So this is what preceded our conversation. On a beautiful, sunny day, I had been called out to a real estate company whose network consisted of a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2000 and 30 client workstations. The clients were having issues getting updates on their newly implemented MLS browser system.
The office manager advised me that they had a new server, a T1 connection, and this buggy MLS browser software. I was led to the closet that housed the server box and was left alone to diagnose the problems.
I started my analysis of their network and determined that the server was a white box solution with a single hard drive and no hardware redundancy. The backups to the only tape had been failing and no one had noticed.
The original “implementer” had also sold the client a $2,000 firewall hardware appliance. If you know SBS2000, you know that it comes bundled with Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, which also happens to be an enterprise level firewall.
I was able to determine that the client workstations were at least on the same subnet as the server, but all the clients and the server had dynamically assigned public IP addresses directly from the ISP (who was the implementer of this beautiful work of art)!
Not only did the “implementer” bill them for expensive software (SBS) and hardware (firewall appliance), but they also performed the dis-service of misconfiguring the network by not using the capabilities of either. I mean, if you have a firewall appliance in your network, aren’t you supposed to plug in some other cables besides the power cord?
The main reason I had been called in was to make the MLS client/server software work. It became apparent to me that since the server was configured with a dynamically assigned IP address (and was not running DHCP or DNS services), it was really acting like another client workstation on the network and not as an authorative server. Hence it would not be able to push out the MLS software updates to the clients, a minor fact that had escaped the original “implementer”.
I knew that this client had hired that “implementer” because their service rates were “cheap”. But they truly got what they paid for! I don’t think that the original “implementer” meant to leave this network in such horrific shape intentionally, but it amazes me as to why such people undertake a project when they know they aren’t skilled or trained to do it right? Worst of all, they left an unsuspecting client in a dire position and billed them for their “services”.
So let’s take the 10,000-foot view of the situation so that we can find ways to alleviate it in the future.
Life as a reseller is tough. Reseller margins are diminishing and competition is ever increasing. In the SMB market, it is fairly easy to set up shop. You tell customers that you can fix PCs and, if you are a good salesperson, they believe you. So basically there is no “barrier to entry” into this market. It doesn’t take much investment or experience, and there are no certifications/licenses required.
Without a barrier to entry, we now have a profession with a lot of noise (unqualified staff). Smaller resellers usually hire high school or college kids for a low hourly wage, and they can handle all the basic mundane tasks like removing viruses, spy ware etc. Lacking the basic knowledge, like the one you would get from taking an A+ study course, the high school graduate grows up to be the “tech,” learning by trial and fire. Soon the tech gets a little experience and gains broader knowledge, but does not have the right fundamentals. So they try to take the bigger jobs, like the one for my real estate customer, and completely mess it up. This ultimately leads to a lot of disgruntled customers on the way. As the clients have the experiences of being serviced by unqualified technicians and being billed professional hourly rates, it doesn’t take long for them to loose trust in the profession, and they start jumping from reseller to reseller trying to find good service.
As the clients have the experiences of being serviced by unqualified technicians and being billed professional hourly rates, it doesn’t take long for them to loose trust in the profession and they start jumping from reseller to reseller trying to find good service.
Unqualified people in the profession bring a bad rap to all the reseller companies. It almost feels like the computer services market is going the way of used car sales–companies are employing the short term vision of making quick profits by employing unqualified, low paid technicians and loosing the long term relationships with the customers. We are forgetting the good relations are built over time with good service and support, and then profits start to build when the repeat business starts to come in.
It all boils down to servicing the customer –our bread and butter, the reason we got into this business in the first place! Why can’t we extend the courtesy and at least employ some qualified and trained personnel? Electricians and plumbers make hourly wages similar to IT staff, but they have to go through proper training and licensing before they can open up shop. So there is a barrier to entry in the profession, and more often then not, they take care of the problems or they don’t get paid. They also have the fear that if they don’t fix things according to code, they could loose their professional license and be put out of business. Maybe it is time that some such standards are set for the computer services industry.
