A value-added reseller provides much more than just a link in the procurement chain.
The Benefits of VARs Can Run Deep
By the barest of definitions, such as that offered by Gartner, a VAR is part of the channel for purchasing products from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). A VAR first buys products from an OEM at a discount and then adds pre-sales value (such as proof of concept, engineering, and sales support) to help grease the wheels of product sales. But a VAR, at least one who becomes a true partner for customers, is a lot more than a middleman.
A VAR can customize products to fit customers’ needs, enhance their capabilities, provide integration services, and offer additional operational support for products ranging from software and cloud services to IT infrastructure and many technologies in between. It can offer guidance during implementation and identify ways to improve efficiency. And in addition to operations, VARs can help ensure compliance and even save money.
Especially with large procurements, the more customers involve VARs, the lower their costs get. If they deal directly—and exclusively—with OEMs, they may be getting only one side of the story. A VAR with expertise in emerging technologies may understand the situation better than the customer or the OEM because of the VAR’s experience with integrating and innovating deployments. That can enable rapid procurement and implementation of the solutions a customer requires. This is why OEMs, including the largest of them, have standing agreements with VARs.
In one example, a government customer of ours that was interested in incorporating artificial intelligence into its operations was considering spending up to $48 million on high-end servers and workstations designed to support AI. But the OEM for many of the systems they already had on site offered products that were preset for AI use right out of the box. Those new systems didn’t do everything the expensive high-end models did, but we were able to show that they did more than enough to drive the customer’s planned operations, at considerably less cost. By involving a VAR (in this case, SD3IT) that understood their customers’ needs, the agency was able to save $32 million dollars. And that savings supported other critical initiatives, which may have been delayed had they purchased the more expensive systems.
The technical innovation a VAR provides shouldn’t be overlooked, either. It is, after all, what we do. You can call us merely a reseller or a value-added reseller, but what we really do is aggregate solutions to deliver highly secure and compliant implementations. We innovate using COTS products, applying our best practices around international standards certifications (SD3IT has five ISO certifications, more than many larger companies, and we are compliant with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) 2.0 and the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s SP 800-171 standard).
Disregarding what VARs bring to the table puts innovation at risk. If an organization sees a VAR as only a reseller who should simply deliver a product and take, say, a small percentage of the price, then that’s the same kind of government system present in places like China that don’t value innovation. The truth is, within the government sector, for instance, VARs are the grease that keep the engines moving. Without us around to fine-tune requirements and aggregate solutions, those engines could overheat and blow up, leaving cost-effective, efficient solutions in the rubble.
On Deck: A Weekly Blog Examining Key Issues Facing the Industry
This week marks a kind of soft launch of what’ll be a weekly blog from SD3IT. We’ll follow up this introductory edition later this week with a blog addressing the pending crisis in available memory chips, which could have a huge impact on the industry. After that, our blog will appear weekly on Wednesdays, with each article drilling down to the finer points of critical topics and emerging technologies that’ll impact the success of public and private-sector enterprises going forward.
The topics we have on tap include many of our areas of expertise, such as AI’s role in enabling data-centric decision-making and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse; data center infrastructure issues such as the power and cooling challenges in GPU-based high-performance computing systems; effective deployment of zero trust; and counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (c-UAS, or “drone killers”). We’ll also tackle other topics SD3IT has established proficiency in, such as operational technology, rugged computing, quantum-safe encryption, and quite a few others. And SD3IT, which stands for Solution Driven, Designed and Delivered Information Technology, also has extensive experience in with AI, data-centric solutions (including disaster recovery, continuity of operations, and digital twins), zero trust, physical asset security, power/cooling, and has recently spent quite a bit of time engaging on UAS and CUAS.
We’re looking forward to engaging with readers on these and other issues, which customers are likely familiar with but may not have studied from every angle. As a leading VAR, we get to study these issues all the time as we aggregate solutions to enable our customers to get the best, most secure, and compliant use of their products, systems, and infrastructure. And now, we look forward to sharing those insights and experiences with you every week.
