Bell, Ideal to launch web ordering system

Bell Microproducts, Ideal Hardware's new owner, is funding an aggressive push into the European enterprise storage market, including an electronic ordering system that allows resellers cheap entry into ecommerce.

Bell Microproducts, Ideal Hardware's new owner, is funding an aggressive push into the European enterprise storage market, including an electronic ordering system that allows resellers cheap entry into ecommerce.

The site, as yet unnamed, is due to be launched in early September, and is designed to allow resellers to attach their own front ends to Ideal's ordering system.

Ian French, Ideal's managing director, said the scheme allows Ideal to present its own ecommerce systems to the market. "Few resellers will be able to afford to set up their own ecommerce systems, so we've set up a 'vanilla system', where any reseller can add their own front page," he said.

"In reality, the customer will be keying orders directly into our system. Transactions will be cheaper and the reseller will make a margin on commodities."

French admitted that Ideal had failed to invest enough in advancing its electronic ordering in the past. However, this had not been a handicap because "in the UK we're much less e-adoptive, and are way behind the culture in the States", he said.

French estimated that less than five per cent of business is conducted electronically by distributors in the UK.

Aggregators such as Hyperchannel have had little impact on the technologically retarded UK IT market, he added. "People here still don't trust an online system to give them the best price and delivery."

Although the system will automate commodity sales, this addition to Boris (Ideal's current ordering system) is part of a drive to concentrate on the enterprise market, said French.

Bell is a leader in the storage market, and the merger enables Ideal to strengthen its offering on storage area network, network attached storage and other enterprise storage technologies.

In addition, the US company is looking to acquire more European distributors as part of an aggressive expansion plan. "There are plenty of distributors up for sale at the moment. The hard bit is finding one that's worth buying," said French.

First published in Computer Reseller News