Dallman's Grounded Approach To Intel's Interchangeability Initiative

Steve Dallman, Intel's director of distribution and channel sales and marketing is convinced that broad-based acceptance of Intel's Interchangeability Initiative (III) is inevitable. The man in charge of selling III to the channel sat down with senior editor of technology Ed Scannell to spell out why III will be hard to resist.

VARBusiness: What is the long-term goal of III?
Dallman: Its basic purpose is to increase the adoption of notebooks in the mobile-market segments. We collaborated with some ODMs--specifically, Asus, Compal and Quanta--and some of the "ingredient" suppliers, and put together this concept of common building blocks.

VB: What is the opportunity for customization?
Dallman: With notebooks, personalization is extremely important. [People] have a more personal relationship with a notebook they can carry around than a 100-pound desktop system. And the building blocks are what allow resellers to deliver these more personalized, build-to-order products and solutions.

VB: Some VARs are skeptical about whether the III initiative can introduce both volume and customized innovations.
Dallman: With our specification in place, you would have defined slots or bays that could accommodate any value-added components.

VB: Besides getting innovation to market more quickly, are there any other enticements for resellers to buy into III?
Dallman: A big issue driving us was service and support.

VB: Do you need some backing from the major branded OEMs to help this get adopted faster?
Dallman: There is a giant refresh with many customers moving from desktops to notebooks. I don't know what their strategies are for this, but you can't argue with gravity. And the gravity for anyone in this business, including Intel, is that every time we come out with a product, we have to keep spares on hand for years. If we don't do this and everything is a customized design from the bottom up, we don't make as much money as we could, and consumers pay a lot more. But I don't think gravity lets that happen.