What is a VAR? Features, Advantages, Uses and More
My company VARStreet, has been working with VARs since 1999. We offer software tools to help VARs run their business more efficiently. Here in this blog, I would like to share my in-depth knowledge about VARs.
What is a VAR?
VARs or Value Added Resellers are the middlemen in the supply chain that move products from manufacturers to customers. To put things into perspective, a Value-added reseller (VAR) is a company that is essentially involved in the reselling of software, hardware as well as networking products and provide value that goes beyond order fulfilment. In short, they provide enhanced value to the customers.
Typical products sold by VAR include hardware and software packages aimed at addressing certain tasks such as point of sales, or security login issues. VAR along with providing turnkey solutions also provide the installation, training and the support of the system. Thus, the result is that a customer is free from the task of creating a solution for his needs and ends up purchasing the same from a VAR; thus resulting in reduced hassles for the customer.
VARs often possess expertise in certain specific markets. They offer consultation and assessment services pertaining to these specific markets. The whole offering is aimed at helping customers to assess and discover their needs. In the next step, value-added resellers offer solutions addressing these needs.
Advantages of VAR
The advantages of VAR are far and wide. The foremost advantage of VAR is that they offer assistance as well as solutions to complex problems that are too demanding and often prove to be time-consuming for the in-house resources.
- Expertise:-
Every VAR has a specific area of expertise. These may include industries such as IT, healthcare, automobile, financial services, etc. The product portfolio or skill set is concerned with only one specific industry. Therefore, this situation makes it easy for VARs to understand the technical, regulatory and other factors that influence customer operations. Thus, it becomes easy for the customer as well to express his needs in a better way and to get the best-optimized solution for his needs.
- Trusted Counsel:-
VARs are often referred to as trusted advisors. Most of these enterprises, seek to establish long term business relationships with their clients. Their business model has evolved over the years and has seen a transformation making them more customer-centric. In recent times they have become more of a managed service providers. Due to the intensity of competition as well as the declining of product margins they have shifted to managing services as a source of revenue.
- Savings in terms of time and efforts:-
Another advantage is that a VAR no longer needs to invest a huge amount of efforts, money and time to increase their customer base. They can simply take the help of distributor/manufacturer that provide support and strategy (marketing material + resources) to increase customer reach and subsequently boost sale. Also, as a VAR, the efforts that have to be put for the entire cycle of product development can be bypassed. In other words, the costly product development process is completely eliminated. All VARs have to do is focus on reselling the product.
Benefits of working with VAR-
- Aid you in finding the right solution:-
VARs are generally associated with a large number of vendors. Therefore, they ensure that you find the right solution for your needs. They also provide the choice of selecting your own solution. As these enterprises work closely with an organization, they clearly understand the goals and vision of your company and thus can leverage their experience in finding a solution that best meets your desired goals. In addition to this, they can give expert recommendations, which can prove advantageous especially in cases where there are a large number of options available.
- Save time and efforts:
Contacting various manufacturers and distributors for a particular solution and going through the catalogs of each one of them and then comparing products on the basis of several parameters can be time-consuming. As VARs are connected to multiple vendors, you can easily view product information coming from different and even compare it based on various parameters. This helps to provide the best solution and save a lot of time and efforts.
- Comprehensive solution:
VARs provide complete solutions as they focus on individual client needs and customize or configure their products accordingly. This complete solution is provided by understanding the business needs and VARs assist at each step right up to the installation of the solution.
- Customer empowerment:-
VARs provide value-added services that are aimed at empowering as well as educating their customers about the products and the services that they are offering. Unlike short descriptions that are given by typical vendors, they assist and provide in-depth information. They also give more attention to small and medium scale enterprises who do not receive the same level of attention if they go to a traditional vendor.
- Convergence of communication:-
Multiple points of contact between IT vendors for a company may prove troublesome due to lack of convergence of communication, multiple needs mentioned by different teams, and varying capabilities of vendors. In such cases, VARs prove particularly useful as it can act as a single point of contact for multiple vendors; thus, making it easier for your company to manage its business.
Uses of VAR
The list of uses of VAR can be far and wide and will cover a range of aspects. They can be used to obtain solutions for cloud storage, cybersecurity, data centers, personal computers, printing, among others.
- Wide applicability:-
They can be used in the field ranging from IT, automobile to healthcare and logistics. They offer customized and integrated solutions for hardware and software needs. They provide consultation and assessment services to gauge the exact customer needs. Value-added resellers also offer services such as training as well as on-boarding. They also aid in the installation and implementation of solutions for the customers, along with providing technical support for their customized solutions.
- Offer Extensive Customization:-
VARs offer customized solutions which suit the specific needs of the companies. Thus, the pricing may also vary heavily for each solution. Therefore, it is often advised to chart out the needs clearly to obtain the best solution and to get good value for money. Comparative analysis also needs to be done to obtain the best pricing.
To conclude, one may contact different VARs to get the best pricing as there are several options available in the market. However, quality of service and acquiring the exact specifications should be the primary focus.
