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> Have you ever shopped for high-end routers, like Juniper or Fortigate? A lot of people don't understand that this isn't just high-end routers. It's actually

by maratd 13y ago

> Have you ever shopped for high-end routers, like Juniper or Fortigate? A lot of people don't understand that this isn't just high-end routers. It's actually all electronics. Try to buy a motherboard directly from the manufacturer, or a monitor, or really, anything else. The manufacturer will direct you to their sales wing, at which point, you will be instructed to buy from their approved distributors. Those distributors are large companies that work as middle men. And then even those distributors will not sell their goods to you unless you have a reseller license and go through their application process.

Meekro 13y ago
I wouldn't have minded if the distributor was newegg or something, like it is for motherboards. But all these router resellers are really stupid "solution providers" filled with "customer relationship managers" who can't actually answer detailed questions about the product, and don't seem to do much of anything other than draw a salary that inflates the final price.
jamesaguilar 13y ago
It's one thing when it's voluntary. The electronics manufacturers work with resellers because they want to. It's a completely different thing when the law requires it.
rtkwe 13y ago
What that does it vastly simplify the logistics for the manufacturers. If you could order directly from them they'd have to hire sales people or people to run their web store, shippers to pack and ship individual components instead of just palletizing everything, and then have to deal with the laws of each customer's country about taxes. It's much simpler for them and more efficient on their end to just sell to a middleman.
- maratd 13y ago
  > It's much simpler for them and more efficient on their end to just sell to a middleman. In that case, Dell, Apple, Sony, and Microsoft must be morons. Because they sell directly to consumers. It's not about simplicity or efficiency. It's much more efficient to sell directly to the consumer. It just takes an immense amount of resources that smaller manufacturers simply do not have. That's why medium/small sized manufacturers rely on larger middle men and retailers. Not because it's more efficient, but because they simply don't have a choice in the matter. They don't have the resources to go directly to the consumer.
  - rtkwe 13y ago
    Your example companies are working at huge scales compared to most companies that go through distributors. The big difference there is that those companies are selling consumer goods. Many companies that deal exclusively through distributors are selling to businesses, it's a much different environment. When you're working at a huge volume the difference in price makes a much larger impact than if you're selling to a smaller number of companies and the cost of setting up the handlers is dwarfed. > It just takes an immense amount of resources that smaller manufacturers simply do not have. Requiring less resources is a form of efficiency for the manufacturer. Being able to simply ship to a single distributor vs shipping to many individuals and having the infrastructure to process those packages, is more efficient to the small manufacturers. It may not be on the wider economic scale but for small companies it saves a lot of work.

by maratd 13y ago

Meekro 13y ago

I wouldn't have minded if the distributor was newegg or something, like it is for motherboards. But all these router resellers are really stupid "solution providers" filled with "customer relationship managers" who can't actually answer detailed questions about the product, and don't seem to do much of anything other than draw a salary that inflates the final price.

jamesaguilar 13y ago

It's one thing when it's voluntary. The electronics manufacturers work with resellers because they want to. It's a completely different thing when the law requires it.

rtkwe 13y ago

What that does it vastly simplify the logistics for the manufacturers. If you could order directly from them they'd have to hire sales people or people to run their web store, shippers to pack and ship individual components instead of just palletizing everything, and then have to deal with the laws of each customer's country about taxes. It's much simpler for them and more efficient on their end to just sell to a middleman.

maratd 13y ago
> It's much simpler for them and more efficient on their end to just sell to a middleman. In that case, Dell, Apple, Sony, and Microsoft must be morons. Because they sell directly to consumers. It's not about simplicity or efficiency. It's much more efficient to sell directly to the consumer. It just takes an immense amount of resources that smaller manufacturers simply do not have. That's why medium/small sized manufacturers rely on larger middle men and retailers. Not because it's more efficient, but because they simply don't have a choice in the matter. They don't have the resources to go directly to the consumer.
- rtkwe 13y ago
  Your example companies are working at huge scales compared to most companies that go through distributors. The big difference there is that those companies are selling consumer goods. Many companies that deal exclusively through distributors are selling to businesses, it's a much different environment. When you're working at a huge volume the difference in price makes a much larger impact than if you're selling to a smaller number of companies and the cost of setting up the handlers is dwarfed. > It just takes an immense amount of resources that smaller manufacturers simply do not have. Requiring less resources is a form of efficiency for the manufacturer. Being able to simply ship to a single distributor vs shipping to many individuals and having the infrastructure to process those packages, is more efficient to the small manufacturers. It may not be on the wider economic scale but for small companies it saves a lot of work.