InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

This summer, small, fast-growing companies will join large businesses in placing online orders for Compaq hardware, adding third-party options such as network cards and printers, and receiving shipment from Compaq or a local reseller. Prices will be based on volume. "We found we could offer this service to small and medium-business accounts where pricing and internal purchasing approval didn't have to be as customized," says Brian Landrum, director of large and global accounts for Compaq.com.

Conal Cunningham, manager of IS at LA Weekly, a small Los Angeles newspaper, says he hopes this effort will improve delivery performance. "A lot of times when I order a Compaq server now, the parts come trickling in," he says.

The deal was revealed during a week in which Compaq sold 83% of its AltaVista unit to investment firm CMGI Inc. for $2.3 billion. Compaq had hoped the subsidiary would become the portal for delivering targeted products and services to business users and consumers, but the search engine has remained primarily a consumer resource.

Landrum says the extension of the relationship with pcOrder.com won't change Compaq's reseller-dependent sales model. Instead, the vendor has an 18-month plan that includes the online sale of services such as application hosting through resellers. Christina Jones, pcOrder.com's president and chief operating officer, says Compaq could also work with pcOrder.com to build co-branded purchasing sites with resellers to give customers multiple points of entry for ordering.