Compaq to get tough on service providers

Resellers push manufacturer to raise accreditation standards to make the SSPs stand out from the rest of the channel

Compaq has been forced to respond to reseller pressure after they complained that the manufacturer?s accreditation of system service providers (SSP) did not differentiate themselves from the rest of the channel.

The manufacturer held a debate with its SSPs last week to discuss the future of the accreditation as there was growing criticism that corporates did not understand the difference between SSP and system providers (SP).

Phil Garnar, joint MD at Elcom, said: ?There isn?t enough differentiation between SSPs who can address the enterprise market and the ordinary SPs.?

He added: ?The hurdle is simply too low. Compaq is measuring SSPs on volume-driven break-fix maintenance, when we are dealing with NT clustering and SAP installations. We want Compaq to move forward so that the SSP accreditation is meaningful for our enterprise customers.?

Martin Hellawell, Computacenter general manager, said: ?I am all for raising the bar. Make them sweat to get the accreditation and then make them work damn hard to keep it. Computacenter competes with the same six or seven companies with these sorts of tender, but Compaq has already accredited 13 SSPs. There is no competitive advantage in being an SSP.?

Paul Gardner, customer services director at Compaq UK, said: ? We have a healthy dialogue with our SSPs through the SSP Forum, and I am absolutely delighted to see the channel wants us to be tougher on accreditation. The SSP programme is a year old and the time is right for us to make it tougher. I?ll look at anyone for inclusion in the scheme if they?re providing the right levels of service. The standards are bring driven by the customers.? He said the vendor would unveil an additional accreditation Ts&Cs during the second quarter.

Last week, Compaq introduced the ASE Professional scheme, a tougher set of training standards, designed to meet the needs of corporate resellers addressing pan-European accounts.