By Emily Allender / 2 Jul 2019 / Topics: Software
A primary goal for today’s businesses is to streamline their processes. After all, increased efficiency reduces expenses.
With that in mind, why would a company add an extra step to its IT supply chain? If you can buy software licenses straight from the publisher itself, why buy them from someone else? Isn’t that just adding a middleman?
The truth is, it may be adding a middleman, but it's adding a middleman that can help your organization get more of a software investment. Plus, these companies can be a true end-to-end partner for your organization.
A value-added reseller is a company that bundles products or services with third-party products in order to enhance their value. In the IT industry, this could mean additional or accompanying hardware, installation services, consulting or troubleshooting. Software resellers will frequently offer related software, deployment services and license consulting services.
Even though it isn't the original manufacturer of the product, a software reseller is expected to have thorough knowledge of it in order to properly customize, install and maintain the software for its clients.
Despite the proliferation of Software as a Service (SaaS), value-added resellers have maintained their prominence in the IT industry. In fact, most major software publishers cultivate programs that include extensive authorization, certification, training and even auditing of potential resellers.
Take Cisco for example. In order to offer Cisco software, a value-added reseller must first demonstrate it has the expertise and infrastructure to support the products. Once authorized, the company may receive a select, premier or gold certification from Cisco, indicating the level of service it provides to clients.
Cisco also provides organizations in its reseller program training for specializations in areas such as enterprise networks, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things (IoT) and data centers.
Let’s explore four advantages of procuring software through a value added retailer.
Pricing
A software reseller may have substantial buying power compared to a single end user because of the sheer volume of products it purchases. These businesses typically have many clients and, therefore, buy in amounts that often exceed those of several large enterprises.
Because of that, they have an easier time negotiating lower prices with the software publishers. Plus, the publishers frequently offer reseller benefits that aren’t available to customers making individual purchases.
Expertise
Partnering with a value added reseller means you’re working with an IT expert. Remember, these businesses have to prove that they're extremely knowledgeable about the product before its publisher will authorize them as a reseller. And because most resellers offer more than one publisher, they're usually experts on all the major software products. As such, they're often better positioned to understand their clients' challenges and pinpoint the perfect solutions.
Agnosticism
A good value-added reseller won't look to push a particular publisher or product on you.
Instead, they take a holistic view of your current environment and suggest the ideal combination of products to improve your IT infrastructure. They are then in a position to offer additional products and potentially services to help you get the most out of your software investment.
Implementation
The problem with purchasing software directly from the publisher is that you rarely receive help implementing said product into your environment. Implementation can be one of the more challenging aspects of software management and many organizations don't have the necessary expertise, staff or time to be successful at it.
Value added resellers are aware of this common pain point, so implementation is a common added service they provide. They do have the resources and know-how to integrate new software into your environment.
Asset management
According to the 2019 Insight Intelligent Technology Index, 47% of IT decision-makers want to improve the way they use solution providers to streamline hardware lifecycles. And 45% want to implement software asset management tools and services in a smarter way.
Software asset management is another area in which a software reseller's expertise is invaluable. As licensing environments and publisher contracts become more complex, keeping track of licenses is critical in order to maintain compliance. However, this landscape can become so complicated that it’s difficult for your internal team to manage.
A value added reseller will be able to offer advice and, potentially, services to help you keep up with the nuances of these environments.
Since Software as a Service has made managing software significantly more challenging, most businesses need help from an expert partner. Value-added resellers are great for facilitating procurement and (usually) implementation; however, if your organization needs help on a greater scale, you may want to engage a systems integrator or a super solutions integrator.
These are true end-to-end IT partners that have more capabilities than your average value-added reseller. Think of it like this:
Depending on what your business needs help on, a more in-depth partner could be your best course of action. But if you just need a better way to procure software, value-added resellers are still a very viable option.
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