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Some learn from their own mistakes, but to learn from others' mistakes is

ideal. DQ Channels spoke to solution providers to find out the top blunders they

have committed in the past and listed them here, so that the entire community

learns from it. They may seem very generic, but are frequently made errors that

at times cost dearly.

When was the last time you botched up and cursed your luck or pacified

yourself not to commit that mistake again? May not have been long ago. To err is

human. If you hear all the positive proverbs on 'mistakes', you will

probably feel better that you went wrong.

Learning from one's mistakes is not new. Technological advancement happens

only because of trials and errors. In today's world if you try to do things

right the first time and always so, it would be a blunder in itself. Barring

surgeons and pilots, doing things wrong may be a requirement to doing things

right. This does not mean that the same mistakes have to be committed again and

again. Writer-philosopher George Bernard Shaw once said: "Success does not

consist in never making mistakes, but in never making the same one a second

time."

The same applies to solution providers. A solution provider cannot afford to

mess-up things again and again at a customer's place, or within his own

company. All are competing with each other in providing similar kinds of

solutions. Price and quality of service is the only differentiator. In such a

scenario, no channel partner can afford to mess-up a project that he has bagged

from a new customer. If you goof-up in the first attempt, then forget that

customer for the next few projects at least.

Sean

Karsten once said: "Do not learn from your mistakes, learn from the

mistakes of others so that you do not make any." May be this is the right

approach for channel partners to follow. DQ Channels spoke to channel partners

and found out some common blunders they have committed in their solutions

providing business. For obvious reasons, their identities have not been

revealed. Read on to avoid them.

Key-man fuss



More than the sales and marketing team, technical staff makes the core of

any solutions provider business. A systems integrator learnt this lesson when

his key technical person left the company for good, leaving him in the lurch.

For months, he struggled with his remaining technical staff to keep things up

and running.

It is always a good idea not to depend on few key people for all the

technical needs. Train everything to your entire technical team, so that if one

leaves, the other takes over. To successfully own a solution providing business,

the boss himself should be the jack of all trades. Knowing a little bit of

everything helps. Be it administration, marketing, sales or technical.

Wrong people



Annual Maintenance Contract (AMCs) makes a better part of the revenue for

most solution providers. Often they operate with a workforce of inexperienced

cheap technical executives with only basic troubleshooting knowledge for Windows

PC.

When problems go beyond the basics, the executives fumble and have to depend

on their seniors for help on the phone. All this trial and error-based

troubleshooting process eats into the customer's time, leaving a bad

impression of the solution provider and he loses the AMC for the coming year.

Choose the right people for the right reasons. Test the candidate for his

capabilities and experience, more than his qualification or the company he is

coming from.

Training staff



Technological advancement happens so fast that even the best of technical

personnel may not be in a position to keep pace with it. One reseller known for

selling the latest in the market had to face a peculiar problem.

Many a times his sales team failed to sell the right combination of products

being unaware of the latest technical update on the products. Like selling a

64-bit processor with a motherboard that does not support 64-bit processor, or

selling a wrong memory module with the wrong motherboard. After witnessing

frequent blunders, the reseller decided to take monthly training session for its

staff including the admin, sales and technical department, on the products and

features and combination they are supposed to sell. Things are better now.

Expansion



Expanding geographical presence in a vast country like India is good. But

setting up offices all over just because your competitor is expanding may not be

the answer. There are solution providers with offices across the country and

there are solution providers with just one office. What would you choose if both

make similar profits, while both manage to do the same amount of business in

every corner of the country?

A solution provider based in Mumbai with just one office has tied-up with

other counterparts all over the country to provide services on his behalf in

that region. In return, he gives them a commission or provides services for them

in Mumbai. Novell ways, isn't it?

Strategic



There are very few solution providers in the company which have really grown

with time. The reason is the poor strategies of promoters. Some SIs aspiring to

become big solution providers have not been successful because they are mostly

proprietorship firms and do not like to involve partners. They are worried that

involving partners may lead to sharing the revenue and more trouble.

However, one should remember that doing everything on your own limits growth.

If, as an owner, you are good at one task, it is better to get partners with

other skills for other tasks. Some successful solution providers have involved

more than one partner for different activities-one for technical, another for

admin, and a third one for sales and marketing, and so on, and it works!

Security goofs



Security has always been an issue for every company. Often systems

integrators deploy heavy security solutions such as firewall, IDS, anti-virus

and others, but discount the internal threats that lie within the company. A

solution provider giving security solution is not worth his job if it fails to

educate customers about the internal threats and not create security policies

for them.

Even the best security mechanism can give way to disasters if the technical

maintenance department fails to regularly update critical patches and anti-virus

signatures. It has to trace rogue application on the network, monitor

unprotected wireless devices, ensure security on mobile devices and remember to

update expired applications.

Silly mistakes



Assessing a company's technological needs is the responsibility of the

CIO. He consults only the solution provider employed for that purpose.

Insufficient budget allocation compels solutions providers to compromise on many

solutions. This sometimes can lead to disasters. Not implementing backup

mechanism, choosing the wrong backup solutions, failing to detect network

problems, deploying low-cost servers for mission-critical application and using

unlicensed software are silly blunders that solution providers should avoid.

Overstocking



This one is for the box pusher. Never overstock. There are many stories of

resellers closing down because of misjudging the market and overstocking. IT

products go obsolete very fast. At the same time, prices can go down at the most

unexpected time. Vendors are not very comfortable providing price-protection for

large stocks. So why take such a risk? It is true that without taking risks, a

business can't grow. But instead of taking such risks, it is better to play in

the stock market where you can endlessly speculate.

The list of blunders is endless. The ones discussed above fall under the most

common among solutions providers. They should take these learnings and try not

to err again. Better would be to have a regular meeting within companies to

review mistakes, dissect them and find remedial measures to correct them. 

NELSON JOHNY