I think you make in excellent point in suggesting that Dell is now competition to every MSP out there and we would be crazy to let our clients have a direct option to work with them.

This reminds me of a post I read by Karl Palachuk recently:

http://smallbizthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/03/dell-vp-falls-on-sword.html

Karl does an excellent job of outlining why we all should be looking at Dell as completion and

I believe working with a PaaS vendor provides some relief to the immediate problem.

JC

You are right on the mark. We are seeing and living this everyday. For our MSP partners, hardware and software fulfillment is an indirect process that affects the bottom-line of profit and margin. If you are interacting with your customers on a daily basis, chances are you affected by procurement needs in some manner. MSP’s may remove themselves from the purchase process and push customers directly to Dell, CDW, Insight, etc (competition); or, you may act “like” a reseller or broker and obtain a profit. In all cases there are associated costs, and/or missed opportunities.

At the end of the day, we’re all trying to provide the best service possible to our clients, and run a profitable organization. Today, more than ever, companies need to focus on thier core offerings to achieve maximum efficiency and profit.

In a nutshell, we should focus on what we do best. PaaS allows MSP’s and technology advisors to do just that.