Reseller Creates Yellowpages for VARs

For VARs that aren't a part of distributors' service networks like the Ingram Micro Service Network or Tech Data's TechSelect program, a two-year old independent startup network is offering the ability to partner with other resellers free of charge.

The Advanced Service Network is the brain child of 18-year industry veteran Joseph Canzonieri, founder of Crescent Computer Technologies, an East Hanover, N.J.-based solution provider. In two years he's built a network of over 400 resellers that can access one another through the organization's Web site.

"ASN is still in its infancy in a way. It's only 2 years old and we're really starting to push this year," Canzonieri said. "It started out as a little project on the side that I took on to build a network after speaking to many IT people at different conferences who said there should be a way to find out who has my skills somewhere else out in the country or in the world. We're like the Yellow Pages of solution providers."

Resellers can fill out a form asking to join the network, and the board of advisors approves applications after checking to see if a company is legitimate. Unlike the IMSN and Avnet's new services network, the OneTech Connect program, resellers in the ASN contact each other and coordinate projects and payment themselves.

Canzonieri decided to create his own network because he felt the ones run by distributors and the ASCII were too selective. "No offense to them. They run fine organizations. I just wanted to run something a little different," he said.

The organization is free to join and supports itself by selling advertising on its Web site and in newsletters. Any VAR is open to join the network, but Canzonieri said that the number that can participate in a pre-determined geographic region will be limited to minimize competition. At the same time, he wants the network to be big enough to be meaningful for solution providers looking to service customers in far-flung places.

In addition to offering members discounts on travel and hotels, Canzonieri said he's trying to negotiate health insurance for members and he plans to hold events and eventually a conference for the network.

Canzonieri vets applicants himself, and has rejected applicants who weren't actual companies. "I've been in business long enough to know what's bogus," he said. Stanley Richardson, owner of Computer Logic, Thompson Falls, Mont., recently joined the ASN as a means of broadening the exposure of his business. He hasn't had any interaction with other solution providers through the network, but he anticipates it will generate work.

"So far I haven't had any impact in my business from it, but the thing of it is I'm up here in the northwest corner of Montana so I didn't expect immediate results. Sometimes up here, especially large companies that have remote outposts here can have problems finding qualified techs," he said. "We're 100 miles from anywhere up here."

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