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06.01.07
Growing your VAR Business
 By Editor
Although competitive pressures are intense, the VAR market is highly robust and can be quite lucrative. The continuing emergence of new and replacement technologies such as Microsoft's Vista, RFID, Mobile communications, and security, makes the market poised for another round of tremendous expansion.
Given this backdrop of explosive growth opportunities, the challenges for VAR executives becomes managing for revenue growth and targeting the highest margin opportunities - in initial sales and throughout ongoing client relationships. Professional services automation software applications give VARs a competitive edge and make the difference between struggling to grow and harvesting profit from the abundant growth opportunities.
Advantages for VARs who use Professional Services Automation Software
1. Executive Insight
VAR businesses usually start by selling a primary set of products and services. As they become more successful, they add more products and services, ultimately bundling them up in ways clients want to buy them. Most VARs look at their business through "business practice" lenses - areas of marketing and delivery that bring together the multiple disciplines needed to constitute a client solution. Basic start-up system tools don't fit any more, VARs need professional services automation software tools that manage and report products the way clients buy them, through the lens of a practice.
Example of how PSA Software can help improve executive insight
As an example of this, think of a network practice that combines elements of hardware (servers, routers, and hubs) with software (security messaging and e-mail), along with client education and even network monitoring and management.
A PSA dashboard can be organized by practice areas such as networking, security, mobile communications, hosting services - whatever way you organize your business.
A CEO view lists all the practices and ranks them by key performance indicators:
revenue, growth rates, and margins. Practice managers can see how their projects are unfolding and with drill downs, identify what's
working and what?s not.The important point is that with the help of PSA
software, VARs can put their fingers on the pulse of the business and tell
where the market is expanding or contracting.
2.Client Visibility: All clients are important, but in reality, some are
more important to your bottom line than others. Once you understand a client?s
lifetime value - revenue, projects, invoices, and opportunities with the help
of a PSA
software - you can shape your interactions with them better.
Look at yourself from your client's point of view
Clients see their relationship with the VAR as the sum total of their experiences
with sales, receivables, service incidents and other interactions.
Continue reading this article.
About the Author:
PSA software tools give VARs the edge they need to manage their businesses and expand market share.
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