Oracle has axed two of its distribution partners following the signing of an agreement with Clarity Technology.
As revealed exclusively by CRN last week (CRN Online, 19 September), the vendor signed an agreement with Clarity Technology, but also ended relationships with both OpenPSL and Sphinx. The vendor is now left with distribution agreements with Clarity, Ingram – which it signed a month ago – and Northamber.
Alan Hartwell, vice-president technology solutions and channel at Oracle, said Clarity will operate in the high-end enterprise sector, Ingram in the SME sector, and Northamber will take on more of a broadline role.
He added that the move was to consolidate its number of distribution partners, and was not a reflection of OpenPSL or Sphinx.
“We did a review of our existing distributors and also put out an open invitation to other distributors,” Hartwell said. “Following the review, Clarity came out as the best match, so the decision made itself.
“The company has changed over the past few years and the ripple of change is now having its effect outside the company. Sphinx and OpenPSL understand where we are coming from, although I imagine they are disappointed.”
Mark Hatton, managing director at Sphinx, told CRN: “It is a shame as we have been working with Oracle for 10 years. But in reality, our business has changed and so has theirs. It had been representing less of our business. We have grown apart and the landscape is now different for both of us.”
He added that the distributor does not intend to replace the database vendor in its portfolio.
Simon Welsh, marketing director at Horizon UK, parent company of Clarity, said: “There is lots of Oracle technology in our markets already because we operate at the data centre level. The other distributors have done a fabulous job in maintaining the channel status quo, but there clearly needs to be some investment in the distributor channel. We are putting a significant investment into this deal, which means we will have to show some significant results.”
reader comments