AOpen: Plenty Of Room In White-Box Arena For Dell

Su said AOpen, the white-box unit of Acer, expects to double its number of top-line partners within the next year, despite Dell's moves in the white-box arena. Su said he believes the differentiator for AOpen will be the component maker's own "value-add" strategy.

"If we don't add value, we don't do it," Su said. "The value edge to the reseller is our major focus. For the past 10 years, it's been our strategy."

In opting to build and ship low-end white-box systems to resellers, Dell, Round Rock, Texas, said several weeks ago it would aim to provide reliable systems to VARs at a low cost. The move was greeted with praise from some VARs and skepticism by others, who question the wisdom of entering a partnership with a longtime competitor.

"We are one of the first resellers who jumped into Dell's solution provider program," said a Phoenix-based solution provider, who requested anonymity. "However, it's terribly disappointing, to say the least."

The solution provider said Dell continues to offer slightly higher-end branded systems at more competitive prices than similar white-box solutions.

"We doubt Dell's sincerity in this alliance," the solution provider said.

Su echoed that statement. "[Dell has competed with the white-box systems integrator and white-box VAR and resellers already for years," Su said.

Dell has said that while it will not offer resellers price protection on its white-box systems, it will keep the VAR price low and will not restrict solution providers on markup.

In addition, VARs who enter into an agreement with Dell have access to the company's call-center support and basic warranty service,the same as buyers of Dell-branded systems.

Su said he believes AOpen is well-positioned on the services front as well. In February, the company began a program for its "premier" solution providers that includes expanded, direct access to AOpen engineers and a dedicated program manager to help them with pre- and post-sales support.

Su said AOpen has already enlisted 700 "premier resellers" and expects to have 1,000 by the end of the year. He believes those ranks will swell to 2,000 by the end of 2003.

"We support [the reseller from the component to the system,all different service areas," Su said.