According to Giles, this off-chance partnering opportunity led to Phrixus adding a raft of local dental practices to its client base.
However, the approach of partnering with smaller software vendors doesn't always pan out. Director of Canberra-based IT integrator, Synergistic Network Solutions, David Mackie, thought he was onto a good thing when he began partnering with a local software vendor selling management systems into news agencies and bicycle repair shops.
"They paid a lot of lip service to wanting to partner, but they had been selling cheap and nasty technology, which simply wasn't going to work in the long term," Mackie said. "We spent a couple of months putting quite a lot of effort into the relationship, but when I had to deal with an angry customer who'd already spent $10,000 building a network that was always breaking we decided to give it a miss."
Mackie's challenges with this partnering relationship really get to the core of the difficulties associated with working with SMB.
In an attempt to save money, many adopt cheaper options which ultimately end up costing more in the long run, as the reseller is forced to return on a regular basis to prop up unreliable systems.
"I often find myself biting my tongue when working with SMBs who've bought into cheap and nasty systems," Mackie said. "Do I tell them it's not worth fixing, and that they bought the wrong hardware in the first place, or do I just accept the money and expect to see them again next month?"
As a result of these experiences, Mackie backed away from partnering with smaller software developers, opting instead to establish relationships directly with the customer, and thus gain more control over the initial hardware installations and ongoing support requirements.
What SMBs want
The challenges faced by SMB resellers are often easy to articulate, but difficult to solve, and most hark back to the challenge of tiny budgets and big demand.
Technical consultant and co-owner of SMB IT integrator, IT Next Generation, Damian Hupseld, specifically created his company to target a sector of the market he thought was poorly serviced by many in the channel.
"Many IT resellers focus on their larger customers, and their smaller customers tend to get left behind," he said. "We created the company to provide really good service to smaller customers, because we saw the opportunity to really grow the market in this area."
The challenge however, Hupseld conceded, is that the IT requirements of SMBs are most often far greater than what they are willing to spend.
"Potentially it's a great market space, because there's a huge number of really small businesses that need good quality IT solutions to grow," he said. "If you can get in there on the ground and convince them to spend on the right technology then you can grow along with them."
