Computacenter fulfils Compaq?s direct criteria

Compaq has confirmed that Computacenter and Tplc will be its two Home & Office partners (Hops), handling all the fulfilment work of its direct sales operation.

The announcement comes one week after PC Dealer exclusively revealed that Tplc had received written notification from Compaq of its impending appointment (30 July).

Peter Blampied, Compaq commercial marketing manager, told PC Dealer that the two resellers would be signed up, subject to final approval of Ts&Cs, in about four weeks. ?No contracts have been signed yet, but Computacenter and Tplc are our final choices,? he said.

?We?re still considering appointing one this year and one next, but no decision has been made about which one might be selected first.?

Computacenter said it was still waiting for formal notification. Martin Hellawell, general manager of corporate development at Computacenter, said: ?We?ve had nothing official from Compaq yet, but we?re keen to start quickly. I?m not sure if I see the purpose of having one start sooner than the other, though.?

While some in the channel had expressed surprise that no broadliners were in the running for the job, Nick Gould, ETC sales director, said he was not. ?A distributor was never going to win the business, Compaq made that very clear right from the start, which is why ETC never actually submitted a bid in the first place.

?As Compaq?s largest distributor, we?re very happy with our ongoing relationship, and feel very comfortable with Compaq?s evolving channel model.?