Merisel Expands Agent Program With IBM Software Alliance

The IBM software alliance comes on the heels of a pact by Merisel,which is posting double-digit sales growth after winding down its hardware distribution business,to distribute America Online's enterprise instant-messaging products.

Merisel is set to launch next quarter the IBM distribution partnership, which will include WebSphere, DB2 and Tivoli and Lotus products, said Darryl Oliver, director of software licensing at El Segundo, Calif.-based Merisel. Oliver estimated the fees the agent gets paid on the IBM software products will range from at least 8 percent to 10 percent.

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Tech Data's Steve Raymund says distributor will monitor Merisel's licensing efforts.

"It looks like a great program," said Eric Bowman, president of ATS Consulting, a technology consultant in Bay Shore, N.Y. "I like the fact that I can get my customers to place the order through buy.Merisel.com. We don't want to maintain all the product information and pricing updates. It's a lot of work. I think this is the way software purchases are going to be made in the future."

Under the Agent Partner Program, consultants recommend the product to their customers, which then purchase the software from Merisel at buy.Merisel.com. Consultants can also place the order for the customer.

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Pioneer-Standard's KeyLink Systems distribution arm sources the product for Merisel, Oliver said.

Merisel is targeting the tens of thousands of consultants who are influencing software sales in small and midsize businesses.

"Vendors are looking for incremental business in the [SMB] segment," Oliver said. "This is a program to reach those small customers outside the major metropolitan areas. It's an opportunity for agents to touch all those customers that don't understand the licensing programs out there."

Merisel kicked off the Agent Partner Program in June with Network Associates, which makes up the majority of its sales. So far, Merisel has recruited about 15 agents for the Santa Clara, Calif.-based security vendor.

Steve Raymund, chairman and CEO of Merisel rival Tech Data, said Merisel's software licensing efforts bear watching. "They've been able to make some significant divestitures that produced some infusion of capital, giving them the fuel they needed to transition the business," Raymund said. "They appear to have managed through that. A lot of others that tried it are out of business today. They're definitely a player in [software licensing] that we have to monitor what they're doing."

In the quarter ended June 30, Merisel had revenue of $24.7 million, up from $17.8 million a year earlier.