Partners on the Case for Mystery Client

And people say the Internet is impersonal.

Thanks in large part to the Web, two solution providers and a software developer teamed up to piece together an effective solution for a mysterious customer.

That user is still operating in stealth mode and refuses to discuss details of his application, lest he tip off the competition to his trade secrets. "The application was not germane to the server, so why talk about it?," he said. "All we needed was reliability." And reliability is what he got in a fault-tolerant server and a network infrastructure that runs 24x7.

All Computer Solutions Sam Bishop says collaborations represent a real growth engine.

On the advice of an acquaintance, the customer also recruited DataSolved Consulting Group, a Dallas-based networking specialist, to deploy some of the hardware,four Cisco Systems routers running the hot standby routing protocol.

For the core of the network, the customer decided to go with fault-tolerant servers from Stratus Technologies, a Maynard, Mass.-based vendor that sells about 50 percent of its products through the channel. "We liked Stratus' background," said Scott Sanford, president of DataSolved. "Their products seemed easy to manage. And we felt they could provide the service we would need."

One Stratus partner, All Computer Solutions, had established a good reputation for itself, so Vann and the customer got in touch with Sam Bishop, a business development manager at the Petaluma, Calif.-based solution provider.

And so the circle was complete. The challenge, however, was getting these multiple partners,almost all in different regions of the United States,to communicate and collaborate effectively with each other.

	ANATOMY OF A SOLUTION>> COMPANIES: All Computer Solutions, Petaluma, Calif.; DataSolved Consulting Group, Dallas; Rich Vann, Orinda, Calif. >> FOCUESE: Fault-tolerant infrastructure (All Computer Solutions); networking (DataSolved Consulting Group); software development (Rich Vann) >> PROBLEM & SOLUTION: The customer needed a fault-tolerant server and network solution that could run 24x7. partners coordinated efforts to meet that goal. >> PRODUCTS & SERVICES USED: Cisco routers, Stratus Technologies fault-tolerant servers >> LESSON LEARNED: > There are plenty of partnering opportunities available. Seek those that leverage your skills and experience. > Communication is key to working successfully with multiple partners. > Depend on e-mail, not the telephone, to keep in touch with partners. E-mail provides a record of communications.

The result was a series of three-way conference calls among Vann, Bishop and Rich Sparacino, industry marketing manager at Stratus. "We didn't talk about the application," said Bishop. "We talked about what Stratus' [fault-tolerant] server could do for the application and how to give it a competitive edge."

As it turned out, the installation went very smoothly, thanks to good communication among the partners, said DataSolved's Sanford. Bishop is a good communicator, and Vann is a very methodical thinker who anticipates problems and questions before they arise, he said. "This was the most spread-out scenario I was ever involved in. Thank God for e-mail. If we would've had to use the phone, it would have taken a lot more time."

The customer said he was happy with the collaboration and would work with the same partners again should he replicate his application at another site.

Such collaborations represent a real growth engine for All Computer Solutions, Bishop said.

"It's not as if we're down to the last 10,000 customers," he said. "The real competition is the lack of awareness, not another company that has similar tools or products."

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