Good UK IT Reseller

wedmonds · 6 Feb 2013 at 16:10

Who is everyone using for IT Reseller services?
Hardware, Software, advice, consultancy etc

mrbios · 6 Feb 2013 at 16:48

Depends what sort of hardware and what sort of software you're after to be honest.

Most resellers you probably couldn't mention here for hardware as they'd be competitors unless it's specific enterprise stuff.

GhostlyPea · 6 Feb 2013 at 17:27

As mrbios says really. Only some suppliers can sell certain products and still register it for licensing and support, for example CheckPoint and Cisco have authorised resellers and if you haven't purchased a product through them then they wont allow it to be licensed or supported. So the question is, what do you want to buy?

- GP

SlipperyJohnson · 6 Feb 2013 at 18:03

GhostlyPea said:
As mrbios says really. Only some suppliers can sell certain products and still register it for licensing and support, for example CheckPoint and Cisco have authorised resellers and if you haven't purchased a product through them then they wont allow it to be licensed or supported. So the question is, what do you want to buy?

- GP

This is actually untrue, Cisco products bought outside of authorized channel are in many cases able to be covered with SMARTnet support and fully licenced. It's gold partner stock or imports out of region that you need to be careful of as if 1 piece of kit intended for a Gold partner is registered it will register all kit part of that transaction.

GhostlyPea · 6 Feb 2013 at 19:15

Fair enough, don't do much of the purchasing myself to be honest although I do need to speak to our account manager in that case, although certain benefits and promotions are only available through authorised distributors....... The other resellers though still stands (vendor depending)

- GP

SlipperyJohnson · 7 Feb 2013 at 17:12

GhostlyPea said:
Fair enough, don't do much of the purchasing myself to be honest although I do need to speak to our account manager in that case, although certain benefits and promotions are only available through authorised distributors....... The other resellers though still stands (vendor depending)

- GP

If you have an account manager at cisco or authorised distribution they will tell you this but 100% it is not the case. it's common misconception because cisco brand managements job is to ensure everyone is paying as much as possible for their kit they will say all sorts of crap to keep their margins high.

GhostlyPea · 7 Feb 2013 at 17:15

indeed. We have a list of approved suppliers that we need to purchase from, it may be something that's come from that leading to a misunderstanding although it's good to know

- GP

SlipperyJohnson · 13 Feb 2013 at 17:53

GhostlyPea said:
indeed. We have a list of approved suppliers that we need to purchase from, it may be something that's come from that leading to a misunderstanding although it's good to know

- GP

If your company is anything below the maximum cisco gold partner status you will not have an accreditation level to hit and can put as much cisco as you like through independant suppliers.

You just need to make sure they are well established and have been trading for some time to ensure it is legitimate kit but there are plenty of trusted suppliers out there. My company saves over 50%+ on their Cisco kit using this process.

Relentless81 · 13 Feb 2013 at 17:56

A lot of the time its down to how good the Account Manager is

GhostlyPea · 13 Feb 2013 at 19:02

SlipperyJohnson said:
If your company is anything below the maximum cisco gold partner status you will not have an accreditation level to hit and can put as much cisco as you like through independant suppliers.

You just need to make sure they are well established and have been trading for some time to ensure it is legitimate kit but there are plenty of trusted suppliers out there. My company saves over 50%+ on their Cisco kit using this process.

To be honest most of the big bys we put through (~100k) go through the special bid process. Saves us a heap

- GP

icehot · 13 Feb 2013 at 20:19

Bear in mind you cant dictate a partners margin and vendors have processes like deal registration so you cant for example let partner 'A' do all the work then place an order through partner 'B' because you asked for a price and they came back slightly cheaper.

SlipperyJohnson · 14 Feb 2013 at 17:39

Relentless81 said:
A lot of the time its down to how good the Account Manager is

Do you use one of the independents relentless?

francky · 18 Feb 2013 at 15:47

I work for one of the largest UK resellers of IT, we have gone through the rigorous proccess with Cisco to become gold accredited.

Unfortunetley with Cisco is that they have a very inconsistent pricing strategy for Europe.

Firstly ALL Cisco kit gets shipped into Amsterdam, where it is then distributed to the varying countries, with price tags that vary hugely from country to country.

This opens the door to smaller resellers or brokers selling kit brought from Germany or the like at hugely discounted price that gold partners have worked hard to achieve and get undercut.

If Cisco find out, they do and will refuse the right to SmartNet that kit, but this is quite rare as they usually wont find out.

Annoys me as I work hard to get my clients the best price I can and build up good relationships with them and being undercut that way can be frustrating, which is why I usually stick to vendors like HP, Dell and Juniper that will actually support me.