Gateway Tightens Channel Ties
The Poway, Calif.-based direct-sales pioneer plans an official launch in October, said Errett Kroeter, Gateway's director of partner programs.
Gateway on Tuesday also plans to unveil its first storage products in several years, including a 2U non-RAID array and an LTO-2 autoloader. The company earlier this month introduced its first four-way server.
GATEWAY CHANNEL PRODUCTS
>> SERVERS (introduced Aug. 4):
Gateway 995 -- 4U, four-way Xeon MP, starting price $5,999 with one processor, 512-Mbyte memory, 36-Gbyte hard drive, third redundant power supply
>> STORAGE (to be introduced Aug. 26):
SCSI JBOD ("Just a Bunch of Disks") -- 2U non-RAID array, Ultra320 SCSI, scales to 2 Tbytes for about $12,000, starting price $2,999 with three 36-Gbyte hard drives
>> Gateway 820 -- LTO-2 autoloader, max 1.6 Tbytes in 2U, $5,999 with one tape and one cleaning tape
As of now, Gateway is establishing a channel-neutral sales model; strengthening its back-end channel systems and online databases; developing training programs and possibly a home networking certification; deepening ISV partnerships; and broadening its government and agent programs, Kroeter said.
The company is also tightening relationships between its 190 retail stores and solution providers, which already use the stores as meeting and demo centers and services generators.
"I have a ready-made showroom and I don't even have to vacuum. %85 It has helped us win a handful of accounts," said Ted Hunter, general manager of Champion Networks, a Brunswick, Maine-based solution provider that works with Gateway's store in Portland, Maine.
Under the program, solution providers can expect to earn between five and 10 points on
product sales and about 80 percent of services revenue, Gateway executives and solution providers said. Regional sales managers and local store managers pass service leads through their solution provider partners.
The company currently works with about 1,000 solution providers but plans to weed out some and recruit new ones to bring the number up to about 1,500 within a year, Kroeter said.