INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT - Novell reassessment is no shock

Neil Hudspeth, marketing manager at BEI - a Novell business partner - looks at the vendor's decision to drop key distributors.

The face of distribution is changing. Having an office in a business park on the outskirts of London no longer automatically wins and retains business.

Unfortunately, there are companies around that still rely on the traditional prerequisite of a central geographic location to cling on to business.

However, they are failing to move with the times and these companies will continue to lose business as a result.

There are two key factors that matter to distribution. First, distributors must be educated in e-commerce and Web ordering and second, they must have received vendor accreditation already or be working towards it.

This highlights another change distributors are going to have to make.

Accreditation is now a huge issue for distributors and wherever possible, they advertise the fact that they are either Cisco accredited or Microsoft certified. If companies are not even meeting vendor standards, how are channel partners supposed to take them seriously?

So why has Novell chosen now to reassess its distribution partners? Perhaps to give it more strategic control over its product range and offer an improved product and service proposition - and why not? The vendor should not be criticised for wanting distributors to add value and for demanding higher standards.

Novell is setting even higher standards and introducing more accreditation initiatives. Its strategy of embracing mixed environments opens up more possibilities for its partners, but it also creates a greater challenge as we expand our skillsets to embrace these opportunities. This just makes it harder for companies that rely on providing the basic box shifting service to add value. Their loss is other companies' gain, specifically those distributors and resellers that strive to offer the service the vendor expects.

BEI experienced exceptionally strong growth in its Novell-related business during 1998. With the steady stream of products from the vendor, we are looking forward to 1999 with a lot of confidence.

But why is Novell acting now? I think this is easily answered. The past few months have seen a huge change in the way both the media and the trade perceive the vendor. By common consent, Novell has turned the corner and is now developing a much more exciting product range.

Upgrading the channel to market is a natural extension of this revolution.

After all, it is we in the channel who have always boasted that we are a key component in the overall product.

Losing a key supply contract has an immediate impact on any distribution business. Failure to measure up to the latest business shift and the accompanying rise in standards demanded by vendors could prove even more damaging.