Computer Consultants Secrets ™

Oracle announced last week that it would be rolling out a program for VARs that work with the small business market.  Its new VARs order process will allow resellers to order directly through distributors without membership in its partner program.  This new idea is in part an attempt to help the company stay competitive with Microsoft.  
    
As part of this new program, VARs can sell Oracle products through any distributor attached to Oracle and can also get support and training through this distributor.  This process will eliminate all up-front fees and contracts.  

Now “remarketers” can just order Oracle These new VARs will be labeled “remarketers.”  Judson Athoff, vice president of global platform and distribution sales and the leader of the Oracle Technology SMB Program says this change is necessary in order to get at the low end of the market.    The company came about deciding on this “one-click” ordering program with the help of analysts that determined the company was losing business from small businesses because of the complexity of the ordering process.  
products through value-added distributors and better give Oracle solutions to small accounts without having to pay big-account prices for VARs programs.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Your first job with partnering is determining your strengths.  You need to know what you do best, what your store enjoys, what is financially possible and what you plan to do in the future.  You don’t want to engage in a partnering relationship with someone that might be your direct competitor either now or in the future.  

Determine Your Specialty

Whether your specialty is network consulting for small dental offices or document imaging solutions for law offices – or work in any other industry – you need to know your specialty.  Once you know what  you are best at doing, you can find the best partnering relationships with other non-competing area tech providers.  

No Partnering with Competitors

You can’t engage in partnering with competitors or you will be constantly afraid of taking each others prospects and clients.  When you are sure you are not competing, you will know your partnering companies will not steal your clients and vice versa.  

To make sure you are really non-competing, get past the business card speak.  Know what your partners do and make your own strengths clear beyond hardware, software, LANs and other services.  

Get Past Business Cards

Most people in the tech business say something similar on business cards, yellow pages and direct mil pieces.  All tech providers will list PC hardware, software and networking items.  You should not be partnering with a company unless you know what its core competency is.  What is the company’s real strength?  For what is the company known?  Why do customers choose this particular company?

Partners Should Have Different Niches

Look for very technical people, which means deeply niched IT consultants already established in the community.  You want to find consultants that don’t do what you do.  If your staff has good skills in terms of dedicated server installations but has a weakness in terms of Microsoft Exchange Server or SQL server or VPNs, look for consultants that would make for good partnering relationships that have these types of skills you don’t have.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Recently, solution provider ArmorCore Technologies LLC announced a program for computer resellers looking to specialize in storage and security solutions.  The company stated it would recruit 30-40 storage and security computer resellers in the proceeding six months to help build the program and meet its quota for data recovery, data backup and security products.  

The company declared on June 14th that its computer reseller program would respond to the 22% - 28% expected growth in the storage and security market over the next five years.  The ArmorCore computer reseller program will also help respond to similar growth in the software and hardware industries.

Tom Kane, Jr., vice president of Channel Sales and Marketing for ArmorCore stated the computer reseller channel program is an attempt to respond to the demand for the company’s Total Data Protection solutions.  The small business market is changing quickly in terms of security and storage, and is looking for simpler solutions that were previously available and at more reasonable prices.

Companies and computer resellers that partner with ArmorCore can expect excellent security features from its products that will help position them to compete.  As part of this program, ArmorCore will help computer resellers through the sales process and provide the following resources:  all tools, documentation and support; education and information about data protection and security; suites of products that include data security, backup and recovery, storage, encryption, compliance and easy-to-install software.

Computer resellers looking for more information about this opportunity can visit the attached link.

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

You need to make sure that your IT sales campaign is about sales and not countless free consultations.  Your job is not to prove you intelligence or your technical expertise and ability to pay for and sit through certification exams.   Your job in an IT sales meeting is to see if you have good chemistry with a prospect and if the prospect is ready to move to the next step – paid work.  

Can You Work with the Prospect?

An IT sales call is about checking to see that you and your prospect are on the same page and that the prospect will be a client your company can manage.  Does the prospect look like other successful clients?  You should have already asked the important questions about company size and platform.  The IT sales call is about gauging personality and willingness to work with your specific solutions.

For most good IT sales opportunities, you should spend about an hour getting to know their needs and giving away very controlled free advice.  Be ready to cut the free advice off at some point and start discussing the possibility of hiring your firm for an IT audit or tech assessment.  

“Free” is Not a Living

If you keep offering prospects things for free, you will never realize a profit.  There are plenty of small businesses that will take advantage of free advice indefinitely with no intention of helping you make IT sales.  

What Do You Want to Sell Prospects?

Don’t give away your business for free.  Instead, assess your clients’ various needs – both immediate and long term – and know what they are before the IT sales call.  How will you be a solution?  You need to be ready to be a solution to their worst problems and be prepared to offer a half-day audit for a couple hundred dollars at a fixed rate.  

If you see a greater opportunity during the IT sales call — $50,000 - $100,000 in services – you can afford to give away more than an hour as part of the IT sales call, but make sure to know where you are going before you even enter the door.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

On Wednesday, June 13, Agilysys, Inc., a leading solution provider stated its chairman, Arthur Rhein got the VARBusiness 500 Executive of the Year Award.  This award is to commemorate his outstanding oversight as the company went from a small IT solutions firm to one of North America’s top solution providers.  

