Tech Data, ASCII Group Part Ways, But Still Wants to Work With Members

"While we no longer have a centralized purchasing agreement with ASCII, we continue to work independently with their solution providers," said Terry Bazzone, senior vice president of sales at the Clearwater-based distributor.

ASCII had a volume purchasing agreement with Tech Data for 13 years. Its members spent more than $200 million through Tech Data in 2001, but those sales fell by more than 50 percent this year, said Alan Weinberger, chairman and CEO of Bethesda, Md.-based ASCII. He said the organization was acting on its members' wishes to discontinue its relationship with Tech Data.

"We had an advisory board meeting, and we talked to a lot of members, and they wanted to support Ingram Micro, Synnex [Information Technologies and other distributors going forward," Weinberger said.

Some channel sources said Tech Data took the initiative to drop ASCII, but the distributor would not say what led to the end of the partnership.

"It was a mutually agreed-on contract that met both of our needs; over time, that changed," Bazzone said.

Tech Data's relationship with ASCII has deteriorated over the past few years, according to some ASCII members, who said Tech Data is not offering them the same level of support they received in the past.

"Tech Data has one of the best presales support infrastructures and by far the best Web site for a distributor, but over the past two years, they've lowered support, raised their pricing, and converted [our account from a sales rep to a sales team that told us, 'If you buy more from us, we'll do more for you,' " said Chris Scotti, partner/commercial sales manager at AgniTEK,

College Station, Texas. "We're not going to spend money with a distributor who will charge us more now so they can charge us less in the future." Tech Data, however, remains committed to SMB solution providers and still wants to do business with ASCII members, Bazzone said. "We're focused on this size customer. I want them to hear from us," she said.

Collectively, ASCII members purchased more than $850 million from distributors in 2001. The members' sales through Ingram Micro have remained stable, and revenue through other distributors has increased, Weinberger said.

The ASCII chief was critical of Ingram Micro's decision to cut the credit lines of several resellers, including many ASCII members, but he maintained that the group still has a strong relationship with the distributor.