Acer revamps supply chain to attract Vars

Scott Dodds, sales director of Acer and former channel manager at Compaq, is to head a major revamp of the Taiwanese giant's channel over the next eight months.

Scott Dodds, sales director of Acer and former channel manager at Compaq, is to head a major revamp of the Taiwanese giant's channel over the next eight months.

The restructure will include moving the hardware vendor's supply chain fully online. The terms and conditions are currently being re-evaluated, but Dion Weisler, managing director of Acer UK, confirmed that there would be extensive lead generation and increased joint marketing funds for Acer resellers.

Weisler admitted to PC Dealer that previous attempts to market Acer in the channel had not being successful.

"We want to build trust with the channel. The previous attempts to build the brand did not have the infrastructure in place to support it: that has been taken care of. We will be increasing marketing spend from three per cent to 10 per cent," he said.

Weisler added that Acer had hired consultants McKinsey to re-engineer the company"s supply processes. The result is that by June 2000, all UK Acer distributors and resellers will trade with the vendor over the web or by EDI only, and will have products delivered direct from the Dutch facility.

"The reseller and distributor will place an order and the product will be built to order and drop-shipped to any point in the channel, including the user, within five days.

"This is being introduced in Germany now and it will launch in the UK for notebooks in January, and for desktops and servers by the middle of next year," said Dodds.

Weisler added that the vendor would be increasingly focusing on the education and SME market. The focus on these sectors will lead to a reduction of business going through Dixons stores as the vendor places less emphasis on the retail sector.

Dodds was very clear in his commitment to the channel and cited the increased channel focus of Acer as a big contributing factor behind his move from Compaq.

"I have worked at all channel levels and I moved to Acer because it's a channel-committed manufacturer. I can concentrate on that and not on competing with those in my own organisation," he concluded.