Rick Nelson

SIs, VARs, and VADs
February 6, 2006

Confused about system integrators, value-added resellers, and value-added distributors? Whether you are buying or selling technical components or equipment, you can benefit from knowing what such organizations can do for you. A session called "A New Look At Value-Added Sales Channels" on February 2 at the Automated Imaging Association's annual AIA Business Conference shed some light on the capabilities of each.

David Dechow, president of Aptura Machine Vision Solutions (www.aptura.com) described what system integrators can do. He noted that vision components are moving toward becoming "more distributeable, a catalog item almost." But nevertheless, he said, the engineering capabilities of a system integrator can be beneficial. Essentially, he said, system integrators provide engineering services relevant to implementation and installation of a turnkey system without significant customer intervention while being willing to incorporate components from multiple vendors as required to meet customer specifications.

Rubin Uribe, president of Physimetrics (www.physimetrics.com), made the case for value-added resellers. VARs, he said, offer complementary combinations of components to customers, such as frame grabbers, lenses, lighting, cables, and cameras. In addition, they offer planning and design services (but not to the extent that system integrators do) as well as training and asset management.

Rusty Ponce de Leon, president of Phase 1 Technology (www.phase1tech.com), described value-added distributors, which act as traditional distributors but provide additional services to manufacturers. A VAD offers lead qualification, provides a sales team, stocks inventory, manages logistics functions, offers credit services, and handles IT functions to generate reports on purchases, inventory, shipping, and sales.

Posted by Rick Nelson on February 6, 2006 | Comments (0)