Do You Sell Glue Or Do You Sell Solutions?

Just as in every other area touched by the Internet, the forms processing industry is in the midst of a significant market change. It is moving from a mature phase, where every product is pretty much the same, into a new era, where product innovation and leadership are critical. If you are an integrator or VAR selling forms processing solutions today, you have felt the impact of this change, with varying degrees of success.

Why are some in our community so much more successful than others? Because in a time of market shift and change, choosing the right products to sell becomes the most important part of your business strategy. True, VARs add value through the quality of training, brand awareness, lead generation, and support. However, these become secondary if the vendor products are not in sync with the changing needs of the customer. In this environment, the products hold the key to allowing your organization to meet the expanded customer expectations and, as a result, share in the growing number of opportunities.

Customers Are Smarter Than Ever
Customers know what they want, and they recognize that the Internet offers ways to expand the notion of forms processing from the traditional model of "scan-recognize-process" to one of "capture-process-reply." Customers want to leverage XML (extensible markup language), PDF (portable document format), e-mail, and the Web to automate a greater portion of business transaction processes. Customers know a lot about plug-ins and standards, including which is better and why. These savvy customers can put a lot of pressure on a reseller organization that is handcuffed by a product that has not kept pace with the technological market shift from "forms processing" to "e-transactions."

Time is the most important commodity for a VAR organization. In the shift from forms processing to e-transactions, the products VARs use also determine how time will be used to deliver "value-add." A VAR selecting a product that has not kept pace with innovation - or worse, has innovated in ways that create customer resistance - will spend time "selling glue." To meet the customer requirement, the VAR glues additional technology onto the product, attempting to add innovation where it is missing. The resulting work of the VAR may or may not meet customer requirements and will be difficult to support. There is no doubt that the time taken in making glue is time taken away from building the business.

Expand Your Definition Of Forms Processing
In contrast, products that have led the shift to e-transactions enable VARs to "sell solutions." These products leverage a set of components that work alone or in combination to meet a wide range of application requirements. They can support paper forms processing today, document capture tomorrow, an e-mail survey application the next day, and enrollment forms with automated membership card delivery next week. Implementations are faster because innovation is "built-in," and the VAR is leveraging the knowledge base of a single platform into varying customer engagements. By deploying products that do more "out-of-the-box" and offer well-defined connectivity between components, VARs spend less time writing glue and more time selling solutions.

There are many variables in selecting which vendor products to offer. Some in the vendor community are quick to make emotional claims against "the other company" in order to win you over, even if it means that you'll end up selling glue. With others, the focus is about delivering innovative products that can be used by VARs to solve real business problems in ways that meet customer expectations - on time and within budget. In a time of change and innovation it's the products that determine if you sell glue or if you sell solutions.