Debate reveals assembly woes

Channel assembly exponents have admitted the strategy has failed to live up to its original billing, as it continues to be plagued by disagreements over how it should be organised.

A roundtable discussion between channel assembly heavy-weights Ingram Micro, Techdata, Compaq and IBM, was dogged last week by a general acknowledgement that operations were not going to plan and squabbles over who should bear the costs.

David Boucher, general manager of IBM's advanced fulfilment initiative, admitted: 'So far, it hasn't worked as well as I hoped.'

Ray Robidoux, vice president of Compaq, said: 'None of us feel we have achieved what we had hoped, although we are getting there.'

The outlook was also grim for those with an interest in channel assembly operations in Europe. Robidoux claimed it was 'hard to make it cost effective.' But Boucher was more upbeat: 'Europe is very complex, but our programme has a lot of interest.' To date, Compaq has resisted establishing an assembly operation in the region.

Doug Antone, executive vice president of Ingram Micro, was quick to shift the blame for the setbacks on to vendors: 'They don't realise they are handing the costs to us and, as a result, some of our partners believe we are heading in the wrong direction because the cost is being passed onto the reseller.'

He added: 'The whole concept was oversold in the beginning. We thought it would change our business overnight, but it hasn't.'

But Boucher countered: 'I don't believe we are transferring the cost.

In the long run, the financial benefits of channel assembly will outweigh the incremental charges.'

Anthony Ibarguen, president and chief operating officer of Tech Data, called for an end to the bickering: 'Fewer resellers care about channel assembly because we're not addressing the core issues.'