Rhein stated he was honored to be selected by VARBusiness to receive this award for solution providers, and that he shares the award with all Agilysys employees and most specifically the senior management team.  

Rhein joined the innovative IT solutions firm in 1981 and was the vice president of the Northeast Region until 1986, when he became senior vice president of marketing.  He was named to the Board of Directors in 1990 and took over as CEO in April, 2002.  He has held the chairman position since April, 2003.  

Solution provider Agilysys offers services to corporate and public-sector customers and specializes in vertical markets such as retail and hospitality.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

You need to have a very clearly-defined target audience when using a direct mail campaign for IT marketing.  You also need to have an equally targeted message.

When you are just starting your business, you will most likely feel overwhelmed by the number of IT marketing tasks you can be doing at any one moment.  Instead of trying to do them all, choose four or five you think are best from the list and do them.  You want to be engaged in several IT marketing tasks at once, but you don’t want to do too many or none will be successful.  

IT Marketing Ideas

You might choose telemarketing, postcard mailings or direct mail letters.  You might also choose trade shows in your area, expos or conducting your own seminar.  Whatever you choose for IT marketing you have to diversify your techniques.  

Diversify Strategies

You should think about hitting different areas and tracking what you’re doing as part of your overall IT marketing plan.  How much time and money are you putting in each technique?  What kinds of leads are you getting and what benefits are you getting from your investments?  Find out what is working for you and then do more of it.  Then get rid of IT marketing activities that are doing nothing for your business.  

Evaluate Each Quarter

Whichever IT marketing activities you select, stay with them for three months and then evaluate.  Stick with IT marketing techniques that work and then throw some new ones into the mix.  Marketing is on-going and takes time to develop.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

On June 5th, solution provider company Marshal announced it would be included as part of CRN’s 2007 Emergency Technology List members.  The integrated email and Internet content security provider joins other companies offering great technology options for solution providers that helps build revenue and industry gains.  

Marshal offers many cutting-edge features for solution providers, including real-time content filtering, anti-malware and anti-data leakage security at the Internet, gateway perimeter and at the client site.  CRN’s 2007 survey that asked for the top reasons solution added Marshal’s and other companies’ technologies to their roster found most add it for the following reasons:  the technology is better than other options; the technology goes well with a solution provider’s existing products and services; the company offering the technology pays better attention to partners; the technology offers higher margins to customers and gives alternatives to other types of product choices and the emerging technology companies have better joint marketing programs.

A high percentage – 61% — of solution providers also  stated they planned to increase emerging technology vendors with which they partner within the next 12 months.  

According to CRN editors, the most successful solution providers are always on the lookout for new partners that believe in innovation.  The CRN Emerging Technology list offers them a good guide to finding prospective partners with a large number of new technologies.  

Vendors on the CRN Emerging Technology list must have working solution provider programs and formal guidelines for recruiting partners.  They also must show that their direct sales mix is trending downward and is evident in the company’s revenue history and channel strategy.

Atlanta, Georgia-based company Marshal is very excited to be among this list of those offering innovative services to solution providers and continues to be committed to excellence within the security solutions channel.  

Added By:  Computer Consulting 101 Professional Kit

Small business computer consulting can be financially challenging and requires you to make sound decisions quickly.  Save capital by marketing your small business computer consulting firm the smart way from the beginning.

Test

When you are marketing your small business computer consulting firm, make sure you run small, organized tests before going whole-heartedly into any one marketing scheme.  For example, when doing direct mail, don’t mail 5,000 or more pieces the first time or put $2,500 to $5,000 on the line for something that might not work.

Think Small and Focused

Before going fully into a small business computer consulting direct mailing campaign, try a $500 test to see how you do.  If you think you need to put an ad in the yellow pages or newspaper, think carefully.  This type of marketing is not typically the most efficient, because you are not targeting a focused group, and 95% of people reading the ad will not be interested.  

Make Small Bets to Minimize Risk

If you are convinced you need to market your small business computer consulting firm in the yellow pages or newspaper, make sure you test with something small before committing.  

When you make marketing and business decisions in small business computer consulting, you need to make small and very calculated bets to test, analyze and track.

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit

The best North American IT solution providers will be honored at the annual VARBusiness 500 Awards, held in New York City on June 11-12.  According to Lawrence M. Walsh, VARBusiness Editor, the awards ceremony will feature many powerful speakers and events.  He also believes that the solution providers channel is growing in strength and thus fueling the strength of the VARBusiness 500.  
    
The VARBusiness Conference for Solution Providers

The two-day conference will preset networking, educational sessions as well as an awards program for leading IT solution providers, industry leaders and vendors.  Some of the highlights include the following events:  the VARBusiness 500 Executive Panel moderated by Walsh; a panel session with customer executives from up-and-coming enterprises; keynote presentations by Stephen J. Dubner, author of FREAKONOMICS.  

VARBusiness 500 2007

The current VARBusiness 500 is valued at almost $349 billion.  The list has added 113 new companies because of a change in rules for how the list is comprised.  VARBusiness decided to remove vendor services arms from the list, which left 40 places for new companies.  This year’s list has more billion-dollar solution providers than ever before.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg