Partner Spotlight: Bizco Technologies

Create New Mobile Computing Revenue Opportunities
Business Solutions Magazine, November 2007

This $15 million VAR shares insights into its projected $2 million revenue growth.
By Jay McCall

There’s a popular saying in business, “If you can measure it, you can improve it.' That saying has become the motto for VAR Bizco Technologies, a company that offers the gamut of IT solutions, from network analysis and design to wireless mobile computing, VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol), disaster recovery, application hosting, and managed services. The facts that this 26-employee company generated $15 million in sales revenue last year and is projecting $2 million revenue growth this year are two good reasons to believe that Bizco has advice worth heeding. Selling customized WWAN (wireless WAN)-enabled mobile computing solutions is a big part of Bizco’s differentiation strategy. President and CEO Paul Zoz also predicts that integrating his company’s business applications will be a big differentiator.

Sell More Laptops By Providing Quick Turnarounds On Customized Orders
Laptops with Wi-Fi connectivity have become the norm for Bizco’s customers, which span just about every vertical market within the SMB market segment (e.g. education, healthcare, manufacturing, service, transportation). A couple of problems with Wi-Fi are that it’s available in limited locations and it requires multiple users to share the same network, which creates potential security risks. The solution is to equip mobile workforces with WWAN connectivity through carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon. Even though it might seem like there is no opportunity for a VAR to earn money by providing WWAN connectivity, Bizco’s bottom line proves otherwise. “Some carriers offer free external modems [aka PC cards] with the purchase of a wireless data subscription,” says Zoz. “However, once a customer learns about the value of an embedded wireless modem, which is less prone to failure if the laptop is dropped, and that it drains less battery power than an external modem, the customer is usually happy to make the $300 investment for the long-term benefits.”

Many mobile computing VARs can resell laptops with WWAN modems preinstalled by their laptop vendor or a value-added distributor (VAD). However, Bizco is one of only a handful of Panasonic Computer Solutions Company VARs that’s authorized by the vendor to provide this service. The VAR had to complete a day of training from a Panasonic channel certification representative and complete A+ certification training through CompTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association), which took about a month. But, now it’s authorized to open up Panasonic’s Toughbook line of rugged, semirugged, and business rugged laptops, tablets, and convertibles (laptops that feature touch screens that swivel into a tablet position). Why would a VAR want to offer this service? According to Zoz, it enables Bizco to provide quicker turnarounds on laptop orders. “By stocking modems, we can provide our customers with WWAN options in a short period without having to order preconfigured models through distribution,” he says. “We can take on a larger stock of modems and a smaller stock of mobile computers, which enables us to manage our inventory more efficiently and provide better customer service.”

Integrate Your Business Apps To Improve Sales Forecasting
Bizco has a twofold goal for integrating its business applications:  improve its internal business practices, such as sales forecasting, and  strengthen its relationships with vendor partners. One of Bizco’s challenges is determining how many laptops to keep in stock. Like any small business, the VAR needs to keep its inventory as lean as possible. If it runs its inventory too lean and doesn’t have enough on hand, however, it could lose sales to competitors. To resolve this problem, the VAR wanted to improve its sales forecasting accuracy. “We used to run our CRM [customer relationship management] and sales quoting applications in a silo fashion,” says Zoz. “As a result, we were plagued by sales quotes that weren’t entered into our sales forecasting program, plus we had duplicate data entry issues and other problems that led to data inaccuracies.” Over the past year, Bizco integrated its ConnectWise CRM application with its QuoteWerks sales quoting software and eliminated duplicate data entry.

One area where this decision paid off is during the sales consultation process. “Even if a customer only requests one laptop, the sales rep may spend 25 minutes on the phone getting all of the customer’s information,” says Zoz. For example, the rep asks questions about the environment the laptop will be used in (will it be exposed to dust, water, or temperature extremes?), whether it will be used at night (requiring a backlit keyboard), and what kind of applications will be installed (to gauge how much processing power and memory is needed). In the past, all of that information would have to be input into both systems, which took extra time and caused the salesperson to take longer on the call or not ask as many questions.

After seeing positive results from integrating its CRM and sales quoting software, Bizco invested $50,000 in a Great Plains accounting system and related integration services, which enabled it to integrate its accounting system with its other applications. “The other applications are good at capturing data up to the point of sale, but once the sale is complete, they don’t effectively help us capture additional pertinent information,” says Zoz. “The Great Plains app will help us capture information such as the cost of goods sold, gross profit margins, and metrics about customers’ buying habits.”

Strengthen Your Vendor Relationships, Increase Your Vendor Leads
Currently, about 10% of Bizco’s annual sales comes from vendor leads. Zoz is confident he can leverage his integrated applications to significantly increase that percentage. “Our mobile computing vendor’s sales reps earn commission on the number of their company’s mobile computers that are sold in their territories,” says Zoz. “Previously, our vendor’s sales reps relied on distributor shipping reports to determine their sales, but these reports aren’t always accurate. For instance, a distributor may drop ship to a company in Denver, but the company may simply be a staging facility that configures the products [e.g. installs software] and sends them to the end user in Lincoln, NE. If the vendor’s rep covering the Lincoln territory relies solely on the distributor report, the rep won’t receive credit for the order.”

With Bizco’s integrated data capture and reporting solution, however, the VAR can present its vendor reps with monthly reports of all its sales activity (it averages $600,000 in laptop sales per month), including the vertical markets represented by each sale, which models were sold, and where the products were shipped. Even though Zoz hasn’t gotten written guarantees that his vendor sales reps will give him more leads, his experience in the business tells him that this will work in his favor. “Whenever you can help make a partner’s job a little easier and you can positively impact their bottom line, they will find ways to return the favor,” he says. The most immediate way a rep could help Bizco is by referring qualified leads to the VAR. “A rep may have dozens of reseller accounts to manage. When the rep comes across a lead, we want to be the first VAR the rep thinks of and contacts,” says Zoz.

Zoz’ application integration strategy doesn’t stop with vendor leads. The CEO also is leveraging the Panasonic Computer Solutions Company Wireless Partner Program to strengthen its relationship with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon and to earn market co-op funding for online and other kinds of marketing campaigns. For example, Bizco’s business applications, which are integrated with its Web application, give it the ability to track who visits its Web site as well as which state the visitor is from and which products a prospect is interested in. Using these metrics with its reporting software, Zoz believes carriers will be interested in working with Bizco and sponsoring co-branded online advertisements, which the carriers and Bizco can track. After all, if they can measure the effectiveness of their marketing spending, it’s a safe bet that they’ll continue to allocate funds and shift spending to VARs that deliver results.

A couple of Zoz’ plans haven’t had time to prove themselves yet, but the VAR’s 20 years of experience in the networking and mobile computing arena suggests he knows what drives his customers’ and business partners’ decision making. Don’t expect Bizco to leave success to chance, however. Zoz’ business plans may start with a hunch, but you can bet he won’t go too far with any plan unless it can be measured – and improved.