Fit And Focused

Jeffrey Pennett, president of FIT, is adamant that his two-year-old company remain independent as an aggressive and trusted advocate for the customer, which means maintaining a multivendor focus. Pennett, in fact, makes sure that FIT is not tied solely to one single vendor in any product category. Furthermore, he makes sure the VAR is not making decisions based on a few extra points of product margin that come from large annual revenue commitments from one or more vendors.

Pennett has built a strong and healthy business in a short period of time by providing a wide range of services to businesses, with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure and security, and he is set to move the company hard and fast into the wireless hot-spot market. "We're not here for the big boys," Pennett says, in a reference to some of the more arrogant vendors that dominate certain segments of the market. "We're out here for the customers. We keep the customers in the front row. The big guys keep the vendors in the front row. We look at the full solution."

FIT is focused on bringing the best value to the customer with the best complete product set regardless of the size of the vendor, he says.

Indeed, a key to FIT's success is its ability to stay on the cutting edge. Using hot technology from small vendors has given FIT a competitive advantage. The more notable partnerships FIT has developed are with Celestix, maker of the RAS 3000 security appliance, and vulnerability scanner vendors Qualys and Security Point. FIT also has strong partnerships with Check Point through CheckPoint Safe@Office, and SMC, a longtime channel-savvy networking vendor.

Pennett said the FIT culture emphasizes listening to customers and responding anytime, day or night, even if that sometimes means a 2 a.m. wake-up call for Pennett or his engineers. Of course, that's the price for truly being customer-focused rather than vendor-focused.

"Customers trust us," says Pennett. "They want to deal with us." How many vendors can say that?

Are you staying FIT? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected].