Impact touts PC push

Impact Systems has flagged the low-end PC market as a major thrust of its strategy in 2006.

The distributor and SI is planning to take IT resellers up against mass merchants in the fight for the budget PC.

According to managing director Peter Agamalis, the approach followed the recent success of budget systems amongst retailers such as Target, Kmart and Big W.

“We understand around 20,000 desktops were sold between those retailers in Q4,” he said. “That would have impacted heavily on the typical IT resellers so we are going to support them with the right models.”

While mass merchants would continue to have the edge on price, Agamalis said IT resellers could compete on expertise.

“Mass merchants aren’t geared up to support customers to the level they expect,” he said. “However, IT resellers’ business models are so with the right PC models they can capture the retail opportunity.”

Following a tacit nod from the new management at MSI Computer, notebooks would also feature heavily in the company’s strategy this year, Agamalis said.

“Unofficially, we will now be the exclusive marketer of MSI’s notebooks in Australia,” he said. “Each MSI distributor has its own strengths and the new management want each distributor to play to that strength.”

Discussions were also underway to explore a services network with the vendor, Agamalis said. This would provide services revenue for the distributor and save on infrastructure costs for MSI.

Despite recent noise from close competitor Altech Computers around its own push into the notebook and PC market this year, Agamalis was still confident of success.

“We’re friendly competitors but the market is big enough for both of us to strut our stuff,” he said.

A new sales team, to capture more education and corporate tender business, was also due to be launched, he said.

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