NEC Computers yesterday signalled its intent to become 100 per cent indirect in the UK over the next year.

The Japanese firm will take on one mainline distributor in September and about 100 resellers over the next 12 months. The vendor hopes to increase its reseller base in vertical sectors that include healthcare, finance and the media industry.

NEC will distribute desktop PCs, servers, laptops and storage products exclusively through the channel and will sign specialist partners for its high-end enterprise kit that includes its Virtual PC Center and Fault Tolerant server lines.

The company’s newly appointed UK sales director, Rick Wallis, told The Register that NEC had failed in the past “to give our customers 100 per cent commitment”. He said the new biz strategy would draw a line under the firm’s “conflicting 50 / 50 message” that had pitted channel partners against direct sales. ®