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Channel assembly is one of the most talked about initiatives in the history of the computer industry. Will it survive? Will VARs depend on it, and will OEMs continue to support it? The deciding factor, according to Tony Ibarguen, chief operating officer of Tech Data Corp., Clearwater, Fla., is economics.
The perfect complement to channel assembly, according to Ibarguen, is an extended collocation program, in which the distributor performs configuration services on OEM products fresh off the assembly line in the OEM's facility. Ibarguen discussed the pros and cons of collocation and next year's hottest technologies with VARBusiness' distribution editor, Karen Franse, at the distributor's Summit '98 conference this month.
On the advantages of collocation:
Moving relatively lighter, smaller...