MicronPC Eyes Channel

The Nampa, Idaho-based PC vendor last week signed an agreement with Tech Data to distribute its build-to-order line of servers, desktops and notebooks. The move follows deals in the past year with direct marketers CDW Computer Centers, MicroWarehouse, and PC Connection.

"The timing is somewhat fortuitous in that we are capitalizing on the grapefruit that Compaq and HP handed us almost a year and a half ago," said Adam Lerner, MicronPC's executive vice president of sales and marketing, referring to the HP-Compaq merger.

On Nov. 1, HP launched PartnerOne, a new channel program that many SMB solution providers say will prevent them from achieving Gold- or Platinum-level partner designations and related benefits.

"If you look at what HP is doing with PartnerOne, as they raise the bar, [solution providers who have traditionally played at a higher level with that combined entity are looking for an alternative."

But solution providers say MicronPC must overcome lack of brand recognition and an earlier failed attempt at selling systems through the channel.

"Several years ago, they swept in, took some of our accounts direct and then disappeared," said Todd Barrett, networking sales manager at CPU Sales and Service, Waltham, Mass. "Unless their margins are in the 10- to 15-point range, if you're going to go with MicronPC, you might as well go with Dell or white boxes or stick with the HP agent model."

About 15 percent of MicronPC's business now goes through the channel, up from zero a year ago, Lerner said. "If you look at the size of our direct business vs. Dell or even Gateway, ours is considerably smaller. So the risk of channel conflict is not as significant," he said.

MicronPC's product line stacks up far better with business users than with the consumer market, Lerner said, adding that the ability to engage solution providers will help the company "grow quickly at a rate that outpaces the market."

And computer sellers like MicronPC have a growing opportunity because SMB VARs are seeking alternative PC vendors, said Tech Data Chairman and CEO Steve Raymund. "It's really not about HP. It's about offering our customers the broadest assortment of products that they want to sell," he said. "We've had interest expressed [by VARs in alternative brands."