back to article Enormo reseller Insight smacked by software licensing slide

International reseller giant Insight Enterprises has been hit hard by plunging PC and software licence purchases and was unable to cut costs quickly enough to offset declining sales and gross profits in a challenging calendar Q2. The numbers for the box-pushing titan were out last night and didn't make for pretty reading: …

COMMENTS

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  1. Ragarath

    Crap

    So nothing to do with them being crap then? That's my experience.

    My local distie can get me better deals than this "big" reseller. Guess who I use, even after MS price rises.

  2. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
    Trollface

    Declining License Sales

    Hmm MS jack up prices of Licenses in http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/09/windows_server_2012_r2_price_hike/

    I wonder why less people buy software licenses

  3. Alan Brown Silver badge

    So their internal accounts computing disaster had nothing to do with it?

    Insight changed to a "new computing system" for orders about October last year. Ever since then their pricing has been all over the place (A lot of discounts have been ADDED to figures instead of removed.).

    Needless to say many many large clients have partially or fully jumped ship - and that point about them not matching other disties is a good one, given that quite a few contracts require them to pricematch other valid offers - they won't do it even if it puts them in breach of contract.

    (The latest rort is to sign contracts which offer free shipping, Then add the shipping figure into every single item instead of calculating it across the entire putrchase. This is supposedly a result of contractees making 60p orders but it's far easier to simply set a minimum order value as many other suppliers do)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If their website wasnt so slow it wouldn't be so bad, since an 'upgrade' its been appalling. All we want is to be able to order low value items quickly and now we use another supplier. As for MS licensing when our OVS comes up renew I don't really care who I get it through, certainly Insight were significantly cheaper last time than others after a bit of negotiation.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      website is tied into the new blleeeeeuuurgh (excuse me, I mean sales system)

      and I think all of sales @ Insight will agree with you in the fact it's awful !

      but it's workable if you see value in dealing with some of the guys there, MY AM is a legend, so he gives me some grief on a daily basis but at least he's human and not some robot reading from a script .. or one of the Borg sales teams where you get a new guy every call !

      if the prices are wrong, he comes up with some bull reason, I give him some grief back and I generally win !

      I had to look it up in the dictionary for some of those other customers less well versed .. the word of the day is Negotiation ! swiftly followed by loyalty.

      L2P (Learn 2 Procure!)

      1. Pedo Bear
        Trollface

        My fave thing about the site is when you search you still get errors.

        I love hearing scripts, it shows a lot of time and effort has gone into NOT earning a sale lol

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No one cares

    The reason why it's so bad over there is that no one cares, they got rid of a load of people just before xmas which killed moral and had everyone worried for their jobs then they clamped down on on the banter, office nights out, points for prizes etc etc basically all the good stuff that staff loved again making it pointless to sell stuff. Also having to hit 65% before getting paid on an ever increasing target is impossible so everyone just left. They then have a massive recruitment drive that brings in people that know nothing hit the phones burn leads thus losing customers.

    The whole place has changed massively in the last 3 years especially in the London office to the point where MANchester and Sheffield are now beating them in sales, also vendors that visit have also noticed the place is dying on it ass.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: No one cares

      seems they are more focussed on getting to a number of calls in a day than actually selling stuff.

      the buggers keep phoning me every day but don't have anything out of the ordinary to talk about, as long as they get over thirty seconds call time, you may as well be the talking clock

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: No one cares

        Each team has a set amount of calls to make and a time to go with it i.e. Public Sector would have 40 calls 1hr 30 talk where IDO would have 60 1:30.

        Most people have a call burn list that contains 10 or so numbers that have AVR that they can loop for a while and then they just chat rubbish for the rest of the time, as long as the dials are there though it don't matter about talk time.

        Reason they are now so dial focused is they had a rally where EDS said if everyone makes just 1 or 2 extra calls per day we can earn x amount or some rubbish like that.

  6. Keith 12

    Dealt with them on and off for years. Generally, as soon as you found a rep that you can do business with, and we knew some good ones over the years, he buggers off, almost always it seemed there was acrimony.

    Generally very expensive to deal with and nothing like the technical expertise which such prices suggest if you need assistance. The shipping costs were usually way out of kilter with their competitors.

    On the Licensing side, finding someone who can actually confirm details & prices seems well nigh impossible.

    Has always struck us as the "BT" of commercial IT: to many staff, many of whom refuse to take responsibility for anything.

    On one occasion, and as a test before we stooped dealing with them completely, we compared an e-mailed quotation from a senior rep., having dealt them over 10 years at that point, with prices we obtained, on the 'phone through the main sales desk as a new prospective customer, literally with a girl on the switchboard - we were offered better prices as the new customer.

    For years beforehand we had pointed out to them why they had lost our business as they were too expensive - says it all really.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I am assuming you must be a business for the comment "Generally, as soon as you found a rep that you can do business with, and we knew some good ones over the years, he buggers off"

      The pricing is something that annoys everyone there as the other resellers just dropped well below that and the visible cost to AM was cost + adders so what would be really £150 would show as £180.

      They have a massive turnover of staff on that side of the business most get poached and go elsewhere or just leave for more money and achievable targets, in the 3 months everyone that was decent has just left and the companies attitude is that they are easily replaced. Granted they are but as customers it's you guys that suffer. For me I don't care I just get what they lose ;o)

      With regards to the inbound reps, they are targeted as well so can just make up prices like the AM's can.

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