Support, Caution From the VAR Community

Solution providers interviewed on condition of anonymity by VARBusiness sympathize with Infra-Comm, by and large, but many also caution that the risks of taking such a case to court outweigh the potential benefits.

One solution provider said he has seen instances in the business world of inappropriate back-channel communication of the type alleged in the lawsuit.

"You can't prove it, but you can see patterns," the solution provider said. "In this case, maybe the Cisco rep saw the business going one way or another."

The solution provider said that a vendor should work with the partner that brought the deal, and should have checks and balances to ensure that corporate policy and what happens at the street level match.

With so many solution providers already working with Cisco, there is little reason to contract exclusively with the networking giant, said a second solution provider.

The one thing Infra-Comm should not do is fight Cisco in court, the solution provider said. "He shouldn't be spending his resources fighting this," he said. "It is Cisco. He could lose the rest of his business."

Luke Hosinski, president of Infra-Comm, said that there is no way he can just walk away from confronting Cisco as he is already at the point where there is nothing left to lose.

Another solution provider said that a relationship is everything when working with vendor partners. "If you are a company trying to carry on such a relationship, and end up suing your partner, maybe you shouldn't have had the relationship in the first place," the solution provider said.

The third solution provider also said that Cisco doesn't really recognize the amount of investment a smaller company needs to make to get to the Silver level of partnership, a level achieved by Infra-Comm just prior to being deauthorized as a partner by Cisco.

However, it is hard to believe that a company the size of Infra-Comm could even get to become a Silver-level partner, said the third solution provider, itself a Silver partner of the vendor.

In the end, the first solution provider wished Infra-Comm good luck in its trial with Cisco.

"If this trial helps highlight the issue and changes the way companies do business, it's good for us all," the solution provider said. "And it would be nice to see the little guy win against the big guy."

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