Overland and Ideal go separate ways

Pair split after three years and blame lack of 'mindshare'

Overland Storage and distributor Ideal have split after three years of working together.

The firms said the break-up was an amicable one, admitting that they were unable to offer each other enough mindshare.

"Neither of us were going anywhere. It was hard for us to give [Overland] mindshare internally and equally we have had little effort from them," said Mark Walker, enterprise solutions director at Bell Microproducts Europe, the parent company of Ideal.

"There is no major loss to either firm; it is for the best if we are each better committed to our other partners."

Ideal currently works with three other tape vendors: Quantum, Storagetek and ADIC.

Henrik Hansen, marketing director EMEA at Overland, said it was unfortunate that the agreement with Ideal did not work out.

"But we are working with Hammer and InTechnology, and they have had success with helping us build reseller presence," he said.

Jason Beeson, business development manager at Hammer, said that from his point of view, the less distributors the better.

"It made sense for both to split - to cut the number of people they deal with. But from a vendor's point of view, they need the coverage and reseller base," he said.

Walker suggested that Overland, which now has just two distributors, may need to look for a broadline replacement. But Hansen would not confirm whether a new distributor would be appointed.

He said: "If we were to appoint a new partner it would be a firm that could help us build our reseller base, but in the high mid-market with a lot of expertise.

"With broadliners you don't tend to get enough mindshare because there isn't enough focus on the smaller players."

Beeson said he believed that the vendor would appoint a new distributor eventually. "It is inevitable, but Overland won't rush," he said. "It will wait to get the right partner."