SNI chooses giant pair for channel

German vendor Siemens Nixdorf (SNI) will recycle its channel strategy over the next two months to favour giants Computacenter and Tplc over smaller resellers.

They will be encouraged to buy through Ideal Hardware and Micro Peripherals with third distributor Logitek now out of the picture.

Peter Vodrup, general manager of SNI in the UK, agreed things were changing.

'We're building up two-tier distribution. We want to keep the biggest Vars like Computacenter and Technology. At the moment we've only got Micro P and Ideal as distributors and not Logitek.' He said smaller distributor SI Distribution has also worked with SNI for years.

SNI dealers are happy, claimed Vodrup. 'They see some benefits because distributors will hold stock and bring in next-day delivery. We expect to be able to complete this in the next couple of months.'

But a source at Micro P said: 'They are trying to keep with the market but are slower to respond than Olivetti because of their infrastructure.

The problem is that SNI has got major government contracts but no one's heard of them. They must be asking themselves what they are doing.'

Ideal, too, is understood to be less than happy with SNI.