Alliance Technology Group

Hope Hayes, owner and president of the Hanover, Md.-based company, instructs employees in the same selling techniques she learned earlier in her career as a sales rep for Sun Microsystems. Alliance drills its employees to be undeterred by customers that say they have an exclusive technology or sales agreement with a particular manufacturer, said Hayes.

If a customer says EMC owns its account, Alliance will talk up Hitachi Data Systems. If they say Veritas has the account, Alliance will discuss the benefits of EMC-Legato. “Every single account in the world has a manufacturer who says, ‘keep out, this is direct,& ” she said.

Unlike many solution providers in this report, Alliance seeks out relatively inexperienced employees and trains them in-house, aiming to make them the best in their field. Once they have run the gauntlet, employees are considered family and executives work to retain them.

“I want my people to attend their children&s first day of school,” Hayes said. “I don&t feel their job is going to be in jeopardy if they&re not here.”

One employee who did get away has seen Alliance from both sides.

Chris Smith left Alliance three years ago and is now the IT and facilities manager of Owings Mills, Md.-based Levin Group, a 100-employee marketing consulting firm to dental practices across the nation. He said Levin depends on Alliance for storage and other technology needs because of the solution provider&s knowledge and integrity.

For instance, Smith said Alliance suggested he purchase a NAS instead of a SAN, despite the lower profit Alliance makes on NAS sales. “Maybe I&ll only spend $16,000 for a NAS today, instead of $60,000 for a SAN,” he said. “But next time, I&ll spend my $60,000 on a SAN from Alliance.”

When Saber Consulting, a Salem, Ore.-based developer of a voter registration system, ran into difficulties with its original partner, it turned to Alliance and has since found it to be one of its most responsive partners, said Randy Cobena, project director for Saber.

“When they make a commitment of a certain level of support, they follow through,” Cobena said. “Their efforts to deliver actual systems engineering and integration services add value to the products they sell.”