DEALER PROFILE - Alchemy in search of golden standards
Company founded July 1998
Company headcount: Six
The board members Nathan Mills, managing director; Tim Phillips, director; Rahim Virmani, director
Company turnover: Estimated #500,000
Profit: Thirty-eight per cent of turnover
The reseller base: West Drayton, Middlesex
Other offices: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Main lines sold: Compaq, Intel, 3Com, Shiva, MDI (Micro Design International)
Main accreditation held: Intel integrator, Shiva VPN (virtual private networking) partner, MDI global reseller, Compaq reseller
Key reseller accounts: Imperial Cancer Research Fund, True North Communications, Nomura Investment Bank, Standard Chartered Bank
Main distributors: Azlan, Sphinx CST, Ideal Hardware, ETC
Main competitors: Microage, PSM Microsystems
What is the biggest challenge Alchemy is going to face this year? Continuing to provide IT packages that are delivered on time.
And how do you intend to achieve this? Mainly by maintaining close relations with the customer and by keeping strict control over orders.
Things to watch out for in the next 12 months VPN and asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL). I believe we will see VPNs becoming increasingly widespread over the coming months.
The idea that company data can be privately tunnelled over a public network with secure encryption will enable companies to use the medium with a much greater degree of confidence. Coupled with this is the announcement that ADSL will shortly be available in the UK, offering huge bandwidth over both PSTN (public switch telephone network) and ISDN, adding to the prevalence of use over the internet.
What is the role of distributors? In my opinion, both value-added and fulfilment distribution in part do the job of a vendor. Seventy-eight per cent of all manufacturers market product through the distribution channel.
I think market demand will naturally increase this process.
What issue would make life easier from a business point of view? I'd like to see the creation of an independent dealer regulatory body. This would ideally oversee and monitor standards of products and services delivered to customers.
Why do you think this is necessary? Most industries have some kind of organisation responsible for governing business standards. At the moment, there are no criteria that resellers have to adhere to. Almost anyone can decide to start up a dealership, no matter what their qualifications or experience - or lack of them.
Most of us have been stung at some point, either as employees or as customers, by resellers that fail. I think it would also give people an added level of confidence to know they were dealing with a reputable company.
What other problems do resellers face? Many relatively young resellers have to deal with several hiccups, not least trying to instil enough confidence in distributors to open accounts with them. It can take months to get a cash account, let alone credit, with some of the leading distributors.
While I can understand the reasons behind the distribution channel being extremely careful about who it does business with, it makes it difficult for genuine resellers that are trying to break into the market.
What is your opinion of the Hewlett Packard Connect accreditation scheme starting on 31 October (PC Dealer, 14 October)? On the whole, it seems to be a positive idea because it is something that is trying to raise general standards in the channel. But the outcome largely depends on how the scheme is delivered by Hewlett Packard.
If the vendor is trying to push its products through larger resellers, this makes life harder for smaller dealerships.
How do manufacturers do this? By requiring a minimum number of qualified engineers in a company. Smaller resellers don't have the resources to fund this level of staffing. If the manufacturers decided to insist on quality rather than quantity, it would be much better for everyone.
It will be interesting to see how Hewlett Packard puts the scheme into practice.