Channel News

By Richard McCaffery


In an effort to shorten the sales cycle, Bay Networks Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., has expanded its online business capabilities by using electronic commerce tools to link its distributors and resellers.

Bay has chosen Tech Data Corp., Clearwater, Fla.; Westcon Inc., Eastchester, N.Y.; and Access Graphics, a unit of GE Information Technology Distribution Group, Boulder, Colo., to participate in the program. These distributors will be able to provide resellers with up to the minute, online information about Bay's products, prices and delivery schedules.

Bay Networks is a subsidiary of Northern Telecom Ltd., Brampton, Ontario.
Government Technology Services Inc., Chantilly, Va., has picked AppNet Systems Inc., Bethesda, Md., to upgrade its electronic commerce Web site.

Though GTSI has been selling products electronically for two years, its online market has grown, and the company has been looking for faster, more efficient electronic commerce tools.

AppNet offers electronic commerce products as well as intranet and extranet development services. GTSI sells more than 150,000 computer products from more than 2,100 manufacturers to the government. The company expects the AppNet system to be up and running in the first quarter of 1999.
Ingram Micro Inc., Santa Ana, Calif., has picked Alpha Microsystems and Omnitech Gencorp Inc. to provide warranty services for its line of unbranded computers.

Ingram's unbranded computers, which are built to order, come with a one-year warranty.

Alpha Microsystems, also of Santa Ana, will provide customers with technical support services, including a seven-day, 24-hour hotline. Alpha, a computer consulting and maintenance company, has more than 60 locations throughout North America. Omnitech of Miami will provide parts and delivery.

Ingram Micro distributes more than 145,000 computer products in 120 countries worldwide. The company posted sales of $19 billion over the last four quarters.
Westcon Inc., Eastchester, N.Y., has signed a deal to be the exclusive distributor of ArrowPoint Communications' Internet switching products in North America.

The deal is a multimillion dollar, one-year contract. As part of the agreement, Westcon will distribute Arrowpoint products globally on a nonexclusive basis.

ArrowPoint Communications, Westford, Mass., is a privately held company founded in 1997. Its products are used to direct traffic throughout computer networks and on the Internet.

Westcon is a specialized distributor that sells a line of about 3,000 networking products. The company is a subsidiary of Datatec Ltd., a Johannesburg, South Africa, distribution, software and Internet company.
Smith Corona Corp., Cortland, N.Y., announced Sept. 28 plans to eliminate 100 jobs, or nearly half of its work force.

The typewriter and office products manufacturer, which introduced a line of PCs to the federal government in the summer, reported net losses of $6.6 million, or $2.36 a share, for the year ending June 30. Sales shrank from $77.3 million in 1997 to $58.9 million this year, largely because the PC business is wiping out the need for typewriters.

The 112-year-old company emerged from bankruptcy in 1997 with a new plan to sell a line of fax machines, cordless phones, digital organizers and other office products.