Value Added Resellers (VAR’s) come in all flavors, shapes and sizes – they provide a vital service to IT departments who are suffering from severe budgetary constraints, staff and skill shortages and issues in implementing and managing increasingly complex solutions. Successful VAR’s are those who are delivering skills, customer service, bottom line improvement and are cost effective, but unfortunately, customers frequently confuse “cheap” with “value added”.
Being cheap is not a bad thing – in fact it can be excellent! Cheap is not a good thing when it places constraints on future development and adaptability of the network. It is a definitely bad thing when the “cheap” solution subsequently incurs excessive management costs or worse, a serious management issue because the solution is failing users and business expectations.
No IT manager likes to be in the situation when they are called in to explain why a solution implementation is over budget or worse, considered to be a failure!
Frequently, cheap means that the solution cannot be scaled up if it is a success or simply to meet the needs of a growing company. The VAR usually is the constraining factor in these instances because solution substitution is rife in the IT market – it is not fair to say security solutions are like commodities but it is not a far stretch to make that conclusion from the lofty heights of the boardroom. No, in practice, it is the VAR you select to partner with, who is the constraining factor in exploiting or upscaling a solution for the business.
Typical reasons for this include the fact that the VAR is cheap. Cheapo charging VAR’s do not usually have the financial foundation to continue with developing their own skill sets which you rely upon to be delivered into your own operation. They usually do not have the breadth of support from solution providers – particularly watch for a VAR with only a couple of certifications but who claims to provide a wide range of services.
Cheap also means sub standard or no realistic SLA when it comes to customer service.
Picture the scenario where you implement a solution the users love – adoption is widespread and the application become s mission critical, at least in the minds of the board room and staff relying on it. Unfortunately, the application is hosted online somewhere in the clouds by the VAR who is unable to afford enterprise class connectivity. Now you have the telephone ringing incessantly as everyone from the VP Sales closing a deal in California to the customer service reps in your NJ call center suddenly find they can’t do their jobs.
In turn – you make the call to your VAR – ask yourself what you are going to get, a voicemail or a person?
Ask yourself the same question except it is 3am on Christmas Day and the application is delivered over the WAN to 4 continents and every time zone?
This is where “cheap” simply means “bad”. The answer is to focus on cost effective solutions which demonstrate clear ROI and are backed by a VAR which has the substance to deliver the SLA you need and can afford. In these instances it is better to consider a VAR which is charging “appropriately” as a better measure of whether it is itself, delivering “value added”.
Author Resource:
Lawrence Reaves works for PLANIT Technology Group, a leading provider of Virginia Beach IT Services such as Virginia Beach enterprise storage and Virginia Beach Virtualization. PLANIT can be found online at: http://www.planittech.com .
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