Channel fails to give support to small companies

Resellers have been criticised for ignoring the needs of small to medium-sized businesses, claiming that there is still a large gap between how resellers sell and how the customers want to buy.

Resellers have been criticised for ignoring the needs of small to medium-sized businesses, claiming that there is still a large gap between how resellers sell and how the customers want to buy.

The report, by Durham University Business School, was discussed during a round table at the launch of Flexion's integrated communications platform, the BusinessGuardian X300. Report author Ted Fuller said resellers tend not to give the service small businesses need, and he called for suppliers to learn to speak the language of small businesses.

Jeff Teece, managing director of reseller Excel Computers, said too often resellers try to shoe-horn customers' requirements into a product. "We try to be our customer's virtual IT department. Small firms need resellers to understand their business," he said.

Participants at the round table included Andrew Bale, chief executive of Flexion, Guy Marsden, vice-president of sales at Flexion, Guy Watts, sales director of Getech Distributions, and James Scarlett, ex-chairman of a parliamentary advisory group for small and medium-sized businesses. They agreed that resellers need to act more like accountants or legal advisors and develop strong long-term relationships with their customers.

Scarlett said the idea of a reseller acting as a virtual IT director to help customers use technology such as computer telephony and the internet to improve business, is preferable to the practice of simply being sold products.

Participants argued that the industry practice of offering free pre-sales consultation in the hope it will lead to a product sale, together with shrinking margins, makes it very difficult for resellers to offer the level of service small firms need to remain competitive.

Bale suggested that the trend in the industry towards product sales at no margin, or direct sales over the internet, promises to disconnect product supply from services, would allow resellers to start offering a virtual IT department without shifting product.

He added that communications infrastructure products will become part of the packages offered by large service providers, such as BT, with smaller resellers providing consultancy services in return for a percentage of recurring revenue.