NetScreen side-steps UK reseller

Vendor criticised for shunning reseller and bypassing UK channel

NetScreen was criticised last week for bypassing the UK channel after one of its multinational customers, UBS, shunned its reseller and decided to buy directly from the security vendor in the US.

UBS has a direct relationship with NetScreen in the US and normally buys through the reseller Netwise in the UK. But this time it decided to ship the product directly from the US to its UK operation.

Gerard Allison, UK country manager at NetScreen, confirmed UBS had bought products in the US and transferred them to Europe. He admitted this type of activity is inappropriate but claimed it was unavoidable in this case.

"We could not stop UBS from buying in the US, because it is an existing direct customer and we feel we have looked after the reseller involved," he said.

However, one NetScreen reseller said the vendor should ensure that this kind of loophole is plugged if the vendor intends to retain the trust of the channel.

David Ellis, director of e-security at distributor Unipalm, said the incident had aroused concerns and agreed that NetScreen should address channel conflict.

"I am very surprised that, after spending a lot of time building a good channel, NetScreen would risk tearing it all up for a short-term gain," he said.

However, NetScreen told Computer Reseller News that when current direct contracts are finished it will attempt to move to a purely indirect model.

Peter Crowcombe, director of marketing EMEA at NetScreen, said the European and Asian indirect sales strategies had been a "huge success" and the firm is looking to adopt the model globally.

"When any vendor gets big, conflict occurs, but the most important thing to us is our channel," he said.