Attack of the nerds

Reaction to infrastructure like these call centres is generally positive as vendors believe it raises the bar for the entire industry’s level of customer service.
 
But some are uneasy with the new wave resellers’ relationship-free approach. “I haven’t studied them much,” says Kerstin Baxter, director of Microsoft Australia’s Partner Group. “My initial comment is that if they are creating a recognisable brand, that is offering quality to customers.”
 
“But my concern is whether or not they have the skills. Our priority is to work with organisations that will commit to selling and delivering the most current and up-to-date Microsoft products.”
 
Baxter also questions how customers can “be sure of consistency” across organisations where different franchisees have different skills and experience.
 
Sue Hope, IBM Software’s channels manager Australia and New Zealand, says: “When I look at the partner community the feedback I get is that it is a cost-heavy model to have an open position.”
 
“A lot of our partners are consolidating the number of vendors they work with.” Hope also feels that the investment IBM is willing to make in partners is designed to create a value proposition that end users should be able to recognise when they engage with its approved resellers. Baxter believes her company’s branding also stands for similar benefits. “Microsoft partnership and Gold Partnership are strong brands,” she says. “What we hear from customers is that the Microsoft brand gives them comfort.”
 
“I do not think that their [new wave resellers] brands and ours are mutually exclusive. We would love to work with those organisations and support them. They should not view vendor certification as a negative because our brand supports theirs in the market.”

For the time being, however, the likes of Nerds On Site and Jim’s Computer Services seem to believe otherwise, and IBM Software and Microsoft are both working with their channel to make them more attractive to the small business market that the franchised, branded resellers believe is their natural hunting ground.
 
Yet perhaps the new wave resellers’ focus on those markets is something the industry can take comfort from, despite their impressive expansion plans.
 
“I’ve read statistics that say there is $6 per person, per day spent on IT services in a city of 100,000 people,” Carter says. “We want five cents of that.”
 
Of course five cents is a little less than 1 percent of the available business and almost certainly less than the annual growth in services.

Red cars, call centres and the big plans that come with them may therefore look intimidating and market-changing. But for the time being these emerging branded resellers seem to be adding to the vibrancy of the channel rather than threatening the livelihood of its incumbent players, making this a time for careful observations rather than a panicked stampede to imitate or attack these upstart innovators.

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