Sydney reseller: costly certifications are a big turn-off

For a premium managed services provider with a reputation as a trusted adviser, Lanrex values vendor reliability over all else.

Technical director Adrian Capolino says Lanrex isn’t the cheapest, but an unswerving customer commitment makes it the best value. To maintain this lead, vendors must pull their weight too.

“We use best-of-breed products and we’re not the cheapest by far; we try to keep ourselves as more of a premium partner,” Capolino says. 

Lanrex sticks to vendors proven as “thought leaders”, he says. Vendors that have around-the-clock support and engineers to swing in to service a client also sway him.

Capolino singles out HP for its rock-solid servers and partnership with Dicker Data as an example of a great vendor relationship.

“Their knowledge and team are really good if we need to find out anything about the product,” he says. “It’s probably one of the most expensive servers and very rarely do they fail, and if there’s a support issue they hold up their warranty and [service agreement].”

It’s for similar reasons that Lanrex uses AAPT for its business broadband. “I work with a lot of other ISPs when we take over a client. They are very difficult to deal with; you call up their service desk and you speak to someone

in India and it takes two to three days to get something fixed.

“With AAPT, that doesn’t happen. We get the issue fixed quickly so we can provide the right feedback to customers so they’re really happy.”

But vendors fall down by gouging on training and certification, he says. Fortinet’s online, self-paced and free training leads the industry, adds Capolino.

“When you’re a partner with 11 engineers, if we take on a new vendor and pay $2,000 per employee, you’re talking a $22,000 investment.”

Capolino says vendors should also consider massive open online courses (Moocs) to speed channel adoption.

And he’s scathing about vendor training that focuses on sales over technology or business learning: “That’s the least of anyone’s worries.”