VIEWPOINT: Keeping dealers out of alms? way

All resellers need help and support, a fact that many vendors seem to overlook, says Simon Meredith

For PC and software vendors, these are not easy times. Users wield more power, prices are still falling, competition is strong and lifecycles are perilously fast. But it is not easy for dealers either, and if vendors ? and users for that matter ? want to maintain a healthy channel, they might have to start thinking about giving resellers a bit more support.

Business is erratic for a lot of dealers at the moment. They may be doing quite well in one month, only to find work has all but dried up in the next. This makes it difficult to employ people and give them confidence and solid commitment. With skills in such short supply, there is always the danger that anyone with any real worth to the business will move on at relatively short notice.

Why is it erratic? It?s hard to say exactly. My view is that it is partly because there are so many options for users now ? they can go direct, via mail order, to retail, or to any number of dealers ? and partly because there is a lack of guidance for them. There is also an ?I want something for nothing? attitude problem. Yes, users should expect high standards, but someone has to pay for all the service and support.

For dealers ? particularly smaller, sub-#5 million dealers ? there may be some good opportunities now and again, but typically there will be three or four firms pitching. Winning deals is never easy.

Authorisations and vendor support helps, but to get these qualifications dealers are also expected to make a lot of commitments. It?s well worth being a Microsoft solutions provider, for example, but once you?ve added up all the time and courseware, it might cost a business up to #30,000 to get someone through a Microsoft certified professional course, and you need two of them if you want to be an SP.

For a small business turning round #2 million, that?s a considerable outlay, and one that it has to keep spending money on. Technical people are precious as well ? If they are out for the day, some customers might have to wait to get particular problems sorted out.

It is also difficult to hang on to such personnel. Technicians with the right qualifications can command massive salaries and they take their certifications with them when they go ? employment law insists on this point. So a small business that loses an MCP may have to train another one if it wants to retain its authorised status. Of course, as there are more MCPs out there, there are going to be more solutions providers. The authorisation will become diluted unless higher echelons are created. The bar will be raised and the commitment demanded will become even greater.

And we?re only mentioning Microsoft here ? there are Novell, Compaq, IBM, Oracle and goodness knows how many other authorisations and accreditations that resellers trying to build their businesses up really need to keep on the wall.

In talking to vendors about channel strategy, it is quite easy to get on to the subject of dealer strategies. Vendors think strategically and expect dealers to think strategically as well. But talk to a dealer ? especially a small dealer ? and you soon realise that real business life for them has a much shorter horizon. They need to keep cashflow moving and that means being reactive a lot of the time ? telling the customer what they want to hear rather than what they really need to hear, because if you don?t go along with them, someone else will.

Even if it is out of kilter with your long-term business plan or the strategic aims of the supplier, if a customer wants a particular solution, if you can provide it, that?s what you provide. If it means a few thousand pounds of business it also means the business keeps moving for a few more weeks.

Most vendors do know this is the reality, but they still keep up the charade of the strategic approach for all the resellers. But when resellers see Microsoft making heaps of money, they can?t help wondering why more of it is not used to support their efforts.

This is the nub of the problem. Resellers have to live with the realities of meeting short-term cashflow requirements. The key vendors could help them by making life a little easier for them on the accreditation front.

Resellers would need to repay them with a bit more commitment, but I don?t see why they would not be prepared to give that commitment now. We all know who the key suppliers are and its time they started to think about the long-term health and stability of even their smallest and least strategically inclined business partners.