Broadband moves up reseller scale

Resellers are getting keen on broadband adoption and the sales opportunities the technology may provide, if attendees at Ingram Micro's latest storage, networking and security showcase are any guide.

Rodney Thorne, business manager for storage, networking and security (SNS) at broad-based distributor Ingram Micro, said 'the main excitement' from many of the 220-odd resellers that attended its latest quarterly SNS showcase was around broadband adoption -- 'How to capitalise on that and what to do with the product suites.

Also, starting their business up and getting their customers around that so it is professional and providing a level of services to give customers better solutions,' Thorne said.

This time, the Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney showcase had focused on SNS for the SMB rather than on the enterprise. Much vendor marketing had been around SNS for large corporations or government, but SMBs were a potentially strong market for such technologies, he said.

'This time, we had a lot more smaller resellers [attending],' Thorne said.

Ingram Micro had trotted out ubiquitous small business commentator Peter Switzer and New Look Marketing director and former business writer John Hanrahan to give keynotes.

'They gave great advice on how to capitalise on really simple marketing ideas, [for example],' Thorne said.

He claimed that resellers had also shown especial interest in the range of products displayed by security vendor Trend Micro -– a major sponsor of the showcase.

'Everything from desktop anti-virus to intrusion detection on the server was very popular,' Thorne said.

Other major sponsors included Microsoft, Veritas, OzEmail and HP Networking, he added.

'We had a really popular discussion group based around OzEmail and our relationship there and the opportunities for resellers. Because it's a telco product, there's different levels they can grow their business around,' Thorne said.

Products from 12 other SNS vendors –- including Iomega, Hutchison and Computer Associates –- were also displayed, Thorne said.