Attachmate hits out at whinging distributors

Frontline is appointed and Ingram Micro plays the waiting game as vendor overhauls its channel

Attachmate says it is fed up with distributors which constantly complain about its direct sales team.

Graham Jones, Attachmate MD, said he wanted distributors who brought it business, not just those who served its existing base. ?Azlan [sacked by Attachmate last month] carried all our competitors, whereas Ethan Adams do not,? he said.

The company has tidied up its wholesale channel by appointing Frontline as its sole representative for the enterprise product family. The distie joins Ethan Adams, which has exclusive distribution rights for KEA VT emulation. And it has yet to decide whether to award its AS/400 product lines to Ingram Micro.

Until last month, Azlan, Ethan Adams, Frontline and Ingram had access to all Attachmate products. Azlan?s agreement ended earlier this month, and now it is decision time for Ingram.

Jones said the vendor had never made a secret of the fact that it sells direct as well as through the channel. ?We invoice around 10 per cent of our business direct, but we manage to avoid channel conflict by common sense. Our guys will get sacked if they undercut a dealer to get business,? he said.

?Recently we won a #1 million deal with a building society which was too big for the dealer to handle. We paid the dealer a commission, but then had all the distributors ringing up saying they wanted a piece of the action.?

Mike Smith, Ingram workgroup sales manager, said he was aware that Attachmate?s channel was under review. ?We are still in talks, but definitely want to carry on working with them,? he said.