Norris' IBM passion sparks Compaq row

Compaq lashes out at IBM as Computacenter chief executive pledges his devotion to rival vendor's PC channel.

An unholy row has broken out between IBM and Compaq followingdges his devotion to rival vendor's PC channel. comments made by the chief executive of channel giant Computacenter at a reseller conference in Lisbon.

Mike Norris, CEO of Computacenter, told the recently appointed general manager of IBM's EMEA region, Douglas LeGrande, that the reseller had the greatest belief in the IBM channel - to the consternation of Compaq.

Norris said: 'We believe you. You are by far the most committed to the channel and we appreciate it. We're entirely committed to the IBM authorised assembly programme. For a large reseller, it's the way to go.'

But his comments provoked an outburst from Peter Blampied, commercial marketing manager at Compaq UK. He said: 'IBM has been flushed down the toilet by Compaq over the past few years. We're number one in the corporate sector and we have over a third of the corporate market in the UK.'

Both Compaq and IBM use Computacenter to resell their products but Blampied added: 'Compaq is extremely committed, if not the most committed to the channel. We want to attack the direct model.'

He added that Compaq had defined the market very clearly. 'We see opportunities differently from other vendors.'

Nick Eades, product marketing manager at the IBM PC Company, said: 'We weren't already down the toilet. It is not the case that we are smaller with Computacenter. We're bigger than it is.'

Although Computacenter had been given the contract to push through Compaq's Expresso project for selling to small businesses via the Web, that did not alter its commitment to the channel at all, he added.

Norris was not available for comment.

Christmas is coming, so it's time to get your skates on if you haven't done your shopping yet. And if you're wishing for the Christmas Fairy to give you a helping hand, you could be in luck.

A scheme to boost festive business over the Web, e-Christmas, is backed by HP and Microsoft among others. And everyone's favourite girl-next-door, Lesley Joseph, is promoting the wide variety of goodies you can buy over the internet.

A wide variety of teddy bears, boxes and Christmas puddings by the look of it.