To improve customer service–and eventually our profits–we should raise the bar and require some basic certification. Now, I realize that you can have a certified, book smart technician, so yes, there also has to be a balance of education and experience. I truly believe that certification and experience is the only way to go. But you can’t gain experience on your customer’s time and money –that is a disservice to our industry and will alienate many small business customers.
Having said that, I bet that many of you are thinking it is bad enough that your margins are diminishing on hardware sales, and now I am asking you to increase your costs by recommending that you have more certified people on your staff. However, my suggestions are based on the age-old advice of working smarter not harder.
A few years ago, a white box builder could make a nice profit margin ($300/400) a box. With this profit margin, the initial profit allowed for the absorption of the warranty support cost. Soon there were large name brand manufacturers (like Dell) that entered the market with very low margin PCs. Selling millions of these, the name brand manufacturer can offer continued warranty service and support even at the low profit margins. With this cut-throat competition in hardware sales, it has become very hard for small resellers to compete profitably.
My recommendation is to focus on customer relations management and customer satisfaction. Make sure you and your staff are trained - business success is wholly
dependent on qualified technical personnel and yes, soft skills are a major plus.
Nowadays, as a reseller, there is a conscious decision to be made–are you going to be a white box builder or a name brand reseller? If you build white boxes today, you have to be prepared to absorb the support costs after the sale. That impacts your bottom line and limits the resources you have to focus on the other aspects of the business. If you decide to become a reseller for a name brand PC maker (like Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.), you will be able to focus your business on providing high-quality value-added services. For some resellers, this may be a smarter move.
My recommendation is to focus on customer relations management and customer satisfaction. Make sure you and your staff are trained. Business success is wholly dependent on qualified technical personnel and, yes, soft skills are a major plus. But that is for another column. You need to build the trust relationship and ensure that your customers are getting the quality service that they deserve for the money that they are spending with you.
It is a hard reality that, in our profession, many people start out with very little training or experience. I am certainly no exception. I had never planned on a career in IT. I just sort of got sucked into it, and it was fun. I used to help my friends run their computer games by editing the autoexec.bat and config.sys files in DOS. From there it went to replacing hardware, and before you knew it, a friend of mine had opened a computer store. Voila, I had arrived!
The computer store got more clients, including businesses, and the need for networking knowledge arose. In all fairness, I have to say that I had a regular full time job (night shift, non-IT-related) and I was moonlighting during the day as a tech. One morning, on the way home from my “regular” job, I heard an advertisement on the radio to become a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and I thought, “What a really cool title!”
So off to school I went, finished my certification program training in a couple of weeks, took two or three certification exams, and let myself loose on society. I truly believed that I was doing the best I could, and I did that with some minor mishaps along the way of what turned out to be a really long road. As I look back now, I am amazed at what I have achieved, but at that point, there was no one to train me. I learned by trial and fire.
Then I got hired by a consulting company part-time. I got to manage their network and thought, “Oh joy, a real network all to myself to figure out and apply what I had learned in school!”. Luckily, I had a very forgiving boss and an insatiable appetite to do things the right way. I had a tremendous consumption rate for IT magazine articles and white papers. My sheer joy of diagnosing any and all issues, be it hardware or software, turned my part-time job into a 60-hour work week (not that I got paid for all of it). So many of the suggestions that I bring to you are a direct result of my real life experiences in this industry.
So how does an SMB reseller develop the killer edge that sets them apart from the competition? Training and certification is a good start, and in future columns I will research future market trends and give you the no-bull insight on vendor and industry certifications that will help you improve your bottom line. A strong focus on quality technical services, value added with integrity and ethics, will ensure that your business stands out from all the noise in the industry.
The moral of the story is don’t be a Bubba out there, and nobody will try to nail you with the crowbar.
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