Deal registration is a cumbersome process, especially when you have to register that deal with multiple vendors. When you’re busy, you don’t have time to key in the same information, over and over again, into multiple portals, even if it means getting a rebate or additional margin.
That’s not to say people are lazy. We all have so many things on our plate these days, that if something is tedious, boring and lengthy, we’re likely to procrastinate – and it never gets done. Such is often the case with deal registration.
So Arrow had one of those light bulb moments, and came up with the idea of aggregating all those portals into a single portal, so resellers only have to fill out one form. Designed and hosted by Amazon Consulting, the SolutionRegistration portal will manage rebates and price lists from participating vendors. It’s such a simple idea. But will it work?
It may be a simple idea, but Arrow has done its research: It found that 80 per cent of information requested in a vendor’s deal registration program was the same across multiple vendors.
Resellers then have to key in the same information for each vendor, over and over again. And that means a lot of deals never get registered.
That’s not good for vendors, who miss out on valuable information, and it’s not good for resellers, who may be losing out on rebates and higher margins. Distribution is where these two converge, so it’s the ideal aggregation point for deal registration.
Arrow’s multi-vendor deal registration portal, called SolutionRegistration, will launch on July 6 with at least five vendors – so far, VMware, Fortinet, McAfee and Lakeside Software have confirmed their participation. Arrow has approached 10 vendors for the pilot, and plans to eventually include all of its vendors with deal registration in the program. The distie also plans to expand the program to its HP, IBM and Sun business units.
Getting the big guys – like HP and IBM – on board will add some weight to the program. But it would be as much a benefit to them as to their resellers. Arrow says suppliers will see deal registrations as they’re submitted, and resellers will receive an e-mail generated by the portal once the supplier approves the deal, resulting in an automated and streamlined deal registration process. For vendors, this could provide valuable insights into which products, from which vendors, are being paired together.
And for resellers, this will clearly save time (and frustration) and, most likely, a bit of money too. But for Arrow to get buy-in, resellers will have to feel secure using such a system, which is why the portal features customizable management rights for each group, to control who sees what information.
It’s simple, but also smart: If a reseller ties together deals with multiple vendors, the system will automatically compute the extra margin. Really, there’s only one thing I’m left wondering: Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?
