Toshiba hopes VARs will rise to the TOPS
Vendor claims partners can double margin on PC sales
Toshiba claims its latest channel initiatives will help its VARs double margin on PC sales.
The vendor last week unveiled its TOPS scheme - which stands for Toshiba Offers, Promotions, Specials - to coincide with its 20th anniversary year and the launch of several new notebooks including its Portege S100, R200, M200 and its Libretto mini-notebooks. It is also offering increased support to its tier-two resellers in the form of marketing collateral and telemarketing campaigns.
Neil Bramley, SME business manager at Toshiba said: "In recent years we have recognised that there has been a decline in the margin opportunities around the PC platform. Our latest initiatives are based around driving practical pricing and helping our partners to differentiate."
Bramley said the initiatives will help Toshiba compete more with IBM and Hewlett-Packard.
"We have injected a vast amount of money into our channel scheme and are providing a real opportunity for our resellers to sell across multi-divisional products and services," he said, adding Toshibas VARs are well placed to take advantage of continuing technology convergence.
"We are also looking for more UK resellers to be actively engaging with us to sell our products," he said.
Paul Barlow, managing director of VAR Equanet called the new initiatives a "smart move".
"We are able to see a better price to present to customers and it gives us more differentiation in the market.
"Toshiba has been trying very hard with its channel initiatives recently. It had such a dominant position a few years ago and it has been an uphill struggle ever since, but it's one of the most channel friendly vendors we work with," he said.