Resellers can enhance their business through services provided by Tarsus

Tarsus Technologies, a member of JSE-listed MB Technologies, provides a comprehensive range of services to its resellers that not only enables them to add value to their own offering, but also assists them in growing their business.

"IT has become a commodity product, and the nature of the business has developed to the extent that customers are no longer prepared to wait for the solutions they want," says MD Guy Whitcroft.

"Consequently, stock availability, which is often taken for granted, is one of the most important services a distributor can provide. A thorough knowledge of the local market, together with the ability to stock according to its current and future demands, is essential, and only by building up reliable market intelligence and keeping abreast of the latest product trends, can accurate stock forecasts be made."

Whitcroft says that resellers who purchase large amounts of stock directly from vendors face the risk of suffering serious financial setbacks. "Because vendors traditionally focus on global market trends and not on individual areas, they generally tend to keep stock based on a global demand that doesn`t include SA, where trends are somewhat different," he points out. "For example, while 14-inch monitors are still very popular locally, they are no longer in use in other parts of the world.

"Product lifecycles are also becoming increasingly short, so resellers have to be extremely careful that they don`t end up with 50 units of a particular item the week they become obsolete," he continues.

"Additionally, individual resellers who try to keep stock on hand usually only deal with a relatively small market - their customer base - which is a subset of the whole. If they bring in say, 50 units of a particular item in anticipation of a potential order, and that order is not placed, they don`t have many outlets through which they can move those items. Invariably, they are forced to drop the price to well below cost in order to ship them out, and incur substantial losses as a result."

As one of SA`s leading distributors, however, Tarsus enjoys the advantage of working with the full spectrum of the country`s top resellers. "This provides us with a significantly larger market through which to move stock," says Whitcroft. "Consequently, by ordering from us instead of the vendor, resellers eliminate the risks of carrying obsolete products, cancelled orders and suffering financial losses."

The granting of credit is another service which Tarsus Technologies provides to its resellers. Once again, Whitcroft advises against dealing directly with the vendor.

"Vendors who are prepared to extend credit directly to resellers almost always expect a bank guarantee to be put in place first," he says. "These guarantees not only tie up the reseller`s capital, which means it cannot be turned into profit, but the banks also charge a fee for the service. All in all, it adds up to a costly exercise."

Tarsus, however, through long-standing partnerships with financial institutions, provides credit limits to all its resellers and only requires additional security in exceptional circumstances. "By providing financial assistance, we are assisting the reseller to grow their business," says Whitcroft. "What`s more, it`s a lot less expensive for the reseller to work with us than directly with the vendor. Additionally, if the reseller gets the payment cycle between us and the customer right, he can ensure a neutral cash flow, which is also good for his business."

Tarsus also provides a host of value-added services to its resellers. This includes cost-effective pre-delivery configuration. According to Whitcroft, Tarsus was one of the first distributors to offer this service and has been doing it very successfully for years. "The less a product is `touched` in the supply chain, the greater the savings that can be made," he explains.

"Previously, a distributor would stock an item, ship it to the reseller, who would then unpack it at his premises, configure it, repack it, and hire someone to deliver it to the end-user.

"At Tarsus, however, we have the facilities and technical expertise to configure the products ourselves and deliver them directly to the end-user on the reseller`s behalf. The savings the reseller makes by not having to hire additional transport not only increases his margins, but can also be shared with the end-user. Additionally, the reseller is not burdened with having to have premises capable of handling occasional huge loads, and so can utilise his space more effectively, and reduce overheads further."

Tarsus` technical staff members provide advice, and guidance at all stages of a solution implementation, from pre-configuration, to post-sales technical support. "This also helps resellers to grow their business because they don`t have to employ all the rarely used skills in-house," says Whitcroft. "Instead, they can take advantage of the technicians we have on board for the time they need them, rather than having to employ full-time people on their payroll, whom they may only utilise 20% of the time."

Post-sales support is available telephonically and resellers can also access the Tarsus web site to check stock availability and pricing, and place their orders 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Additionally, the company is working towards customising its information flow to resellers, to ensure they only get that which they specifically require, rather than being drowned in unnecessary data.

"Providing these service to our resellers is not only good for their business, but also for ours. It`s the reason why we always remain a notable step ahead of our competitors," Whitcroft concludes.