Distributors come in from Veritas cold

Storage software giant Veritas has had a change of heart, reappointing TechPacific and, reportedly, also ACA Pacific as distributors less than a year after their axing in mid-2004.

Archie Wilson, alliances and channel director at Veritas, said Tech Pacific had been reappointed to spearhead a stronger SMB push for the software vendor.

"TechPac has got that well covered," he said.

Ingram Micro's takeover of Tech Pacific wouldn't be complete for some months at least, so it was worth resigning TechPac in the meantime, Wilson said.

ACA Pacific, meanwhile, had unique distribution relationships around tape storage, he added. Wilson confirmed in an earlier interview last Friday that Veritas and ACA Pacific had entered negotiations that might lead to a reappointment.

Contracts had not yet been signed for ACA Pacific. "Until that happens, I can't confirm that," Wilson said.

However, Raj Saini, marketing manager at ACA Pacific, said today that ACA Pacific was being reappointed.

“Yes, I can confirm we have been reappointed as a Veritas distributor,” he told CRN.

Veritas restructured its Australian distribution channel last year, dropping ACA Pacific and Tech Pacific from its ranks 1 July.

Saini suggested Veritas might have changed its mind because its remaining distributors following last year’s restructure were more broadly focused.

“The channel -- and Veritas -- needed a specialised distributor and that’s what we are. They’ve got Ingram Micro and Express Data, but we’re a specialised storage distributor,” Saini said.

All up, ACA Pacific had 10 years’ experience working with Veritas, and it was likely the distributor would simply pick up where it had left off in July. The account had previously been managed by Helen Rivett, who was looking forward to reprising her role, Saini said.

“We’ve been selling these products for nearly 10 years,” Saini added.

Veritas managing director Bruce Lakin told CRN last year that the decision to drop the duo was about their commitment to certification and their technical and pre-sales support infrastructure.

"Past [revenue] performance was a consideration but not a determining factor," he said.

Veritas derived 35 percent of its Australasian sales revenue via a second tier channel and was hoping to grow that channel 50 percent year-on-year, Lakin said then. ACA Pacific had also been a Veritas Enterprise Distributor specialising in high end storage products.