VARs can and should play the “independence card” when competing with a manufacturer in a deal. But there also may be an opportunity here. Customer environments vary, as do the systems they buy. Often, there’s legacy gear that has to be integrated, or at least understood. Maybe the customer has a piece of software they want in the solution — something the manufacturer’s professional services team has no experience with or can’t officially support. A good example of this is a third-party storage system or virtual infrastructure monitoring suite.

The point is, infrastructures are never as clean or as “cut and dried” as they look on the whiteboard. In the real world, they’re always a little messy. But, like that Honda commercial, this is “Mr. Opportunity knocking.” You can step in and provide the expertise for a piece of a larger system that the manufacturer’s professional services group cannot. Years ago, when EMC first bought Legato, many local VARs sold their Legato expertise back to EMC in their own deals. This doesn’t mean you should settle for table scraps when competing with a large, primary storage manufacturer. It just means that if you don’t have a shot at winning the deal, you still may have an opportunity to capture some good business. And, you may set yourself up for a phone call from that same manufacturer when they’re in the next deal and need a little help with a product that’s not on their supported hardware/software list.

This isn’t new. Storage manufacturers have been selling integration services for years, and VARs have competed very effectively. The key is to leverage your line card. Most vendors that offer services will certainly lead with their own hardware — maybe exclusively. For example, if the application requires a high-performance storage solution, how many traditional disk vendors would consider another disk array technology like one from 3PAR, Isilon or BlueArc when designing a solution? Likewise, if the customer is budget-constrained (imagine that), how many disk manufacturers would show the customer a software SAN solution that can leverage their existing disk array hardware? 

As a VAR you have to make sure the customer understands that your solution will take into consideration a much larger pool of technologies. People like to know they’ve got choices. They don’t like to feel they’re being locked into something — even if they’re really considering only one solution. This also applies to their integrators. They want to know you started out with multiple technologies before deciding on one to present as the solution. 

Another factor to leverage is trust. It’s the foundation of your success as a VAR in the first place. Who is the customer apt to trust to bring them the right solution: an independent integrator or one that also makes the products they’re integrating? This concept shouldn’t take much explanation on your part.