Reseller’s Report Card: The Missing Link

The Missing Link has been a mainstay of the Australian IT industry for almost 20 years. Now with around 50 staff, the Sydney-based company started life in 1997 through co-founders Alex Gambotto, now managing director, and operations director Daniel Forsythe.

Gambotto says: “Our main vendors are IBM, Juniper, Lenovo, Microsoft, Citrix, VMware and Riverbed. We also partner, in no particular order, with Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, F5, Webroot, FireEye, Qualys, APC, Adobe, Emerson, Fusion-io, Imperva, Liquidfiles, NetApp, Palo Alto Networks, Solarflare and Symantec.”

The Missing Link is known for its infrastructure focus, and recently added a security practice to the mix. Asked for more detail on any recent security projects, Gambotto laughs, saying they wouldn’t be very secure if he told a journalist about them.

The company broke through $20 million of sales a few years back, so the directors certainly know a thing or two about maximising their return from technology and from the vendors who supply it.

“Vendor partner programs can be very rewarding if utilised properly. It is important that you know what is available to you and what is required of you to stay in the program. Build relationships with the key contacts within the vendor’s business.”

When it comes to best practice in programs, Gambotto points to “vendors that add value and want to help us grow”.

“We appreciate vendor partner programs that offer support to our business, especially in regards to training, pre-sales and marketing. One particular vendor provided partial funding of staff. This allowed us to invest in our staff members’ technical skillset and offer a more in-depth knowledge base to our clients.”

In terms of worst practice, Gambotto is clear. “Broadly speaking, consistency is critical. Vendors who frequently change their channel programs make it difficult for us to invest.”

There are other complaints. The Missing Link regularly spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on its vendor relationships, including certification, training and events, so he is not a fan of “vendors that dictate expensive training, unrealistic sales targets or provide equal pricing to companies that are not part of the vendor program”.

“A partnership needs to be beneficial to both sides in order to grow. Recently, a vendor severely restricted the number of partners in the channel selling one of their products, including us. This was a product that was specifically requested by our clients.”

While it was only a small product as part of the vendor’s broader portfolio, the fact the company was unable to supply it was a sore point.

Fortunately, the vendor was listening and changed tack “following feedback from the market,” he says.