Imago’s year-long VAR research campaign, which it embarked upon in November (CRN, 13 November), has already proved its worth, according to the distributor.
Imago wanted to ask its VARs how they felt about e-commerce because the videoconferencing (VC) distributor has been gearing up to launch an e-commerce offering this year.
Ian Vickerage, managing director of Imago, told CRN: “It was important to know if e-commerce was something resellers wanted. We discovered that there is a clear split between VARs that are for e-commerce and those that are not. A lot of resellers said they still want to speak to someone when placing an order to get a definite commitment that the order will get there in time.
“We realise that we need to provide both services to VARs because offering e-commerce on its own isn’t what they want. So we have delayed the launch of our e-commerce offering until the second quarter to fine-tune it and give VARs what they want.”
David Underdown, sales director at rival VC distributor ReView Video UK, said: “The VC market can be very demanding in terms of resources, so we would not offer VC this way. Also, Polycom, which is the major manufacturer in this market, only allows distributors to supply to limited certified resellers.
“We prefer to work closely with VARs to understand their needs.”
Do you agree?
Have your say on this article