When you purchase enterprise class technologies, there are few manufacturers that will sell products directly to the customer. Much like a dairy farm selling milk through a supermarket, manufacturers like Cisco Systems, Palo Alto Networks or Dell Compellent sell products through technology partners also known as value added resellers (VAR). The term “VAR” gets tossed around a lot in the tech industry, but is the VAR you’re working with truly adding value to your organization?
Often times when we meet with new customers they have an existing technology partner that they are working with. Some are happy, some are unhappy and others are somewhere in between. The most common response we hear why customers are unhappy with their existing VAR are:
- Poor response time to issues and requests
- Slow turnaround time on quotes a proposals
- Lack of technical expertise
- Bad customer experience
- Lack of response and attention because of company size
- Sales aggressive
It is important to partner with a VAR that you can trust that cares about your business and solving problems. Working with the right partner enables IT to resolve issues quickly, optimize technology and add solutions to the business that will help save time, money and deliver a competitive advantage.
In this series we will talk about what we see as important qualities and values to look for in choosing the right technology partner.
PART 2: Choosing a Partner That is Loyal to Customer Success
