Computerland recruits ex-SolNet executive

By ADAM GIFFORD

Former SolNet national sales manager John Hanna has joined forces with Computerland to establish a new enterprise division selling mid-range Sun and Hewlett-Packard systems.

Hanna left SolNet in May in a boardroom shake-up that indicated the Sun Microsystems agent intended to beef up the services side of its business.

Last month SolNet laid off six staff, two of whom, salesman Richard Lightfoot and systems engineer Douglas Harvey, have joined Hanna at Computerland.

"Computerland has 60 sales reps nationwide, 3000 clients and, in most cases where they have a significant relationship with a client, they are doing everything except supplying enterprise systems, so this is a natural extension," Hanna said.

"SolNet has five reps, so this gives Sun market cover and entry into a new client base. For HP, it extends the relationship it has with Computerland into the enterprise space."

Hanna said there was a gap in the market for firms that understood mid-range computing and could manage the necessary relationships with multiple vendors.

"This is not a vendetta about any company I worked for, this is about me carrying on in an industry I have been part of for 20 years," he said.

Computerland chief executive Chris Mackay said the move would allow customers to reduce the number of partners they needed to deal with.

"Many of our customers have a midrange platform and right now they have chosen two or three different support providers. Our investment in this area allows one common support provider."

Interest in mid-range systems was driven by server consolidation, large and complex applications and the growth in storage.

Sun NZ manager Rod Severn said Computerland had been a registered Sun reseller since 1997, but had not pushed the brand.

One change Computerland is insisting on is that it books orders direct with Sun, rather than going through SolNet like other New Zealand resellers.

Severn would not say if Computerland would get the same prices as SolNet. "We treat all our partners fairly and equally, but it is fair to say that under our partner programme we have different layers."

SolNet's Mark Botherway did not see any threat from the new competition. "These guys have a presence in parts of the market where we are not," he said, "and if there is latent demand for Sun, they provide another channel to fulfil that."