DEALER PROFILE - From both ends of the Spectrum
Company founded 1983
Software Spectrum headcount 2,300 worldwide; 70 in the UK
Board members Judy Sims, chief executive; Richard Sims, senior vice president; Keith Coogan, president and chief operating officer; Roger King, executive vice president; Link Simpson, vice president of services; Bob Mercer, vice president and chief information officer; Jim Brown, vice president of finance; Rob Graham, vice president of strategic relations; Sam Hadipour, director of consulting for EMEA
Company year end 30 April
Turnover $884 million
Profit $4.5 million
Reseller base Headquarters in Dallas; UK base in London
Other office locations Dublin, Paris, Milan, Brussels, Stockholm, Wiesbaden, Dresden, The Hague and 32 offices in North America and Asia Pacific
Started in the UK 1994
How started in the UK We opened the London office. Two years later, I was headhunted from Info'Products to set up the UK services arm.
Lines sold Microsoft, IBM, Lotus, Novell, Symantec
Accreditation held Microsoft solution provider partner, IBM best team premier partner, IBM global alliance partner, Lotus premium business partner, Novell and Symantec platinum partner
Key accounts American Express, Berg Electronics, Ernst & Young, ABN Ambro, Exxon, Motorola, Ikea, AGA Gas, Allied Signal
Main distributor Ingram Micro
Main rivals Corporate Software Technology, Andersen Consulting, Computer Services Corporation
The biggest challenge Software Spectrum is going to face this year To continue to grow worldwide, especially in Europe.
So after four years, how do you expect to increase your profile in the UK? By approaching future and existing customers with mailshots and newsletters.
This year, we're planning to do customer case studies. These will show what the business problem was when we arrived and how we solved it. By sending these out, putting them on our Website, plus making some announcements to the press, we hope to become better known.
What do you offer that the competition can't? The best staff - they are headhunted from Anderson Consulting and Info'Products.
How will you get good staff in the future? By stepping up the use of headhunters - we've just recruited our own. The huge challenge this year is hiring the right people. There aren't enough trained staff out there and competition is fierce. Hopefully when our profile is raised by showing our past successes, we will continue to hire top quality employees.
Thing to watch in the next 12 months E-commerce. Businesses already have the right infrastructures in place, thanks to the way technology has been evolving. Now they have to concentrate on developing the applications, such as messaging and groupware capabilities.
But how do you intend to do that in the UK, where e-commerce has been slower to take off than in the US? Through education. We'll inform future and existing UK customers about how it is being used in other countries.
But you can't force feed customers - it's a whole mind-set that needs to be changed.
How will you change it? We'll never totally get rid of the traditional way of shopping. But we need to show that, if you are short of time, certain products are easier to buy over the Net. It will be a slow process, but by seeing how it can work, things will change. In 1996, there were one million Websites in existence - one year later there were nine million.
It's growing and as security fears disappear, people will use e-commerce more often.
What you would change to make life easier from a business point of view?
One of our biggest problems is the security paranoia that surrounds business over the Net. But security is no longer an issue for people purchasing and offering goods.
Give your opinion on Microsoft increasing the number of its Authorised Training Education Centres (ATEC) partners (PC Dealer, 5 August) As we're not ATEC credited in the UK, I can only see it as a positive move. At the moment, demand outstrips availability and I don't agree that having more ATECs will devalue the accreditation. Applicants are still tested by Microsoft and if they can't pass, they won't get in. Customer quality should go up - it's only in a monopoly situation that it goes down.
What are your views on the theft of Microsoft certificates from its Scottish manufacturing plant last month (PC Dealer, 29 July)? Although the raid on the Thompson Litho factory doesn't affect most software resellers directly, it does create problems indirectly through black or grey market sales.
The scale of the theft - 115,000 software authentication manual covers - is worrying enough. But they have also been given a retail value of up to #6.5 million when combined with copies of Windows 95 and Windows 98.
This type of crime can threaten reseller business, as well as that of the manufacturers. The market could become saturated with pirate software, with certificates turning up at discounted prices. The documentation is difficult to trace, yet easy to carry and to hide, or smuggle out of the country.