Andy Dow

VARs recognise that their customers’ IT needs are becoming more complicated every day. For this reason, they are offering an increasing number of services solutions. One area that is still relatively untapped by VARs is helping businesses simplify IT strategy ­ that is, improve operational efficiency, manageability and flexibility to pinpoint ways of streamlining how IT is acquired, maintained and scaled.

Irrespective of today’s economic conditions, the computing needs of organisations are increasing at a dramatic rate. However, IT budgets remain flat.

Confronted with customers that are less willing to invest in their IT systems, VARs need to demonstrate how technology can bring major benefits to their customers, including an improved customer experience and significant cost and time savings. IT simplification enables organisations to reclaim the time, money and personnel needed to drive innovation into daily business processes.

For VARs, IT simplification can be a way to differentiate their offerings from their competitors’, leading to greater sales
opportunities. The idea of IT simplification has been around for many years. But vendors have only started to focus on
integrating best-of-breed components into bundles that require fewer resources to get, implement, run and grow the IT
infrastructure. VARs are in the position to advise businesses to adopt the following maxims in their approach to IT: get IT faster; run IT better; and grow IT smarter.

Get IT faster
‘Getting’ IT faster is not so much about actually procuring equipment faster. It is more about the entire time period, from purchase to implementation, or from time to solution.

It all begins with purchasing the most suitable solution for the business ­ those built in standardised, consolidated
platforms using flexible components made to scale with the needs of the business.

VARs should advise businesses not to automatically opt for buying the c heapest, or the most expensive system for the firm. Today more vendors are tailoring solutions, meaning best-fit solutions are available for all businesses, regardless of size.

In the past, VARs and their customers would order off-the-shelf standard components and spend hours ­ even years ­ customising, testing and fixing. Today, customised systems can be ordered from the factory, allowing the VAR to focus on
high-value services rather than mundane, low-margin, break/fix services. So, rather than trying to fit consumer-use or
enterprise technology into the company IT environment, a solution that meets the needs of the customer’s business can be implemented more rapidly with less risk.

Run IT better
In terms of running the IT operation, there are two aspects to making the investment pay. Firstly, standardise and streamline the IT infrastructure, and secondly, be proactive in performing systems management and support ­ which leads to less time spent on day-to-day maintenance.

Purchasing components that are engineered to work together will make them easier to run. VARs should also assess the underlying management tools in place, from desktop to datacentre, and aim to have as few as possible.
By working with their vendors’ partners, VARs will be in a good position to help their customers reduce and better manage their IT systems.

Grow IT smarter
With changing times, companies need to foster an IT environment that supports rapidly changing business requirements, whether that is in relation to data, devices or the network.

It is critical they adopt a flexible foundation on which new services can be quickly rolled out or enhanced, and adapt to the evolving marketplace. Legacy IT infrastructure will often hold a company back. VARs need to ensure their customers are ahead of the game instead of just keeping up. This includes giving advice on designing, implementing, testing and
running IT infrastructures that are more cost effective, energy efficient and scalable.

There is a huge opportunity for VARs to help customers simplify their IT, making IT systems more standardised, automated and scalable. Many businesses have not yet begun this process, so VARs that not only do this, but do it well, can carve out a
successful niche in a tough marketplace.