Distribution heavyweights have hit back at claims they are facing an identity crisis, arguing they will have a more important role to play in the channel as the economic backdrop worsens.

An article published in CRN last month, in which resellers said that distributors must do more to justify their role in the channel (Channelweb, 13 October), has provoked a bitter reaction from several top names in niche distribution.

Etienne Greeff, a director at Juniper, Check Point and Websense reseller MIS, accused distributors of failing to generate new business for their vendors and focusing too heavily on the top accounts.
Greeff’s comments came after vendor Websense overhauled its distribution rebate structure, restricting its distributors’ involvement with large, managed partners to a logisitics and finance capacity (Channelweb, 18 September).

Other large security names, including Clearswift, are inching towards a one-tier model by forging direct ties with their top resellers.

Distributor defence
The UK’s largest IT security distributor, Computerlinks, is among those to have reacted angrily. Dave Ellis, e-security director at Computerlinks, immediately fired CRN a missive defending the firm’s corner.
Ellis claimed that the ability of distributors to support global deals and incubate new technologies has only made them more relevant.

“Customers increasingly have to deliver projects globally and most resellers just do not have the skills and infrastructure to support the logistical aspects, nor are they able to offer the end user the support that their customers demand,” he explained.
Ellis added that the climate had forced security resellers to become more
risk averse in terms of technology investment.

“When it comes to adopting new technology, I would suggest that many security resellers are less willing to take as much risk as they may have done in the past,” he said.
“By bringing new vendors to the market, as Computerlinks has done with Guardium and Presinet, many of the costs and risks associated with entering a new market are stripped away from the reseller.
“Rather than suggesting that distributors are unsure of themselves, I would argue that, based on conversations I have with the vendors quoted, specialist distributors such as Computerlinks have a clear and valuable role to play,” concluded Ellis.

Stuart Reay, managing director of security distributor Arc Technology, was another to counter the claims.
Resellers are in fact leaning more heavily on distributors for marketing and technical support, according to Reay.
“In the current climate, resellers are working hard on sales so any help they can get from a distributor or vendor around marketing or professional services is welcome,” he said.
Arc had “productised” its engineers and training services, he added, to allow partners to resell them onto end users for a healthy profit.

“They can buy an engineer from us at a 30 per cent discount, so they can buy it for £700, say, and sell it for £1,000. This is a growing revenue stream for us.”

Upping the game
Meanwhile, Reay said Arc’s pre-sales engineers are increasingly in demand from resellers needing help to upsell customers to more comprehensive solutions such as data leakage prevention (DLP).

“In the markets in which we are most active, certainly DLP, our services and support for marketing and engineering services is being called upon more than ever,” he said.
Ian Kilpatrick, chairman of Wick Hill, agreed that the value-add security distributors can offer resellers is only growing in scope.

“Value-add is a highly active space right now with all the services we have continuing to scale up,” he said.
“Our training centres are so full, we are looking at rescheduling some courses. We are hiring pre-sales engineers to support resellers on projects and we have increased our marketing activity with partners to help them drive business. We also have more activity with vendors to ensure more pull-through around leads,” he added.

However, some resellers still feel that security distributors have a duty to up their game.
Steve Anthony, managing director at security reseller e-Zu, said that distributors had become lazy.

“Lots of distributors call us up and say: ‘Can we convince you to convert from your current supplier?’ But they need to be more creative,” he said.
And he urged distributors to dip into their reserves to help small VARs generate new business.

“We are a small reseller and are normally asked to stump up 50 per cent of a marketing campaign, but for a decent campaign you are talking about £10,000. That £5,000 means much more to us than it does to them,” he said. “Maybe they do not have the resources to be as creative as they like.”