Data General in bid to bolster revenue

Data General is relying on increased channel focus and a revamped OEM strategy for its Clariion range of storage products to turn around recent poor revenue results and improve its reputation in the industry.

The vendor plans to sign additional UK resellers to provide systems based on the Aviion NT-based servers in its main target industry sectors - retail, travel and transport, general commercial, defence, healthcare and local and national government.

But the company conceded that it faces an uphill struggle to re-establish itself as a key player after experiencing declining market share since the 1980s.

Jim Sampins, UK and Ireland alliance sales manager for Data General, admitted last week: 'We'll never be big, but we want to make sure that what we do, we do well. We think it's a good sign that while other market leaders from that time, such as Prime and Wang have gone out of business or been sold, we're still around.'

Sampins added: 'We realise that we're just one of many vendors selling Intel-based NT boxes and that there's basically no difference between those boxes. The differentiation, however, comes from services and the channel helps us provide better services.

'We're talking to companies that can help fill the gaps in the systems we offer to customers.

'We already have relationships with a number of channel partners across our target market segments, so we're taking care to ensure that we don't end up by having two organisations doing the same thing,' Sampins said

Data General will also take on its OEM customers, including Dell and Storagetek, by marketing the Clariion range under its own brand as part of a worldwide, multi-million dollar campaign to improve company turnover.

Data General's revenues for the first two quarters to 27 March totalled $720.9 million, compared with $727.1 million for the first six months of 1998.

The vendor has reversed a $1 million loss and turned it into an $18 million profit during the corresponding period.