10 December 2007
by Alex Scroxton
3com resellers across EMEA will be offered a 6 per cent discount on networking kit sold into the public sector under an initiative announced last week by the vendor aimed at growing its share of business in the state sector.
The discount applies at an incremental rate of 1 per cent for around 15 to 20 public sector partners that were already getting 5 per cent discounts.
Partners signing up to the initiative, dubbed Sustain, will also be eligible to receive the full 6 per cent straight away, according to 3com UK country channel manager, Steve Johnson.
"The incentive is intended to address price barriers putting resellers off tendering for public sector contracts," said Johnson.
"We have a large installed base in the public sector as it is, so it gives existing partners and new partners a chance to go in, service and maintain that base," he added.
One partner said that while 6 per cent was quite low in real terms, incremental discounting could make it more attractive to resellers that had not been interested in bidding for public sector contracts.
Meanwhile, as predicted by MicroScope two months ago, 3com’s proposed sale to a venture capitalist consortium made up of investors Bain and Chinese networking lynchpin Huawei could be about to hit the rocks.
According to reports circulating in the US press, government sources have confirmed that US intelligence has deemed the sale a threat to national security.
