Siemens clears up its channel policy

Siemens Nixdorf has managed to quieten channel unrest last week as it announced its intention of doubling the number of Vars in 1998.

Andrew Humphries, recently appointed business development manager for Siemens Nixdorf enterprise and personal computing division (EPC), said: 'We are now a 100 per cent indirect company. Our target for 1997 was to have 100 resellers, and by the end of the year we had 108. We plan to have about 200 by the end of this year.'

He said the division had increased its sales and support staff by 50 per cent in the past three months in order to market and support its unmatched product set.

The confirmation of Siemens' commitment to the channel comes four months after the company caused concern among resellers with its decision to carry out systems integration and network installation as part of its strategy to add value to box selling.

David Reed, Siemens Nixdorf business manager at reseller Elcom, said: 'It is true that, going back a few months, Siemens was not being run the way the channel wanted it. It took quite a while for the transition from a direct to an indirect model to click into place. Now the channel is not over distributed and the structural plans are very good.

'Resellers themselves are looking to companies like Siemens because they need an alternative to Compaq. They don't want to become too dependent on Compaq,' Reed added.

Reed said one of the biggest challenges Siemens Nixdorf faces in the UK is that of promotion of its lesser known products.

'It has a marketing problem in that its product range is not the best known. While it has been very successful in picking off certain markets, it has not yet achieved the same level of success in the mass market,' he said.