Seagate promises to honour channel sales

Seagate Software has vowed to embrace the channel wholeheartedly in a bid to restore the confidence of its resellers, which have previously fought head-to-head with the vendor's direct sales force.

The vendor recently strengthened its channel sales and marketing team in Europe with the addition of Pete Daffern, who heads its transition to the channel model in the US. One of Daffern's first moves as vice president for sales and marketing EMEA is to quadruple his channel team.

Describing Seagate Software's relationship with the channel in the past as 'fragmented', Daffern said: 'We had conflict here just as we did in the US and have spent the past 18 months getting the distributors up to speed. We are only now in a position where we can get the resellers up to speed.'

Daffern claimed Seagate Software would increase its business through the channel from about 25 per cent last year to more than 60 per cent this year.

He insisted that while Seagate would retain its corporate sales force, fulfilment would be through the channel.

'There is a lot in it for the channel,' he said. 'We want to dramatically expand our reseller base, but we also need to have programmes in place so that resellers drive software sales. We want to make the reseller care whether he sells to five or 5,000 users.'

David Whitehead, managing director of Seagate Software reseller Contemporary Software, said: 'It's true that in the past there have been conflicts with the direct sales force, but Pete seems to have a clear channel strategy.

He has addressed my concerns and everything seems in place to challenge for the main accounts.'