CIOs favour direct route
But buying report may not reflect European attitude to channel
More than two-thirds of businesses prefer to bypass the channel and deal directly with a vendor, according to a shocking new IT buying trend report from financial analyst Merrill Lynch.
The TechStrat report, which surveyed 25 European and 75 US chief information officers (CIOs) on their IT spending patterns, revealed that 68 per cent of CIOs prefer to buy direct from a vendor, and just 28 per cent choose to deal with a vendor working through the channel.
Steve Milunovich, first vice president of Merrill Lynch, claimed there is increased interest in working directly with one vendor for all aspects of IT.
"Over the past couple of years we saw increased interest in solutions versus best-of-breed products. We found an interest in working with one vendor for software, hardware and services," he stated in the report.
"The advantage is 'one throat to choke'. The alternative model is the partnering approach that Hewlett Packard (HP) and Sun take with systems integrators."
But Steve Brazier, chief executive of research firm Canalys, said the findings reflected the US bias of the respondents.
"I think you would get a fairly different response in Europe. It is a more common response in the US where users can deal with large companies directly because it is geographically one region, with one language, and the complexity involved is far less," he said.
Brazier added that in Europe the decision is much more complex. "Companies might buy PCs or servers direct but they still buy their Microsoft software and networking equipment and printers through the channel," he said.
Tony Davis, managing director of corporate reseller Elcom, agreed that the US has different buying issues to the UK, but he added that the channel provides the single point of sale users are looking for.
"We give them what they ask for. They have only one firm to deal with, and we are the ones who bring it together," he said.
"You can talk to Microsoft for as long as you like, but it won't be able to provide you with the servers, desktops, laptops and printers as well."