David Versus Goliath

In a small business the owner or managing director is also likely to be the makeshift IT manager. This makes them highly reliant on their supplier’s customer service, often to meet more than just their basic computing needs.

As a result, SMEs derive a strong "comfort factor" from dealing with a local retailer, Sager says. "If you are a company that has 40 people located in central Australia, it’s much easier for you to know the person that can do your entire IT infrastructure, not only sell you your whiteboxes but do your networking, your security and your broadband. If they can come in cheaper than the cheapest multinational then they get in the door and that’s where they get the rest of their revenue, from doing all the other services for that company -- being a onestop shop," he says.

"There’s also a comfort factor in knowing you can call someone up on a Saturday if they’re your retailer in a small community, it’s not just about return to base or warranty. When you put that in there, that’s where white-box has an advantage.They’re never going to have 2000 customers, but they’ll have 200 they can service really well."

This relationship has made an SMEs’ whitebox provider the first port of call for all their IT-related needs. Resellers make 44 percent of their revenue from selling PCs, yet a further 19.4 percent comes from IT services, 14.5 percent from selling peripherals and more than 6 percent each from repairs and networking services. "When you put it together, all the stuff that rides on the back of selling PCs contributes almost as much revenue as the PCs do," Sager says.

"It does make more sense for resellers to sell their own white-box because then any customer question related to IT goes directly to them, so all the revenue goes to them. It’s about locking it down and ensuring you do everything in IT for that customer."

IDC's Sager: Not just about return to base or warranty

"The comfort factor helps white-box overcome the fact multinationals can offer a better level of service and support, but it’s something for white-box to watch out for," Sager says.

Still, providing good service and support is the key for white-box builders, says Greg Schroeder, marketing communications manager at Compucon.

"Every systems customer [reseller] is genuinely important to Compucon. whereas small resellers may feel overwhelmed and/or undervalued by multinationals.

"We know most of our customers really well and we’re very responsive to each of them. That kind of personal service just doesn’t scale up very well, especially when corporations squeeze their headcount to boost profits and their share price."

He continues: "No matter what their PR or advertising may try to suggest, large corporations simply aren’t customer centric -- their performance metrics force them to mostly focus on financial results, and the little guy knows he isn’t getting much mindshare from them," he says.

The builder’s direct relationship with Intel as an Intel Premier Provider also enhances its service delivery, he adds