Oops! No More

When was the last time you botched up and cursed your luck or promised yourself not to commit that mistake again? May not have been long ago. To err is human. If you hear all the positive proverbs on 'mistakes', you will probably feel better that you went wrong.

Learning from one's mistakes is not new. Technological advancement happens only because of trials and errors. In today's world if you try to do things right the first time, more often than not it would be a blunder in itself. Barring surgeons and pilots, doing things wrong may be a requirement to doing things right. This does not mean that the same mistakes have to be committed again and again. Writer-philosopher George Bernard Shaw once said, “Success does not consist in never making mistakes, but in never making the same one a second time."

The same applies to solution providers. A solution provider cannot afford to mess-up things again and again at a customer's place, or within his own company. Partners are competing with each other in providing similar kinds of solutions. Price and quality of service are the only differentiators. In such a scenario, no channel partner can afford to botch up a project that he has bagged from a new customer. If you goof-up in the first attempt, then forget about that customer for the next few projects at least.

Sean Karsten once said, "Do not learn from your mistakes, learn from the mistakes of others so that you do not make any." May be this is the right approach for channel partners to follow. DQ Channels spoke to channel partners and found out some common blunders they have committed in their solutions providing business. For obvious reasons, their identities have not been revealed. Read on to avoid them.

Key-man fuss

More than the sales and marketing team, technical staff makes the core of any solutions provider business. A systems integrator learnt this lesson when his key technical person left the company for good, leaving him in the lurch. For months, he struggled with his remaining technical staff to keep things up and running.

It is always a good idea not to depend on few key people for all the technical needs. Train everything to your entire technical team, so that if one leaves, the other takes over. To successfully own a solution providing business, the boss himself should be the jack of all trades. Knowing a little bit of everything helps. Be it administration, marketing, sales or technical. 

Wrong people 

Annual Maintenance Contract (AMCs) makes a better part of the revenue for most solution providers. Often they operate with a workforce of inexperienced cheap technical executives with only basic troubleshooting knowledge for Windows PC. 

When problems go beyond the basics, the executives fumble and have to depend on their seniors for help on the phone. All this trial and error-based troubleshooting process eats into the customer's time, leaving a bad impression of the solution provider and he loses the AMC for the coming year. Choose the right people for the right reasons. Test the candidate for his capabilities and experience, more than his qualification or the company he is coming from. 

Training staff

Technological advancement happens so fast that even the best of technical personnel may not be in a position to keep pace with it. One reseller known for selling the latest in the market had to face a peculiar problem. 

Many a times his sales team failed to sell the right combination of products being unaware of the latest technical update on the products. Like selling a 64-bit processor with a motherboard that does not support 64-bit processor, or selling a wrong memory module with the wrong motherboard. After witnessing frequent blunders, the reseller decided to take monthly training session for its staff including the admin, sales and technical department, on the products and features and combination they are supposed to sell. Things are better now.

Expansion 

Expanding geographical presence in a vast country like India is good. But setting up offices all over just because your competitor is expanding may not be the answer. There are solution providers with offices across the country and there are solution providers with just one office. What would you choose if both make similar profits, while both manage to do the same amount of business in every corner of the country?

A solution provider based in Mumbai with just one office has tied-up with other counterparts all over the country to provide services on his behalf in that region. In return, he gives them a commission or provides services for them in
Mumbai. Novell ways, isn't it?

Strategic

There are very few solution providers in the company which have really grown with time. The reason is the poor strategies of promoters. Some SIs aspiring to become big solution providers have not been successful because they are mostly proprietorship firms and do not like to involve partners. They are worried that involving partners may lead to sharing the revenue and more trouble.

However, one should remember that doing everything on your own limits growth. If, as an owner, you are good at one task, it is better to get partners with other skills for other tasks. Some successful solution providers have involved more than one partner for different activities-one for technical, another for admin, and a third one for sales and marketing, and so on, and it works!

Security goofs

Security has always been an issue for every company. Often systems integrators deploy heavy security solutions such as firewall, IDS, anti-virus and others, but discount the internal threats that lie within the company. A solution provider giving security solution is not worth his job if it fails to educate customers about the internal threats and not create security policies for them. 

Even the best security mechanism can give way to disasters if the technical maintenance department fails to regularly update critical patches and anti-virus signatures. It has to trace rogue application on the network, monitor unprotected wireless devices, ensure security on mobile devices and remember to update expired applications.

Silly mistakes

Assessing a company's technological needs is the responsibility of the CIO. He consults only the solution provider employed for that purpose. Insufficient budget allocation compels solutions providers to compromise on many solutions. This sometimes can lead to disasters. Not implementing backup mechanism, choosing the wrong backup solutions, failing to detect network problems, deploying low-cost servers for mission-critical application and using unlicensed software are silly blunders that solution providers should avoid.

Overstocking

This one is for the box pusher. Never overstock. There are many stories of resellers closing down because of misjudging the market and overstocking. IT products go obsolete very fast. At the same time, prices can go down at the most unexpected time. Vendors are not very comfortable providing price-protection for large stocks. So why take such a risk? It is true that without taking risks, a business can? grow. But instead of taking such risks, it is better to play in the stock market where you can endlessly speculate. 

The list of blunders is endless. The ones discussed above fall under the most common among solutions providers. They should take these learnings and try not to err again. Better would be to have a regular meeting within companies to review mistakes, dissect them and find remedial measures to correct them.

PREPARE FOR THE WORST

- Train everything to all technical personnel, so one person leaving does not leave the organization in the lurch

- Recruit the right person for smooth troubleshooting

- Train employees to keep them abreast of technological advancements

- Expand geographical presence only if needed

- Educate employees of internal threats with respect to security solutions deployment

- Consciously avoid several silly mistakes Do not overstock

NELSON JOHNY

MUMBAI