Aldous emerges at Microsoft

Former director of volume marketing at Computer 2000 set to run vendor's distribution strategy

Microsoft has appointed Simon Aldous, Computer 2000's(C2000) former director of volume marketing, as its UK distribution chief, CRN has learned.

In July, Aldous dealt a blow to the broadliner when he resigned owing to " personal reasons" (CRN, 10 July). However, from today Aldous will be responsible for the vendor's UK distribution model, including management of its e-tailors and direct catalogue partners.

Simon Aldous, partner group manager at Microsoft, told CRN he will spend a lot of time talking face to face with distributors.

"Over the last 12 months a lot of vendors have been reassessing the role of distribution in their sales chain," he said. "Vendors now want to use distributors as a way to add more value, rather than transaction distributors."

Aldous will also be responsible for driving the UK breadth of partners, in order to achieve double digit growth and increase reach to and yield from end users. In addition, he will deliver the run rate in order to hit financial targets 2007 across all license types.

"We will be having some tough conversations with distributors, but that needs to be done in order to move the channel forward," he added.

Steve Haddock, partner group manager at Microsoft, told CRN that Aldous has a great range and depth of experience in the channel.

"Simon has the skills and abilities to both lead our distribution team and drive our small business channel strategy," he said.

Steve Lockie, managing director of C2000, told CRN: "Simon is well versed in channel management and absolutely the right guy for the job at Microsoft."