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By Graham Hayday, 10 February 1999 10:27

COMMENT A lot of nonsense has been said and written about the 90s phenomenon of direct selling. All it took was for one vendor to become quite successful - Dell - and all manner of pundits (and gleeful reseller-bashers) came out of the woodwork to claim that other PC vendors would have to follow suit - and to predict the collapse of the channel. Sure, some of the industry big boys are trying to achieve the delicate balancing act of keeping their customers and channel partners happy. IBM and Compaq, despite denials, have made moves towards selling direct. But more significant are the promises to retain their relationships with their existing routes to market and their efforts to stress their own support offerings. After all, part of the reasoning behind Compaq's acquisition of Digital was to turn itself into a genuine all-rounder. IBM, Compaq, HP et al are actually in a better position than Dell to make hay into the next millennium. The big bucks from major corporate accounts don't come from new PC shipments - they come from support contracts on existing business. Dell's ability to provide this is yet to be proven, despite last November's $75m deal with Mobil and various US surveys saying that its customer service and technical support functions are better than those of IBM and Compaq. It also has support deals with the likes of NCR, Unisys and Wang Global, but its marketing focuses so strongly on its direct sales success that this is often over-looked. Many IT directors still have the feeling that any vendor selling machines direct just wants their signature on the sales contract and won't be seen again once the ink has dried. And desktop prices will continue to fall, which will threaten Dell's profit margins, and there aren't many Mobil-sized contracts up for grabs. So unless Dell wants to remain a 90s phenomenon forever it will have to ramp up its support offerings. Its only other option is to do a Compaq and buy-in the support expertise - something which has been mooted for some time - and is more likely now than ever before.