Samsung To Channel: Drop Vendors That Sell Direct

Speaking Monday during a keynote session at XChange Solution Provider, Doug Albregts wooed partners with Samsung’s newest b-to-b products and urged them to look beyond its popular consumer lineup.

Albregts also appealed to their business sense by pledging that Samsung will not compete with partners by taking deals direct.

“One of the things I can assure you of is that we are not going to sell direct. We will not take any deal direct, period,” said Albregts, vice president of sales and marketing for the Enterprise Business Division at Samsung Electronics America.

Albregts challenged solution providers in the audience to eschew competing vendors that do sell direct. “Don’t support those vendors that sell direct. You’re not helping your cause, and you’re not helping the vendors that are being loyal to you and investing in you,” he said.

Samsung saw double digit channel growth in 2010 and is currently outpacing that rate for 2011, he said. That said, he pledged that Samsung would do more to be a better partner going forward.

Samsung is making changes to make itself easier for solution providers to partner with, including the expansion of its inside sales team and a reorganization the clears out conflict between consumer-side and business-side sales. Samsung is also providing more training to channel partners and removing barriers to make it easier for partners to benefit from incentive programs, he said.

“We have to have a viable value proposition for you and the end customer, but if we don’t start with you, it never gets to the end customer,” he said.

Albregts spotlighted several of Samsung’s products, including its forthcoming 9 Series notebook PCs. The 9 Series was unveiled earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show and is scheduled for release next week, Albregts said.

Its sleek form factor weighs in at 2.88 pounds and it is 0.64 inches at its widest point. The system is built on the Intel Core i5 processor and includes an SSD. It also sports Samsung’s Superbright Plus Display technology and promises battery life of up to 7 hours. Samsung will be showcasing the new laptop at its booth on the exhibit floor at XChange.

Albregts also spotlighted Samsung’s 7 Series, a tablet PC that features a slide-out keyboard.

He also pointed to the vendor’s MobilePrint app, which enables wireless printing from Android-based-devices to networked printers, as well as Samsung’s NC240 PC-over-IP, a zero-client display that is certified for VMware virtual desktop environments.

Derek Davis, co-owner of Intelli-Net, a solution provider in Greenville, S.C., said his company does not currently sell Samsung but that several of the vendor’s products caught his eye.

“I just downloaded the MobilePrint app and am going to test it out,” said Davis, who does use a Samsung smartphone. “Printing from a smartphone would be nice.” Davis also plans to give Samsung’s 7 Series tablet a closer look.