McNally tells channel to sharpen its skills

Compaq UK MD Joe McNally has challenged the company?s resellers to improve their skills, saying that it suffered from a shallowness of expertise in new areas of business.

Speaking at the firm?s annual results briefing, McNally said Compaq owes a debt of gratitude to its reseller partners but he added: ?The channel will admit that its knowledge in some new areas is still shallow, as is ours. It has been at the centre of our continued growth. But we need to develop skills together.?

Roy Howitt, marketing director of the business systems group, confirmed that demand for Compaq kit has been high. ?The only problem is we would have been able to sell more of their stuff, but we couldn?t get our hands on it. The demand for Compaq products has outstripped the rate at which it has been available.?

Compaq recorded a profit of $462 million for the fourth quarter, ending 31 December 1996, an increase of 43 per cent on Q4 1995. Worldwide sales for the company grew by 15 per cent to $5.4 billion, against $4.7 billion for Q4 95.

McNally said Compaq was pleased with the results, but there was still work to be done. ?We currently have a 25 per cent share of the corporate market, but in order to meet our objectives we need to be market leaders in the small and medium-sized business and the home and consumer markets,? he said.

Howitt backed this, saying: ?The launch of the Armada will see Compaq become a serious notebook contender again.?

For the year, turnover reached $18.1 billion, compared with $14.8 billion for 1995. Profit rose by 28 per cent to $1.3 billion in 1996.

The results were announced at the same time as the news that Compaq is to simplify the branding of its server range. The Prosignia and Proliant servers will be merged under the Proliant banner. This echoes the approach the company took to the naming of its corporate desktop range.