In a previous writing, I shared my thoughts on how customers might make their technology selections. My premise was that customers should consider who they are purchasing the technology from and if that provider can insure that 6-12 months after installation they were receiving the return on the investment they were expecting.In the same light, I thought I would write about how Starnet Data, as a Value Added Reseller, chooses the Vendor it decides to invest time and effort in, and whose technologies to recommend to our customers.
The decision criteria are not dissimilar.
For Starnet Data, the expectation of local ongoing engineering support is of utmost importance. This links directly to our Value Proposition to customers.
There are numerous products in the industry that we are consistently being introduced to. Many appear to have great feature sets and competitive price points. But, if we have no local engineering personnel from the vendor to interface with our engineering team, we are likely not interested.
Our value proposition is tied directly to our ability to maximize our customer’s return on their investments with us. As such, we must base our product selection criteria on vendor’s ability to provide what we need to enable us to deliver on that proposition.
To us a good vendor is one who not only offers strong price/performance value. But also one who has local engineers that can develop strong working relationships with ours.
One of the biggest detractors from Starnet Data considering a new vendor is one who looks for us to invest large sums of money on equipment and training at the onset of the relationship. I feel this is inappropriate. My reasons; the equipment becomes obsolete, the vendor changes reseller programs, the local sales and engineering teams change. This inevitably happens and in many cases the reasons for us wanting to partner in the first place are no longer in play.
The request from a vendor of Starnet Data to invest money upfront in the relationship is not the example of partnership we seek.
We want our vendors to recognize that we have been in business for 21 years and that our time is valuable. And that if we are willing to invest our time, should the prospective vendor really value the potential partnership with Starnet, that they should make their products and training available to us without charge.
I can understand the vendor argument that they do not want to waste time with partners who are just “kicking tires” and who have a very small probability of being successful with the product. And as such are looking for an investment to prove sincerity.
But, this test should be applied on a case-to-case basis. As for Starnet Data, because of our track record and successful partnership with our current vendors, our commitment to customer service by maintaining a large staff of competent and skillful engineers, and by our ability to identify numerous satisfied customers, we should be held to a different standard.
A vendor who cannot see our position is likely not one we would care to partner with as their focus would appear to be on short-term revenue opportunity as opposed to long-term reseller and end-user satisfaction. And, in direct contrast to our “value-proposition”.
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