Madge ditches direct strategy

The vendor has signed up Anite in its switch to a totally indirect channel

Madge Networks has scrapped its direct sales and is signing up channel partners ? a year after it moved to a split direct/indirect model.

The switched network vendor has done a deal with giant network integrator Anite Networks. Further channel recruitment is planned, particularly with large high-end integrators.

A Madge representative said the firm had realised the value of a dealer channel after six months of going direct.

?Midway through 1996, we started to review the operation and decided that resellers were very important to us, both in terms of volume sales and the end product offering to the user,? he said.

Brian McBride, Madge president for EMEA, said the agreement was part of a continuing strategy of channel development. ?We are in discussions with a number of large network integrators, but will always continue to be underdistributed as we don?t want our partners to be fighting each other for business,? said McBride. ?It became apparent that our product offering of Token Ring, Ethernet, ATM and video switching required an indirect channel.?

The agreement with Anite, which last week sold its Dutch subsidiary Case Technology to Intel, gives the network integrator access to Madge?s entire product range. Anite plans to use the deal to deliver high-end mixed technology solutions, integrating voice, video and data across single network architecture with ATM switching as the backbone.