Terra's e-learning push promises 'double-digit margins' for VARs

Over 500 courses in firm's education-as-a-service offering for the channel

Terra Computer is looking to woo the margin-starved channel with a vast batch of learning courses it can offer to education-hungry end users.

Last year, Terra unveiled ambitions to become the tier-two PC brand of choice among UK resellers, and reach £100m revenues within five years.

Providing educational courses will play a role in this aim, with over 500 courses now available for its channel to latch onto deals with end users.

Alicia Shepherd, head of sales at Terra Computer, told CRN that at the end of last year the firm launched an e-learning portal under the branding EAAS - education-as-a-service.

"Our courses cover everything from CompTIA, Cisco, Microsoft and GDPR right through to the safe removal of asbestos," she said.

"Invariably, if someone wanted to do some e-learning they would probably go to our friend Google. What we are doing is providing the reseller community with a profit stream they would not have normally got to experience."

Shepherd (pictured) said there are double-digit margins for resellers on over half of the 500-plus courses Terra is offering, providing a much-needed value-add for the channel.

"We have our main platform where prices are fixed. If you are aligned with a reseller, you mention that in the payment process and we then give the reseller a profit on that [transaction].

"Some resellers will have what we call our 'morph site', where the reseller's logo or branding is on a skin [for the site] and they can share that directly with their end users. However, most are quite happy promoting the Terra site."

Shepherd said resellers will have customers who are struggling with certain areas and they can state "we have a course for that".

"If the reseller is selling a notebook or a desktop, they can sell some courses with that. This is increasing the reseller's margin at the beginning of the sale.

"We looked at a course that Google was also offering and we found we were £300 cheaper than Google for exactly the same course.

"We have also used a developer who has already established themselves in this [education] sector. They have given us some pointers and tips as to what we should do and that has worked really well for us," added Shepherd.