RBR clinches Computacenter deal

RBR Networks has snatched the lucrative Computacenter preferred Cisco supplier status from Azlan in a deal expected to generate more than £15 million over the next year.

The contract with Computacenter is set to increase RBR's annual revenue by more than 10 per cent.

The Cisco-only distributor had predicted it would generate turn-over of £120 million for the 1998/99 financial year.

RBR also said the contract would give it a 72 per cent share of Cisco's UK channel, making it the vendor's largest European distributor.

To win the tender, RBR agreed to incorporate a range of value-added services, such as low-end testing, into the Computacenter contract free of charge.

Neil Meddick, divisional manager of enterprise networking at Computacenter, said: 'Distributors think that if they get the stock for you on time they're fulfilling their role, but RBR showed it actually wanted to partner Computacenter and that's why it won the tender.'

Rory Sweet, group chief executive of RBR, said: 'We were a secondary supplier, but Computacenter found it preferred to deal with us because we are a single vendor distributor and can provide better service.'

Meddick declined to say how long RBR would retain its preferred supplier status, but stated: 'It is standard Computacenter practice to review our contracts at least once a year.' He said Computacenter maintained a strong relationship with Azlan and has appointed it as a secondary supplier.

Azlan declined to comment.