CRN Exclusive: D&H Launches Program To Make Small VARs Mighty

D&H Distributing has unveiled a new service using its own in-house experts to expand its offerings for VARs into new technologies and capabilities that may seem beyond their reach.

Solutions & Services will be offered free to D&H partners and comes with an array of tools including D&H Integration Center, staffed with integration experts; professional services, with WiFi surveys and security assessments, which D&H Solutions Specialists carry out with VARs on-premise; and a service that helps solution providers incorporate cloud products and device-as-a-service into their offerings.

D&H co-president Dan Schwab said it has years of experience inside technologies and services, as well as access to best practices, that can assist smaller solution providers that cater to other small businesses.

[ Related: D&H's Education, Enablement And Engagement Strategy Is A VAR Game-Changer ]

’We basically have created this umbrella, which is D&H Solutions & Services," Schwab said. "It’s a combination of many value-added technologies, personnel and trainings that are unlike anyone else. No one does this for small business. Its free of charge to every customer, regardless of their size.’

On Thursday D&H hosted its 2018 Mid-Atlantic Summer Technology Conference in Hershey, Pa. During an interview with CRN at the expo, Schwab said many of D&H’s channel partners work with customers who have fewer than 20 employees -- none of whom are technology workers.

’So the VAR that manages them is basically an outsourced IT department,’ he said. ’They’re not calling the VAR saying, ’I want a server, what’s your price?’ They don’t even care about the network or the server … It’s the business problem that you try to solve, either to take risks out of the equation, help them scale their business or reduce their costs.’

Kevin Whitford, inside sales manager at Howard Enterprises in Laurel, Miss., said D&H has proven a valuable partner. He said Howard uses its online tools such as iQuote, but recently D&H consultants helped him win a deal when Whitford brought one of its experts on a call with customers.

’The most recent instance, we were looking at a 'config' a customer got from a competitor," Whitford said. "There were two servers, and it seemed like overkill. That’s when we brought in D&H to confirm everything ... The people at D&H are easy to work with. I think customers appreciate it too."

He said the expert from D&H backed up his suspicion that the customer was being sold too much server capacity and that allowed Whitford to win the deal.

’Our job is to help that reseller sell more advanced technologies, and solve problems to those same end users, but also help them move up the stack,’ Schwab said. ’How can they sell to that 200-person manufacturing company?’

The resources offered through Solutions & Services are designed to support channel partners through the life of a customer's project, including pre-sale and post-sale support, as well as life-cycle management, and recycling programs, he said. The program is designed to turn a small shop into a formidable solutions provider.

’Basically, we’re the extension of the reseller,’ Schwab said. ’We want to give them capability where if they don’t have it built internally, either train them to build it, or if it's not going to be often enough to be a core competency, instead of them having to go hire someone, or instead of them having to go partner with a competing type VAR, we can supplement and augment what they’re doing to allow them to deliver the right solutions.’