Iomega zips into business penetration

StorageVendor looks for 3,000 resellers.

Iomega will embark on a massive reseller recruitment campaign throughout Europe as it tries to penetrate the corporate and small business markets.

The move follows an OEM deal, signed up with Dell at the beginning of the month, to incorporate Iomega's built-in Zip drives into corporate desktops in the US.

Starting next month, the removable storage vendor hopes to recruit 3,000 UK resellers in a bid to replicate successes in the retail sector within the business area.

Speaking to PC Dealer, Keith Allen, Iomega marketing director, said no more distributors would be appointed during the drive, because the vendor was pleased with its existing distribution setup, but he remained vague when talking about the role they would play in pushing into the corporate market.

'Sixty per cent of all PCs are sold into the business market. We want to identify the resellers which are talking to the corporate market and get them to apply to our authorised reseller programme,' he said.

However, Allen said a certain number of distributors are being approached by Iomega to loan their reseller databases to the vendor, though no specific details of this were given.

CHS Electronics, one of the storage vendor's largest distributors, said it had not yet been approached by the manufacturer regarding the recruitment drive.

Matthew Beavis, divisional director for networking and storage at the distributor, said: 'Iomega has not come to me and said what it wants yet, but whatever it is going to do, we hope to be in a position to support it.'