IT Assessments: Nothing for Free

There was a time when technology integrator See-Comm Solutions offered free IT assessments to new customers. But that was at least four years ago, and a lot has changed since then.

The company’s strategy now is to offer assessments of customer computing environments as a service that contributes to the solution provider’s revenue stream, said See-Comm Chief Operating Officer Greg Starr. In the past, high-level management assessments were more of a sales pitch than anything else.

“My mind-set around assessments has changed over the past several years. If you want to be taken seriously by the customer, you can’t give away your time for free,” said Starr, whose 12-year-old company is based in New Boston, Texas, and has a second location in Houston.

Does product still matter?

See-Comm’s main customer focus is the education market and small and midsize businesses in the financial sector. The $8 million solution provider specializes in networking and IP telephony.

See-Comm is one of an increasing number of channel companies using assessments as part of their customer engagement strategies. Not only are solution providers charging for assessments, but, in addition, more of them have started offering assessments to customers because the initial engagements evolve into long-term relationships. Fueling the trend is a proliferation of assessment tools that allow providers to evaluate multivendor platforms, something that wasn’t possible in the past because tools tended to be single--vendor-focused.

With increased IT complexity, cost-conscious spending and compliance requirements bearing down on businesses of all sizes, including SMBs that in the past had no real need for assessing their computing environments, solution providers say more customers have come to recognize the value of IT assessments and are willing to pay for them. And while some companies do the initial assessment at no charge to get their foot in the door, the trend is to bill the customer.

As Starr sees it, payment for services rendered not only promotes respect for the solution provider but also signals buy-in from the customer. “If you don’t charge for assessments, customers don’t take it as seriously, and if they don’t pay for something, they’re not as tied to what you’re doing,” he said.

Acuity Solutions, a $12 million solution provider in Tampa, Fla., that specializes in security and networking, also charges for assessments but still offers an initial giveaway assessment. “These [initial offerings] are high-level assessments, using automated tests to find obvious weaknesses that are triggers for remediation,” said Dave Gilden, a partner at Acuity.

Acuity bills the customer for a second type of assessment that Gilden said is more holistic. “The assessments we charge for take a broader, detailed and in-depth look at the IT infrastructure and organization,” he said. So, for example, a security assessment looks at both solutions and policy, business requirements, and compliance requirements. “There’s definitely more value in the holistic assessment,” Gilden said.

These assessments, said Gilden, map technology to business drivers. “They’re more time-consuming to do; the tools required are more expensive; and the professionals who do the assessments are more knowledgeable, higher-level people,” he said.