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The idea is you use a reseller for all your products, they manage the relationship with the manufacturer or publisher and work to get you the best price/service

The idea is you use a reseller for all your products, they manage the relationship with the manufacturer or publisher and work to get you the best price/service. If you have doubts about using a "middle man" keep them honest with a 2nd or 3rd quote, sometimes direct every now and then. But working with one rep for all your products can be a huge boon to doing business in savings of money and time. Disclaimer: I work for a VAR

Kadin 10y ago
Which VAR do your work for or which would you recommend? I wouldn't know who to work with to buy Dell, aside from typing "dell.com" and buying it. I thought that was their whole business model -- direct sales, no inventory, JIT shipping and the like.
tracker1 10y ago
A company I used to work for bought a huge (for the time) NAS full of drives... when one of the drives failed they (IBM) wouldn't send a replacement, as it was "discontinued"... if it weren't for the VAR, they never would have gotten the drive replaced... something like the following (3-way call). IBM: "Well, we're IBM and you're $300k annual spending wouldn't be a huge loss" VAR: "Well, this is Bill from VAR, and we do over $40M in purchases a year, and this will be very enlightening in future purchase recommendations." IBM: "Uhhh... hold on for a moment please..."
CamperBob2 10y ago
Which leads to the question, how is Dell's business model different from anyone else's? Their whole reason for existence was to cut out VARs and sell direct to the customer.
FireBeyond 10y ago
Not a VAR of Dell, I assume. We tried getting a second quote, and the VAR said: "Dell tells us you are already speaking to another VAR about this equipment, so they won't supply us a quote."
op00to 10y ago
Note, for big purchases you can't actually comparison shop VARs due to something called deal registration. Basically the reseller tells the vendor about the deal, and is protected by the vendor not letting anyone quote a lower price.

Kadin 10y ago

Which VAR do your work for or which would you recommend? I wouldn't know who to work with to buy Dell, aside from typing "dell.com" and buying it. I thought that was their whole business model -- direct sales, no inventory, JIT shipping and the like.

tracker1 10y ago

A company I used to work for bought a huge (for the time) NAS full of drives... when one of the drives failed they (IBM) wouldn't send a replacement, as it was "discontinued"... if it weren't for the VAR, they never would have gotten the drive replaced... something like the following (3-way call). IBM: "Well, we're IBM and you're $300k annual spending wouldn't be a huge loss" VAR: "Well, this is Bill from VAR, and we do over $40M in purchases a year, and this will be very enlightening in future purchase recommendations." IBM: "Uhhh... hold on for a moment please..."

CamperBob2 10y ago

Which leads to the question, how is Dell's business model different from anyone else's? Their whole reason for existence was to cut out VARs and sell direct to the customer.

FireBeyond 10y ago

Not a VAR of Dell, I assume. We tried getting a second quote, and the VAR said: "Dell tells us you are already speaking to another VAR about this equipment, so they won't supply us a quote."

op00to 10y ago

Note, for big purchases you can't actually comparison shop VARs due to something called deal registration. Basically the reseller tells the vendor about the deal, and is protected by the vendor not letting anyone quote a lower price.