Computacenter completes server hat trick with Digital

Hardware Reseller gains direct supply relationship with vendor.

The UK's largest reseller, Computacenter, has been signed up by Digital to stock its entire product range, including the high-end Alpha servers, enabling it to be an enterprise-level server dealer for the first time.

Computacenter will have a direct relationship with the vendor across all product lines, following the recent restructuring of Digital's UK channel.

The sign-up is a coup for the vendor which has been faced with uncertainty over the future of the Alpha system.

The agreement completes Computacenter's server line-up which includes Sun and IBM Unix, as well as other NT hardware.

Computacenter set up a pilot trial 18 months ago to sell Digital Alpha products to corporates.

According to Paul Ecclestone, enterprise systems manager at Computacenter, the deal would enable the reseller to sharpen its focus in the large corporate and government sectors. 'With Alpha, we can now start to provide some sort of scalability,' he said.

He refuted that Computacenter was preparing to start up an enterprise division, but admitted it was a possibility, as an extension of what the reseller would do for its customers.

'If they are best served by an enterprise-wide division, then that's what we'll do,' he added.

Mike Cohen, sales and marketing director at CSF - which resells almost exclusively Digital products, said the agreement has not changed the reseller landscape but it was still early days. It would be less of a threat to CSF than the smaller resellers operating in the corporate market. 'There is space enough for both of us to co-exist,' he said.

Computacenter first began selling Digital's equipment three years ago.

The reseller is widely expected to float itself on the UK stock exchange this summer.

It has been reported that Computacenter has taken on investment bankers Goldman Sachs to oversee the process (PC Dealer, 4 March).