Storgate, IBM agreement boosts local storage market

Peter Blaauw, MD of Storgate Africa, says the distribution agreement between Storgate Africa and the IBM HDD division in Europe will have far-reaching benefits for the storage market in SA.

Blaauw warns of risky business

Peter Blaauw, MD of Storgate Africa, a distributor of storage solutions, has warned resellers and end-users that they could be putting their businesses at risk if they source hard disk drives from unreliable or questionable sources.

IBM deal showcases Essbase AS/400

Hyperion Solutions has boosted its enterprise OLAP and data warehousing business through a reseller and licensing agreement announced separately by IBM and ShowCase. As part of the agreement, IBM will resell ShowCase Strategy, the AS/400 data warehousing solution, within IBM`s core business intelligence offerings worldwide. [Local rep: IBD Group]

Lorge named Dealer of the Year

Softline says Lorge & Associates has received the National Dealer of the Year award for 1998 at the South African ACCPAC annual awards. Lorge also achieved "Diamond Status", the highest ACCPAC dealer status that can be achieved in SA.

IBM announces price reductions

IBM has announced price reductions across the entire range of its locally available products. This follows close on the heels of the Compaq reductions on Friday. "We said we intend to keep our pricing competitive and we will," says an IBM marketer. Distributor First Technology says the reductions will be filtered down to dealers by the end of the week.

Aggressive pricing for BayStack 350 switch

Q Data Distribution has announced aggressive pricing on Nortel Network`s new BayStack 350-24T Switch. The switch, now priced at R13 995, supports 10/100 autosense and high-speed uplinks including Gigabit Ethernet and ATM.

Venture slashes Lexmark inkjet prices

Venture Computer has cut the recommended retail price of its Lexmark 1100 from R999 to R699. The 3200 colour Jetprinter, originally priced at R1 499, is now going for R999.

Merisel names CA `Strategic Partner of the Year

Computer Associates International says it has been named "1998 Strategic Partner of the Year" by Merisel, a North American distributor of computer hardware and software products with more than $4 billion in annual sales.

SSA, JGI in turnkey alliance

System Software Associates (SSA), creator of the BPCS software suite, has signed an agreement with Janis Group, which sees the group becoming one of the largest BPCS resellers.

SA`s largest IT retailer re-brands its computer chains

The Connection Group, South Africa`s largest IT retailer, says it will re-brand its 16 nationwide stores as Incredible Connection retail outlets. There are currently four retail chains operating within the JSE-listed group`s retail division, Connection Retail. In terms of the new strategy, three Software Connection stores, seven Computer Superstore outlets and the one Businessland store will be re-branded as Incredible Connection stores on 24 March.

Mustek online with USKO Communications

Mustek Electronics, the distributor which holds an estimated 17% of the local PC and peripherals reseller market, has gone live with a selection of online services for its 6 500 dealers nationwide.

Value-add project to enable resellers