Pegasus acts to allay channel fears

Pegasus has re-established communication with its channel, ending a period of silence and uncertainty following the vendor's takeover by reseller-turned-vendor, Freecom.net.

Pegasus has re-established communication with its channel, ending a period of silence and uncertainty following the vendor's takeover by reseller-turned-vendor, Freecom.net.

Pegasus unveiled its new streamlined 32bit product range to its partners last week, replacing Capital Lite, Accounts and Payrole with Capital Gold, and Opera 16bit with Opera 32. E-Business Gateway, an XML-enabled portal that automates customer invoicing and ordering over the web, has also been developed with Systems Union.

MPower, the company's accounting software for small businesses, looks likely to be scrapped. Pegasus said it is looking to replace it with a scaled-down version of the Sun Systems product made by Systems Union, another division of Freecom.

Replaced products will be supported for one year with free updates, and part-exchange offers will be made available to customers who want to upgrade.

Paul White, managing director at Pegasus, admitted that the company had much to do to regain reseller confidence. "An information vacuum has existed between ourselves and our partners since the takeover, and in hindsight we should have done a better job," he said.

White allayed fears that Freecom would try to consolidate the company's position by concentrating only on the top 100 resellers. He said Pegasus would be encouraging its top resellers to become application service providers, but denied that Pegasus was trying to restructure the channel.

John Dixon, managing director at Computime, said that while the Freecom takeover caused upheaval, Pegasus would "see the benefits of this alliance". Pegasus is expected to hold further talks with partners, and a number of regional events are also in the pipeline.

First published in Computer Reseller News