VIP to offer retailers cloud storage in a box
Distributor VIP Computer Centre, a specialist in computer components and peripherals, has launched its first cloud offering for retail channel partners in an attempt to diversify its portfolio as the components market continues to slump.
The distie has signed an exclusive agreement with storage provider Livedrive to offer signups for its online service in retail boxed format. However, Livedrive can still be trialled free for 30 days and purchased for the same price as the boxed version via the SaaS vendor’s own website.
The move by VIP is a response to a steady decline in components sales as larger PC vendors like Dell, HP and Acer produce low-end machines that system builders have difficulty competing with. As Mark Lynch, VIP product manager, explains “the climate has got tougher over the last couple of years and margins [in components] are getting pushed.”
Lynch believes that Livedrive is the first element “of an extension of our portfolio” in which he believes, “services will be a growth area.”
VIP started selling retail boxed signup ups for Opal Broadband last year and Lynch hints that hosted anti-virus, spam filtering and other traditional online purchases items will be targeted by VIP for repackaging as retail boxed versions.
On the question of whether savvy customers will instead go to Livedrive’s own website and simply try the product for free instead of purchase at retail, Lynch believes the sales will be made as part of system purchases, “We see hundreds of resellers selling maybe one or two copies a week – which adds up to a lot of volume.”
VIP will make the Livedrive retail pack available to its network of around 2000 resellers, systems builders and smaller retailers. However, the channel will not be able to cash in on lucrative recurring revenue as Livedrive users renew subscriptions. The area of recurring revenue is an issue VIP “will be looking at over the next year depending on how it all goes,” claims Lynch
