Seagate cuts the heart from its Channel & Partner program with direct sales to volume buyers...
According to the New York Times article today, Seagate joins the Dell model in offering its products direct to large clients and in higher volumes than before. Typically manufactures have sold to large web companies such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon direct but this is now expanding to other tech companies and even to investment banks as customers try to get more bang for their buck.
The problem is that like many traditional businesses, Seagate & Intel have built established and strong distribution partners and channel partners who have helped build some of these tech companies into the giants they are today. The problem is now that the larger partners now have to worry if they spend time building relationships and educating larger clients on the benefits of using Seagate products the client can now be stolen by their supplier Seagate.
This is a major hassle for any company having to worry about losing sales to other channel partners now also have to worry about the supplier cutting them out as even once the channel partners offer a discount Seagate can still undercut their partners and sale the hard-drives at a profit.
Seagate Partner Program Benefits – North America
- Password protected website with valuable sales resources
- Exclusive special offers
- Dedicated pre-and-post sales support waiting to take your call
- Quarterly electronic newsletter – Storage Insider Magazine
- **Seagate reserves the right to contact your larger clients direct
If this concerns you I would also suggest reading the ARN article that advises that Australia is left out of the global review.
“Seagate’s global distribution review will not affect Australia but the vendor will be driving new reseller initiatives around its high-end hard drive range, according to its regional boss.” http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/333349/seagate_wants_more_resellers_sell_direct