By Simon Quicke
16 July 2008
Sony has unveiled plans to increase its activity in the business laptop market after taking the wraps off three new models and launching a reseller programme.
The vendor is aiming to increase its share of the channel focused SME market as a result of opening up a number of support options to dealers including marketing, training and
Mick Duffy, B2B channel sales manager, said that it had a strong presence in the consumer market with its VAIO range but wanted to grow its share of the business market and was turning to resellers to underpin that ambition.
Working alongside distributors Computer 2000, Ingram Micro and Micro P the vendor has put together a programme for resellers that allows them to be a Business Accredited Reseller and get access to promotions, training and technical support via its Sony One reseller portal.
“over 95% of UK organisations employ less than 20 people this is a massive opportunity for those targeting those organisations,” he said.
He added that although it was prepared to listen to anyone who went onto its website and applied to be part of the programme it was looking for resellers that would be motivated to sell quality products that would enable Sony to grow its share outside of the consumer space.
David Spratt, SMB channel sales manager at Sony, said that it already had 30 resellers that would be signing up to the programme and it aimed to get that number up to between 50 to 60 by the end of the year.
One source said that Sony’s VAIO range was expensive and high quality and the closest rival was in the form of Apple but it would face a challenge growing a side of its business that had not been on the channel radar.
