Demand Generator: Uri Zilberman, RADirect

THE PROJECT

In 1998, when the school district received a bond to finance an upgrade of its technology infrastructure, it purchased the equipment it needed from RADirect. When the district was looking to make its direct-attached storage more flexible, a search led it to a product from SANRAD, San Mateo, Calif., and back to RADirect.

"I got a hold of RADirect and talked to one of their engineers about the product. After I realized that it was the same company that we had dealt with in the past, it made me feel more comfortable about choosing them," said Kevin Mount, lead network administrator for the school district.

The school district purchased SANRAD's VSwitch-3000 IP SAN gateways from RADirect, but the district's IT staff did the installation and integration themselves.

When the district's IT team took over management of IP surveillance at the school's stadium, RADirect again was able to provide guidance and hardware in the form of an AirMux-200 wireless bridge from RAD Data Communications, the parent company of reseller RADirect.

For Mount, RADirect's responsiveness was a key to doing repeat business with the solution provider.

"[The wireless bridge project] was something that we needed turned around real fast, and I knew we could get the equipment from them real fast," Mount said.

Keeping customers like the Spokane School District coming back for more is the result of RADirect's business philosophy, which is knowing its products better than the competition, said Uri Zilberman, RADirect president.

While many of the company's customers find it through the Internet, RADirect has system engineers, not salespeople, contact customers to discuss solutions, answer questions and help guide them toward suitable products and services. "Customers love it because they came with a problem, searched the Internet and now they have someone that can talk their own language," Zilberman said. "We really understand the technology. Pretty much every technology that we offer, we first implement it in-house. [So our engineers] also support their own infrastructure on the projects they sell. They really know the products very well, and they can talk about that. They can help somebody else implement it. That's what we do."

Generating repeat business with its customers is also key to RADirect's success, Zilberman said.

"What we have started to do, even to a greater extent, is to start leveraging those relationships that we have with our customer base, since we are already becoming a trusted partner/supplier. We find that in many ventures it's useful for both us and the end user to keep a close relationship and when they come across a new challenge, they come to see us," Zilberman said.

For example, in the coming year the Spokane School District is looking to replace its old tape libraries, beef up its intrusion protection and potentially expand its videoconferencing applications. RADirect has solutions for each of these problems, which Zilberman discussed with Mount on a follow-up phone call.

"We don't 'sell' solutions; we converse, discuss and educate our customers. Once we have a relationship with a particular customer, the process is simplified as we have already gained the trusted adviser role and they will tend to listen to us," Zilberman said.

"For the most part, [Mount] knows what's out there and what his requirements and his needs are in terms of the success of [the] Spokane School District," he added. "So whenever he has a challenge [we hope] he'll come to us as another resource."

UPSIDE FOR THE VAR
Product knowledge and reliable engineers have given the solution provider an edge when dealing with well-informed customers.

THE CUSTOMER VIEW
When looking for solutions, the Spokane School District has contact with systems engineers who can advise on products and solutions.

VENDORS REPRESENTED
RAD Data Communications, Mahwah, N.J. (AirMux-200 wireless bridge); SANRAD, San Matoe, Calif., (VSwitch3000 IP SAN gateways).