Poor services cost business

Pick the right service provider or lose out, firm warns

Networking service provider Networks First has warned the channel to pick its service provider relationships carefully or risk losing business.

The firm, which works with distributors such as Westcon and Crane, said VARs are signing with some service providers for the wrong reasons.

Peter Titmus, managing director of Networks First, told CRN: “Resellers sometimes look purely at price [when partnering with a service provider], and this could see them lose customers. We want to raise issues about how some services firms use services just to make a bit of extra cash.”

Titmus said resellers are “very regularly” caught out by a poor service provider relationship.

“Resellers need to ask what accreditations the service provider has, what engineers it has and how it runs its 24-hour helpdesk,” he added.

Stuart Muirhead, business development director at rival service provider Phoenix IT, said: “Resellers need to ensure the service provider has the quality standards from the vendors.”

>> Further reading:

Networks First will support Westcon VARs