Netcom takes indirect route to Internet business market
Netcom is putting together a range of product-based Internet access and Web hosting services for resale through its newly launched dealer/distribution channels.
The company is abandoning its direct sales business in favour of a 100 per cent reseller strategy. The move will take it away from consumer users towards a focus on the business market.
UK managing director David Clarke said that the company?s existing 12,500 dial-up customers, which signed up after an expensive marketing campaign in the national press last year, were primarily business users. ?The business market will always be a better one to be in because you can add value and they?re prepared to pay for it.?
Netcom is looking for two sets of resellers: a top tier of four to eight authorised integrators to tackle enterprise-wide Internet-based systems, and a second tier of 12 resellers and 30 sales associates to sell into small business and SoHo markets.
The firm has made three top-tier appointments ? Simmons Magee, Montal and Wakebourne ? and has signed Frontline to handle second-tier fulfilment.
Netcom will offer leased line, ISDN and dial-up access services, Web hosting services and applications in packaged solutions tailored for its channels. UK product marketing manager Roy Lee said that the solutions were designed for different business needs. ?We?ll offer things like Web site design, data backup and training packages.
?There will be a product called Netstart that gives a small business everything it needs to establish a presence ? domain name, 2Mb of Web space, email addresses and we?ll put up a home page for them.?
Netstart will cost #50 to set up and #349 a year.
Netcom would not disclose channel margins on these packages or on top-tier products and services. But UK channel manager Nigel Pitcher said the firm?s margins ?will be pitched aggressively against what our competitors offer?. Its main UK rivals are Uunet Pipex and PSInet.
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