SGI extends federal reach

Silicon Graphics Inc. is taking a different approach to increasing federal sales than some of its competitors, which are increasingly selling their products directly to customers.

SGI announced agreements with government resellers GTSI Corp. and World Wide Technology Inc. in the past month to sell SGI products in the federal market. Those deals were sought after EdgeMark Systems Inc., which had a longstanding reseller agreement with SGI, decided to exit the federal market in February.

New agreements with federal resellers should bring a better balance to SGI's federal sales and help the company achieve a growth of 10 percent to 12 percent in fiscal 2002, which begins July 1 for SGI, said Anthony Robbins, president of SGI Federal.

"We are a dramatically underdistributed brand," Robbins said. "We haven't in the past had a bunch of resellers. For resellers, this represents a new business opportunity."

The combination of World Wide Technology and GTSI gives SGI a broader reach into the federal market than its deal with EdgeMark did, Robbins said. SGI also plans to increase relationships with systems integrators for the federal government, which supplies more than 20 percent of SGI's annual revenues, he said.

"Our intent is not to go from an underdistributed brand to an overdistributed brand in the same year, but our intent is to increase the availability of our product through the reseller channel," Robbins said. "Between better distribution partners and more performance through relationships with systems integrators, we'll be able to achieve our growth metrics."