V-e-n-d-o-r-s: How Do You Spell Growth?

Suzanne Gallagher, vice president of marketing at Boulder, Colo.-based Incentra Solutions (VARBusiness 500 No. 347) is very specific about what a vendor partnership means for her company and how it can help drive growth.

Incentra groups its vendors into tiers. The cream of the crop--its tier-one manufacturers--are the most prominent in the VAR's solution set and growth strategy, and they need to "meet certain criteria, such as competitive pricing and partner deals," Gallagher says.

But beyond offering high-quality products and fast, efficient fulfillment, Incentra's tier-one vendors must also "invest" in the VAR for the long term. Such investments include lead generation, training and a mutual plan for business development.

"We sit down and work out a plan together," Gallagher says. "We talk about them helping us get started with a new product, or helping us with a lead-generation program."

Growth is something Incentra knows well. The company broke onto this year's VARBusiness 500 list with a year-over-year revenue increase of 283 percent. That explosive growth was due in part to the company's laser-sharp focus on working with its vendors to get a leg up on competitors in the area of managed services.

Gallagher concedes that not all of Incentra's tier-one vendor partners--which include Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi and Symantec--are easy to work with. But difficult or not, these alliances are key to Incentra's growth and, therefore, impossible to ignore.

Neither can distributor relationships receive short shrift.

"The distributor comes to the table and says, 'How can we help you work more effectively with this vendor,'" Gallagher says. "They help to bridge the gap."

Interestingly enough, VARs name some of their vendor partners as both the best-positioned and worst-positioned to facilitate their growth in 2007, according to the latest VARBusiness 500 quarterly research.

This tells us that solution providers recognize the need to invest even in "difficult" vendor relationships. It also explains why more VARs today are touting a vendor-agnostic stance.

NEXT: The key to building strong relationships.

Ray Hutch, CEO of Rochester, N.Y.-based Synergy Global Solutions (VARBusiness 500 No. 287), says a vendor-neutral strategy is key to building strong relationships.

"We'll provide whatever product the customer wants, and then we can integrate [that product] into whatever [systems] they already have installed," Hutch says, adding that his role as trusted adviser is to evaluate products objectively and recommend solutions that serve the customer best. "Our only allegiance is to the customer--to give them unbiased advice," he says.

With growth on his mind, Hutch says security will continue to be a top-of-mind topic for him in 2007, particularly remote monitoring and security delivered as a managed service. "More and more customers are turning to us to handle their security," he adds.

In that regard, his partnerships with Cisco and HP are going to be especially important for growing Synergy's business in the coming year. Hutch says the VAR's partnership with HP is particularly beneficial because the vendor "allows us to do business with its larger accounts as long as we add value."