DEALER PROFILE - Cutting to the Chase

Company name Chase Technology

Company founded December 1995

Company headcount 70

UK board members Chris McAuley, group managing director; Keith Shipton, chief executive

Company year end 31 January

Last year's turnover #5 million

And profit? #400,000 loss

What was this loss due to? We needed to write off some goodwill in preparation for our flotation. We also had to close down an unprofitable subsidiary.

When does the company intend to float? The plan is to go public in the third or fourth quarter of next year. We were planning to do it earlier, but the recent turmoil in the markets in the US and Asia has rather put a dampener on that idea.

Reseller base Twickenham

Other offices

Associate offices in Sweden, Norway, Ireland and the US

Main lines sold Compaq, Acer, Hewlett Packard, Citrix and Quark

Main accreditation held Microsoft Solutions Provider, HP Connect Var, Sun internet reseller, Formscape Premier Partner, Novell authorised reseller, Acer Premier Partner, Citrix Gold Partner and Compaq authorised reseller

Key accounts Express Newspapers, Time Out, Littlewoods, Ericsson and various county councils

Main distributors Computer 2000, Westcoast, CHS Electronics, Qudis, Ideal Hardware, Metrologie, Norwood Adams

Main competitors Computacenter, Info'Products, Morse

Biggest challenge Chase Technology is going to face this year I think it will revolve around getting and keeping enough resources to handle the growing year 2000 business. Many companies will leave it to the last minute and only start to do something about it next year.

In your opinion, which is the least prepared country for the possible repercussions of the millennium bug? In Europe, Germany is definitely lagging behind. Worldwide, the US is ahead in awareness, but not in the practical action needed to get the problem sorted out. In my view, Scandanavia is one of the best prepared countries.

The challenge lies in getting the reality over to the customer. If a company has a couple of thousand PCs and needs to get every single one checked, it takes a considerable amount of time.

Thing to watch in the next 12 months The desktop environment is becoming more key to the way companies are conducting their business. Clearly the management of that particular environment is going to become an increasing point of focus for IT professionals.

A typical example happened a couple of weeks ago. A customer said it had 1,000 PCs that needed checking. When we got there, it had 1,500. Companies have lost control of what they own.

Role of distributors To source good products, keep good stocks and provide leads.

As a reseller, do you order kit from distributors' Websites? Not usually.

I think resellers prefer to make orders over the telephone because they like to negotiate over the price and availability.

What do resellers use these Websites for? I think they are convenient for checking stock availability and pricing. But there is still a long way to go before dealers rely on this medium to do their ordering.

What is the biggest problem resellers face at the moment? There are too many manufacturers making too wide a variety of products. It's enough of a balancing act trying to maintain margins and the level of service, without also having to guess which products to support.

Give your view on Microsoft's current position as the market leader in its field and the effect this has on dealers We are a Microsoft partner for training and I can only see its grip getting stronger. But I see this as a positive aspect because Microsoft has a huge amount of money and commitment to put into developing products and the market. Microsoft chief executive Bill Gates is rich, but a huge amount of his wealth is on paper - in Microsoft shares - so he needs to keep the company running.