Press release
5th March 2009, Weybridge, UK - Sony VAIO UK today held its first annual VAIO Business Programme forum, at which resellers were informed of a number of new initiatives planned for the new financial year, starting April 2009.
The first announcement at the event, held at Mercedes Benz World, Weybridge, was that VAIO will be offering laptop leasing to resellers in the UK for the first time. This gives customers the opportunity to upgrade their laptop fleets without eating into their existing CAPEX budgets, and will be available to all VAIO Business Accredited Resellers from 1st April 2009.
This new leasing option comes about through Sony's professional finance division, Sony's Financial Services, and is targeted at resellers catering to businesses of all sizes, from SMB to enterprise.
David Spratt, SMB Sales Manager for Sony VAIO UK said "The current economic climate is tough for everyone. We wanted to develop a programme through which we could help our accredited resellers to maintain their sales when end users may have budgetary constraints. By using Sony's Financial Services, we are giving resellers an alternative proposition when making deals and offering end users financing options that suit them.
"In a time when a lot of vendors are cutting back on investment, we have seen the potential of the channel and are investing in our VAIO Business Programme to grow it and help resellers through these tough times."
Secondly, VAIO announced a new process for sales lead management. The process will be run via an additional function within Sony's reseller portal, Sony1, which will allow VAIO Business Accredited Resellers to retrieve leads proactively from the extranet system.
"We invest heavily each year in events and direct marketing activities, and we want to introduce a process to communicate the resulting leads to our resellers, and to monitor our return on investment," added David Spratt.
VAIO also announced an addition to its reseller training programme, whereby the company will produce downloadable video clips,, accessible via Sony1, which will demonstrate new products and features to VAIO Business Accredited Resellers.
David Spratt continues "With the rise of mobile working the channel now needs access to information at any time and from anywhere. These new tutorial videos will give VAIO Business Accredited Resellers all the information they need to close a sale, and are available online 24 hours a day."
The VAIO Business Programme was launched in July 2008 to coincide with the launch of VAIO's first dedicated business range of laptops. For more information on the Sony VAIO Business Accredited Reseller Programme, please visit the Sony Reseller portal at www.sony1.net or call Sony VAIO UK on 01932 816000.
