Sell Software Solutions With Immediate ROI

For years, most companies had a very simple storage management plan. When they needed more storage, they bought more hardware. That philosophy made many hardware resellers very happy. But there is nothing like a recession to compel companies to rethink their spending habits. So, in times like these, what's a storage VAR to do? Sell software, of course.

Selling storage management software can be one of the easiest sales for a VAR to make, especially because you can bring the customer an immediate return on their investment. That's exactly what Brian Lovett, director of sales and marketing for Innovative Information Solutions (Woodbury, CT), did recently for a large manufacturing customer.

Growing Demand And Disparate Systems
"Through discussions with the company, we found it had a handful of storage challenges it was facing inside the data center," said Lovett. "IT administrators had been adding storage hardware for six or seven years and did not believe they were managing that storage effectively." The client had network storage from enterprise manufacturers Compaq and EMC, as well as some direct attached storage. The client appeared to be running out of storage capacity once again, but rather than buy more hardware, decided to make better use of the resources it already had. It also wanted to be better able to forecast and track storage growth, which had been a challenge in the past.

Compounding the problem was the fact that the company had recently undergone some layoffs and had a shortage of IT staff. "They wanted to free up some of their current disk space, but they also needed a way to manage more stored data with less staff," said Lovett. "As long as disk was cheap, it was easier for companies to just throw more disk at the problem. Our philosophy is that rather than continue to add disk, look at the way they are utilizing existing disk resources."

Start With A Storage Assessment
Innovative performed a storage assessment using StorCast software from Astrum Software. The software is installed on each server in the storage environment. It determines how many files exist, how many files have not been touched in more than a year, how many files are duplicate files (e.g. a copy exists in e-mail, on servers, and/or on local drives), and how many files are non-business related (pictures, movie clips, etc.).

The assessment and subsequent solution provided immediate investment return for this customer. "We allowed them to gain control of their storage usage and consumption patterns," said Lovett. "The company can now generate periodic reports that allow them to monitor their storage resources. The software also automates the formerly manual task of tracking usage."

This particular customer was managing around four terabytes of data. As a result of Innovative's analysis, many files were deleted and others were moved to offline storage. The end result is the customer was able to reclaim 30% of its existing disk space. "When we went in, they thought they needed more storage," said Lovett. "By deleting or moving all of the stale, duplicate, and non-business related files, we were able to reclaim almost a terabyte of disk space. They did not have to make that storage purchase, and that is an immediate return on investment."

Lovett noted that Innovative does not have trouble landing this type of installation. "Our business practice is centered around driving cost out of the data center," he said. "That is something every end user is attempting to do. We simply show customers how they can save money by more effectively managing the infrastructure they already have."

Competition Comes From Within The Client
When selling this software solution, Lovett stated the stiffest hurdle he has to overcome is typically objections from the client's own IT staff. The IT staff will often say they can write scripts and programs that do the same thing. But Lovett contends that by the time they compile the information and format it into usable reports, the information would be too old. "It would take them six to eight months to pull and compile all of the data," he said. "Companies need that information within hours so they can make effective business decisions based on it."

If a VAR has trouble convincing the internal IT staff of the software's benefits, Lovett suggests a slightly different sales pitch. "IT administrators are the ones who have to justify new storage purchases to management," he said. "In the past, when asked if the purchase was necessary, all they could do was make their best guess. Now they have a tool that will show whether all available storage is utilized. The software makes justifying those purchases that much easier for the IT administrator."

With all of the professional services wrapped around the software, the total cost to the customer came to just under $60,000. The time invested by Lovett included a half-day planning session and the time required to actually load the software. But the biggest investment for Innovative was the time Lovett and his staff spent combing through the reports, preparing a plan for the customer, and implementing the recommendations. The back end planning and implementation accounted for the major portion of the customer's cost. Those services will bring VARs additional revenue in addition to any margin made on the sale of the software, which should continue to make them very happy.