Impact Systems to launch services division

Impact Systems is preparing to add a software-as-a-service (SaaS) division to its portfolio of PC manufacturing and distribution that will enable resellers to offer enterprise-grade managed services.

Three years in the making, the "Whole of Services" division will provide email hosting, managed services and online data hosting solutions as an extension to Impact's existing products.

Peter Agamalis, managing director of Impact Systems, told CRN that the model offers a host of firsts for resellers that have previously struggled to add enterprise-grade services to their business.

"The best thing about the Whole of Services business is that it's based around a SaaS model [which] enables the reseller to [enter] this business with no infrastructure cost whatsoever.

"Impact is making available to the channel enterprise solutions that they would otherwise not have available to them, because of cost, or because their inability to purchase or negotiate at the level that Impact Systems can.

"We have collaborated with a number of tiered vendors to provide enterprise-based solutions at one of the most cost competitive price points available in the market to date," he said.

Help desk

Included in that framework is a Sydney-based help desk and a focus on ongoing support for resellers. Agamalis claimed Impact's managed services offer, which included help desk support, was another first in the market.

"There are a host of managed service companies in Australia that are offering managed services such as Kaseya. These companies traditionally supply the licences to the channel.

"But if a reseller does not have the capability in terms of the help desk support, the skills sets and the infrastructure, they will fail in becoming a real managed services provider," he said.

"This is a completely new direction for Impact Systems."

Other services include white labelling and billing services. "We're spoonfeeding the resellers to delivery these services to customers completely," said Agamalis.

Partner strategy

The go-to-market strategy for Impact's new division is to market solutions to resellers but deliver through distribution.

"If we see that we don't get enough traction by the distributors then we will have to explore a direct model through the channel but our initial position will be to market direct to the channel but distribute sales and leads through our distributors," said Agamalis.

"The smart way is to simply attach their strengths within our own business model and then simply offer it as an extension to Impact's products and services. It is a cohesive business model that fits perfectly with any reseller that wishes to provide an A to Z total solution," he said.

Market gap

Agamalis said Impact had seen a common interest in areas such as managed services, email hosting and online data storage through extensive market research within the channel.

He said almost every reseller identified a need to attach services over and above their current business model.

"Resellers today are typically hot fix, reactive, service organisations where they either perform services based on traditional walk-ins, others would have your hourly block or some kind of service agreement.

Impact Systems' approach recognised the uptake in incremental incomes by the channel, said Agamalis.

"This is a soft launch. We'll be making available a proof-of-concept of all our services free of charge for a limited time. This enables our resellers to deploy the proof of concept to their customers and to the few that we have conducted this already we've had a 100 percent hit rate," said Agamalis.