VARs Pinpoint the Issues

by Doug Henschen

Value added resellers (VARs) are the IT industry's feet on the street. VARs meet with customers every day, hear about their challenges and offer answers using technology.

As part of our annual VAR survey (page 45), Transform took advantage of this intimacy by asking more than 100 resellers to identify their customers' top three concerns. Our online questionnaire permitted an open-ended response, yet the results were incredibly consistent, with accessibility, integration and automation topping the list of imperatives.

The issue of access was described in countless ways. Alliance Consulting in Anchorage, AK, succinctly described the need for "total accessibility," while eDoc Technologies of Old Saybrook, CT, said users want "simple, easy document access from remote locations."

The answer suggested was invariably the Internet, but some VARs specified particular approaches. Hershey Business Systems of Santa Fe Springs, CA, for example, prescribed "Web portals for enterprisewide access to information."

When it came to integration, Doxentric of Philadelphia said customers want "integrated EDMS with line-of-business and legacy systems." Champion Workflow Systems in Bloomfield, NJ, chimed in calling for "tightly integrated access from within main-line applications, across multiple platforms."

Offering a grassroots "content infrastructure" vision, Interlucent Internet Solutions of Houston said users want "a common methodology for integrating content created by disparate sources." The firm added that technology has to be in place to "maximize IT resources by freeing technical personnel to concentrate on developing applications instead of splitting time to post routine Web site updates."

Automation covers a range of issues raised in our survey. Digital Vision International of Northbrook, IL, reported that companies are striving to "leverage enterprise applications such as SAP and Siebel so they can further streamline business processes." The firm added that there's also a drive to deploy easy-to-use online forms for internal and external communications, workflow and customer service.

KnowledgeLake Inc. of St. Louis said users want to "streamline processes and reduce operational costs with workflow," and then "extend workflow outside of the firewalls to customers and partners."

Companies taming paper-based transactions with document imaging are, according to Raw Data Inc. of Atlanta, "beginning to realize how labor-intensive the process of indexing can be." This indexing pain is driving interest in auto-indexing technologies such as OCR and barcode.

Our reseller survey turned up more specific concerns, such as email archiving and disaster recovery, but the overarching theme was that content access, integration and automation of content-intensive processes are driving investment.