Channel Talk - July 3
Staffware, the workflow company, launched itself onto the AIM market last week and was valued at around u26 million. The company prides itself on its success being based on its partnerships with big vendors and makes a big fuss of its success in the reseller channel. This doesn't appear to have rubbed off on the marketing director. When Channel Talk asked him if we could expect any new channel initiatives on the back of the flotation he said, you know resellers, they want everything handed to them. We prefer to keep control. Quite.
Bits of Bay Networks are falling off and breaking. The damning facts were accidentally revealed by a Bay sales manager at Networks 96. Luckily for Bay, the pieces crashing to the ground were logos and pictures from its show stand - not parts of its networking hardware.
The Mitsubishi Electric PC Division, formerly known as Apricot, did PC Delia proud at Networks 96. Not only did we receive a Mitsubishi Electric PC Division frisbee, but also a pen. But, hang on a minute. Why, we asked MEPCD marketing man Keith Corbett, was Apricot the name on the side of the pen? His answer: 'A pen 12 inches long would be a trifle unwieldy.'
The latest form of addiction is surfing the Internet. Fortunately, Internetaholics can meet to discuss their problems with people that can help. The problem is that the afflicted addicts live all over the UK and getting them together in is rather tricky.
It would need to be somewhere they all know and can easily find. So where do Internetaholoics meet? At an online conference on the Internet, of course. Channel Talk would like to inform readers that next week's meeting of the Soho branch of Alcoholics Anonymous will be held in the Star and Garter pub, London, W1.
Hewlett Packard is a trendy company - Channel Talk doesn't care what everyone else says. The tightest company in IT even has a trendy and funny side, it seems. After the nation laughed at Steve Coogan's TV comedy series Coogan's Run, HP execs decided to take the jokes further. The company launched an incentive for its sales staff - an award for the top performer in corporate sales. Its name? The Gareth Cheeseman award.
When your super soaraway copy of PC Delia arrives on your desk, do you read it there and then? Is it hard to resist tearing off the plastic wrapper to find all sorts of informative news, views, features and so-called humour inside? Naturally, that's how Channel Talk would expect most resellers to treat their revered PC Delia.
But not Basilica, the Hewlett Packard specialist. Sources say that staff at Basilica put the magazine 'in the one place where everybody can see it'. In the cafeteria? The reception area? Perhaps attached to the noticeboard in a non-removable folder? No. Basilica keeps its PC Delia in the toilet.
No wonder the staff spend so long in there.