Tarsus announces T-Bay store, revamped collections environment

Tarsus Technologies has announced the successful establishment of T-Bay, the company`s retail-esque store environment designed expressly for the SME resellers on its books, complete with demonstration products, accessories, consumables and point of sale.

Jamie Scott, HP business unit manager at Tarsus, says the creation of the store environment is part of a larger overriding strategy that Tarsus has put in place to better service the new SME channel it has captured over the past year; and to provide the same excellent level of customer service and value-add to these smaller resellers that Tarsus`s larger resellers have become accustomed to over the past decade.

"Extensive research into the needs of our entire reseller base revealed that Tarsus`s previous collections, purchasing and returns environment was not perfectly suited to our SME resellers," says Scott.

"We have taken that knowledge and committed to providing a more comfortable environment for the fastest growing sector of our business, namely the SMEs."

The store is the first step in creating that improved setting. Serena van Dyk, customer care manager at Tarsus, says the store environment allows SME resellers to visit Tarsus and buy notebooks, PDAs, printers, consumables and a full range of accessories right off the shelf.

"It`s also a valuable measure our SME resellers can employ to gain first-hand experience of the products they will be recommending to their customers. In the store environment they can tinker with the demonstration units and ascertain whether they are in fact suited to their customers` needs," she adds.

Further benefits will be afforded to resellers, with the option of buying demonstration stock, stock in damaged boxes and end of life products at greatly reduced prices.

"As every reseller will testify, there is a natural reluctance to pay the full dealer price for a solution where the box has been opened or has been damaged in the transportation process, despite the fact that the solution may still be perfect.

"The reduced prices on demonstration stock serves the dual purpose of allowing SME resellers to be more competitively priced in the market and for Tarsus to ensure that it has a more optimised stockholding," she says.

"We`ve also installed credit card facilities in the store, which will provide a more convenient way of purchasing for SME resellers," she adds.

Apart from the T-Bay store, Van Dyk says Tarsus is also revamping its entire collections area to better cater for SME resellers` needs. "We have placed Internet terminals in the collections section for resellers that need to make Internet transfers as payment before stock collection, and have deployed additional stock pickers dedicated to our SME resellers as well as three sales executives in the stores area for resellers that want to place last minute orders when collecting stock."

In closing, Scott says Tarsus is excited about the efficiencies this new strategy will bring to its operation.

"We realise that South Africa as a whole will enter a new era through the growth in the SME sector. Tarsus wants to play a vital role in that process. For too long, the SME resellers have been neglected in the market. With our decision to start addressing this market last year, we also made a commitment to change the state of things in the distribution space.

"The T-Bay store and modifications to our collections division are the first of many steps Tarsus will be taking to better address this valuable part of our business," Van Dyk concludes.