, was for an undisclosed sum. Bernie Dodwell, alliances manager at distributor Westcon, said the purchase of TNS could confuse for resellers.

“The channel will be baffled by this. BT said it is committed to the channel, then buys a reseller that will probably sell direct. BT could be competing with its own channel,” he said.

The channel could become further confused, other channel sources claimed, after waiting nearly two months for details regarding BT’s new partner division.

In August, BT announced that BT Indirect Channels (BTIC) and BT Local Business would be consolidated into a single “partner management business” (CRN, 22 August). It announced that the new division will be named BT Partner Management.

Mark Cornell, who will head-up BT Partner Management said: “BT is committed to the indirect channel. By centralising, the indirect channels are at the heart of BT. Traditionally we have worked in the high-end of the SME space, but now we can service the low-end.”

However, resellers were critical of the vendor’s latest moves.

Mark Evans, director at BT reseller ME Consultancy said: “This is typical of BT and another announcement that the channel knows nothing about.”

Gordon Davis, commercial director at former BT reseller, Compusys, said: “BT doesn’t seem to be able to get a coherent channel strategy together, because it keeps moving the goal posts.”