Do vendors need disties?

As Clearswift switches to a single-tier model, Sara Yirrell asks if this is a wise move

Clearswift's termination of its elationship with distribution is an interesting move.

The vendor parted ways with Arrow ECS earlier this week, claiming it had a duplication of resources and was able to match the distributor on core offerings such as logistics, credit and training.

However Clearswift itself admitted that - being a software company - it ships very little hardware and holds no stock - so the move to a single tier model is easier.

Other vendors enjoying a single tier strategy in the UK include Mitel and Sophos. All three vendors enjoy a significant UK presence, with sizeable UK-focused teams in the region - but all three deal with very specialist partners and have quite a straightforward sales strategy.

Multi-product Tier One players would find dealing directly with resellers much more complicated and costly I feel.

I have been speaking to many heads of distribution recently and all of them are heavily focusing on value, even those that have traditionally been thought of as volume players in the past.

While we may see a few more vendors ‘doing a Clearswift', I think the role of a distributor is becoming more important, particularly as vendor strategies become evermore multi-layered and complex.