The Next Best Thing To Being There
Kudos to you also for some of the great work you&'re doing. I think one thing I carried home was the sense that ScanSource is really earnest about earning its keep as a value-added distributor.
One of the coolest things I saw during my whirlwind briefing day (more than 20 new faces!) was a nifty piece of technology called Virtual Technician, which ScanSource has been piloting with some of its POS resellers.
The software, developed by local Greenville ISV Vigilix, is a hosted offering that lets a reseller keep tabs on customers&' POS systems from afar, letting them check on store processes (such as credit-card settlement), basic system configuration, software issues and peripherals problems. The reseller can install an agent on the POS solution, and then charge a monthly fee. Or not.
ScanSource is planning to use the remote monitoring tool, now being rolled out by several VARs, as a way to differentiate its POS offerings. Even if a reseller doesn&'t choose to charge for Virtual Technician, it can save a VAR an onsite visit for simple problems – such as someone forgetting to close a printer lid or someone unwittingly downloading software that will conflict with senstive POS settings.
Kudos to ScanSource for figuring out a way it can help its resellers slowly work into a type of managed service.
What&'s new by you? E-mail me with the channel buzz at [email protected].