VAR Turns SMB Solution Into 100,000-Room Deal

The next time you stay at a certain major hotel chain and find you can order lunch directly from your 37-inch high-definition TV, you can thank LaSalle Solutions. The Rosemont, Ill.-based solution provider has started rolling out an in-room entertainment and e-commerce solution for a hotel chain, which the VAR asked not to be named for competitive reasons, as part of a project that could eventually include more than 100,000 rooms.

LaSalle said it won the deal because of its expertise and dogged pursuit of the client, but also through some creative thinking and support from distributor Tech Data, things that the solution provider said other VARs should look to do to win deals.

All along, LaSalle planned to fly the hotel executives down to Tech Data's solutions center in Clearwater, Fla. to explain how the solution would work. On a preliminary trip, the VAR joked with Tech Data executives that it would be funny to set up the solutions center like a hotel room. Three weeks later, with the hotel executives in tow, LaSalle found that Tech Data had turned the joke into reality. The distributor had built a temporary hotel room to showcase to the end user's executives. In addition to the requisite technology, the room was complete with mattress, bedding, nightstands, lampshades and even paintings on the walls, to give the hotel executives visual evidence for how the solution would appear in their rooms.

"The comments [from the hotel executives] were like 'We get it. The deal's good.'" said Steve Robb, vice president and general manager of LaSalle Solutions.

Tech Data's mock hotel room impressed not only the hoteliers, but the solution provider too. "To bring in a thing like a bed was something. You typically think of a distributor for how do you move a box, or can they cut me an extra point off to do the deal, or do you have it in stock today," said Robb.

By working closely with Tech Data, the VAR was able to cover all aspects of its sales pitch, including convincing the hotel execs that LaSalle Solutions had the partners to deliver 100,000 displays.

Tech Data brought in Hewlett-Packard, Logitech, software company InNNetwork and other vendors to further convince the hotel executives that a 100,000-room rollout was even possible. "A lot of VARs are not coordinating large sales with their distributor. We went one step further. We looked at the distributor to say, 'Let's think of taking the next step,'" Robb said. "This is type of project that needs more than what you have in stock today. To say, let's coordinate a large implementation with 100,000 flat panel displays would be a challenge in and of itself, let alone if we didn't have partners like Tech Data to plan production like this."

The VAR, distributor and vendors assured the hotel that the project was doable, Robb said. "We had to work to configure the solution and say, 'Here's a potential production plan,' so that all these flat panels would be there. We looked a little bit at Tech Data as not just a distribution partner, but as someone that could help plan with us. With Tech Data's help, we no longer struggled with how do we deliver 100,000 rooms potentially," Robb said.

LaSalle Solutions is finishing up four of the hotel's properties as a pilot phase and the feedback has been positive, said Jeff Ramsey, an account manager with the VAR. The hotelier's chairman is going to get a personal demo soon, he said. The chairman will stay in one of the hotel rooms one night, see a demo of the solution the next day while it is installed in his room, then stay another night with the solution in place, Ramsey said.

"They're looking at this thing in a whole different light. It will be exciting to see the reaction of the chairman," Ramsey said.

LaSalle solutions is working with other service providers to do the installations. The hotel chain has the necessary infrastructure in place, so the solution involves only in-room installation, Robb said. A two-man team can do six to 10 systems an hour, he said.

Tech Data's solution center has hosted many end users and helped close many deals, but this was the first time a deal was literally put to bed, said Joe Quaglia, senior vice president of marketing for the distributor.

"Our solution center has been designed specifically for working with reseller partners to create and demonstrate the actual solution," Quaglia said. "It's very common to bring in an end user with a VAR and show them how a Cisco solution would react in this world. But we've now enlightened ourselves to a whole different world to add more value with our partners because we do have the resources to do these things. We have the expertise and the space and creativity. In partnership with Steve and his company, it's almost limitless because of the great vendor partners behind it.

"We always try to answer the age-old question whether the distributor adds value," Quaglia added. "From the sales teams working with LaSalle, to working with the end user, all the way through to providing a broadline single source solution with multiple vendors, it really is another example how a distributor can add value."