Merisel Raises Industry Standard For VAR Service, Intensifies Focus on Small-to-Mid-Sized VARs

Business Wire, March 9, 1999

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 9, 1999--Merisel Inc. (Nasdaq:MSEL) Tuesday announced that it has significantly enhanced service levels for small-to-mid-sized VARs.

Following a series of recent announcements regarding new management and VAR support programs, the company's latest move represents substantial enhancements to Merisel's U.S. sales organization. These developments are expected to result in more responsive and personalized service for VAR customers.

"Strengthening our partnerships with VARs is a companywide commitment for Merisel," said James E. Illson, president and chief operating officer. "We believe there are significant opportunities for us to provide VARs with the highest levels of service and support to help grow their businesses. Our most recent initiatives reaffirm our dedication to solidifying our position as the VAR distributor."

Merisel's recent efforts include a customer segmentation project to classify customers by business model and geographic location to provide enhanced business support. VARs will work with sales representatives who thoroughly understand the VAR market and are trained to support their specific requirements.

In addition, Merisel has implemented a new "team cluster" model in each of its U.S. call centers. VARs with dedicated sales representatives will now have the additional support of a dedicated team. If their primary representative is temporarily unavailable, VARs will now have immediate access to one of three additional representatives who are familiar with their account.

"As a participant in Merisel's team-cluster pilot, we were very impressed with the amount of knowledge each team member had regarding our account and the level of personalized service we received," said Mike Ward, president of Plano, Texas-based LanSource Inc., a single-source solutions provider.

"Merisel has proven to us that our business matters to them by providing high-touch support that definitely exceeds industry standards for smaller resellers," Ward added.

During the next several months, Merisel will continue to expand both its VAR inside and field sales teams. To further support VARs, Merisel has dedicated a cross-functional team to drive support programs across all areas of the company, including marketing, products, financial services and technical support.

Additionally, special emphasis is being placed on recruitment of new VARs through a newly restructured business development group.

"My position as VAR Channel vice president was created to emphasize Merisel's serious commitment to VARs," said Peter Cannone, who joined the company in January. "Merisel excels at servicing large customers and I'm working closely with our VAR team to translate this same level of service to our smaller VARs."

Key elements of Merisel's VAR offering include recently enhanced technical support and technical training, drop shipment, extended warranty, help desk, marketing and advertising services, electronic ordering and new Web-based reseller tools, rapid credit approval and new financing options.

In addition, Merisel recently introduced its Small Business Partnership program, Public Sector Solutions program, and Summit Club rewards program, all of which cater to small-to-mid-sized VARs. VARs interested in partnering with Merisel to support and grow their businesses can call 800/MERISEL or visit http://www.merisel.com/var/index.html.> Merisel is a leader in the distribution of computer hardware and software products. Based in El Segundo, Merisel is a Fortune 500 company with reported 1998 sales of approximately $4.6 billion. Merisel distributes a full line of 25,000 products and services from the industry's leading manufacturers to resellers throughout North America.

In addition, the company provides a full range of customized, value-added services. Merisel also offers dedicated support to high-end enterprise resellers through the Merisel Open Computing Alliance (MOCA) and the company's Enterprise Computing Division. Merisel's corporate Web page is located at www.merisel.com.