IBM attacked over network support

Training Frequent course cancellations add to vendor's troubles.

Disgruntled resellers have attacked IBM Networking's lack of support in the UK after consistent cancellation of training courses has forced dealers to seek education overseas.

According to one source, technical staff have either been sent to IBM's offices in France or, in one case, taught in short sessions by visiting IBM employees.

Previously, ETS, IBM's authorised training centre, had provided UK support for NETeam, the vendor's networking accreditation programme.

But Gordon Porter, technical director at ETS, said: 'The contract we had with IBM has effectively ended. We are still running courses but there was not enough return to pay for all the products we had to buy to run them.'

A source commented that training for IBM Networking was non-existent in the UK. 'IBM is trying to force a very tough accreditation programme on resellers that can't send more people, causing NETeam courses to be cancelled,' he said.

He added: 'It was very badly managed. IBM would schedule training courses but they were consistently cancelled because not enough people were enrolled.'

Geoff Brough, European MD of training at Azlan, said: 'We were looking at taking on training for NETeam accreditation about a year ago but the schedule was insufficient - people were having to go abroad.'

He added: 'The content of the NETeam scheme took an age to get finalised, while it is difficult on a pan-European basis to co-ordinate times and dates of courses.'

Kevin Bishop, Northern region distribution director at IBM, confirmed that ETS wrote and conducted their training courses but was unable to comment further.

A source said: 'Most resellers think that IBM Networking has a nice set of products but the support is just not there.'