NetApps bucks trend

Q1 storage results triumph attributed partly to sales through resellers

Network Appliance (NetApps) has bucked the recent trend for poor financial results based on disappointing sales of storage kit. It posted turnover of $358.4m for the first quarter of 2004, up by 38 per cent on last year and six per cent on the previous quarter.

Part of this growth has come from reseller sales, with 46 per cent of revenue from indirect channels, up by three per cent on the previous quarter.

Although reluctant to talk about specific figures because of "increasingly tight regulations", Tim Pitcher, vice-president of NetApps UK, said sales through the UK channel have increased across the product range.

"Customers need to deal with the explosion in data capacity, and data recovery and compliance [with corporate governance], which are board-level issues. With budgets static or shrinking, they are trying to do more with less," he said.

Mark Chippendale, divisional director responsible for NetApps products at sole distributor InTechnology, estimates that the vendor should do about $110m-worth of business in the UK this year, up from $80m last year.

"We were appointed by NetApps only in November but have seen steady business straight away," he said.

But Chippendale warned if the firm wants to broaden its appeal to resellers it needs to make the same technology available at the same time as it sells direct.

However, NetApps claimed it is improving channel training and trying to provide VARs with products on the same day they are released to its direct salesforce. Chief executive Dan Warmenhoven said: "We think of the channel as an extension of our own sales and support."

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