CompUSA's Crusade

The program offers all upside with no bottom side for local solution providers. The CompUSA initiative is just one more blockbuster sign of the dramatic shift from point product sales to a solution sales driven by services. CompUSA realizes there is no way that it can serve the growing technology demands of the small- and midsize-business market without the expertise of local VARs.

The question is whether the retail giant has the top-down commitment necessary to drive the channel culture throughout the company, ensuring crisp and clean execution in its more than 250 brick-and-mortar locations.

CompUSA&s George Coll, who is overseeing the initiative, has his work cut out for him on that front. Another big part of the program should be marketing the local service provider initiative internally and externally. CompUSA clearly has a huge competitive advantage through the local solutions savvy it is planning to leverage, and it must spread the word.

Another question is just how much the retail chain is willing to invest to go after some of the more thorny and complex problems—such as regulatory issues, security and business continuity—that are plaguing small and midsize businesses.

As for changing the channel landscape, one interesting twist to the initiative is just what kind of impact it will have on how CompUSA&s solution provider partners source product. CompUSA is not putting any strings on the services arrangements that require partners to do just that. But clearly, there is a commitment to get VARs to rely more heavily on CompUSA for products.

That&s no small matter given the strong placement of CompUSA as the third-largest alternative source of distribution in CRN&s 2005 Sourcing Study. Clearly, the CompUSA initiative ups the ante in the war to capture the product buying power of local solution providers.

There are few programs that knock local solution providers& socks off from the get-go. The CompUSA program is one of those. The retail giant has run back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. There&s a whole game to be played, and CompUSA has scored big out of the gate.

What do you think of the CompUSA initiative? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected].