IT Assessments: Nothing for Free

Tools for the job

Having the right assessment tools for the job is critical for channel partners. Acuity’s Gilden said it took a long time for his company to develop a repeatable methodology and tool set for assessments.

“We use a combination of vendor-specific tools—from companies such as eEye [Digital Security] and ISS [Internet Security Systems], for example—in addition to custom-coded reporting and collaborative tools,” Gilden said.

Assessment tools, he added, are dynamic and therefore keep changing. “We want to use multiple tools to get enough depth into the network and environment,” Gilden said.

Today, assessments generate about 7 percent of Acuity’s overall revenue, according to Gilden. Low-level, small assessments can cost as little as $3,000 to $5,000, while, at the other end of the spectrum, the company reports having customers that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for security assessments. “On average, companies are paying $50,000 to $75,000 for assessments that can take up to a couple of months to complete,” Gilden said.

At See-Comm, network engineers use a variety of tools for assessments, such as network instruments from Cisco; Network General’s Sniffer, for determining a company’s bandwidth usage; and Fluke Networks’ OptiView Integrated Network Analyzer. Final deliverables are compiled using Microsoft products such as PowerPoint, Excel, Word and Visio.

In September, 10-year-old Dallas-based Tek-Tools signed a distribution agreement with Bell Microproducts, of San Jose, Calif. Under the agreement, Bell Micro will provide its solution providers with a turnkey storage assessment solution based on Tek-Tool’s StorageProfiler.

“Until recently, VARs were only offering customers vendor-specific assessments-—such as EMC or HDS [Hitachi Data Systems], for example—that had to be rolled into a solution bundle,” said Gary Gammon, vice president of marketing for enterprise products at Bell Micro. “But resellers were asking for a storage assessment tool that wasn’t tied to a particular vendor,” Gammon said.

While Tek-Tools has been shipping its Profiler products and reports to 500 customers worldwide since 2001, Nick Hoggan, strategic account executive with Tek-Tools, said the company was looking for a way to create a revenue stream doing assessments, which eventually led to the partnership with Bell Micro.

“In addition to enterprise customers, a lot of manufacturers use our Profiler product for assessments they provide to their big clients, for which they charge a lot of money,” Hoggan said. “We began to ask ourselves, What’s to stop us from doing it?”

Bell Micro’s VARs had the knowledge, expertise and customer base Tek-Tools was looking for.

“Now, if you’re a VAR, you can sell a storage or backup assessment without having all the infrastructure in place,” Hoggan said. “We perform the installation, pull the data, and prepare the report and the assessment.” The VAR can also sell the software to the customer.

Tek-Tools installs the software at the customer site, where it runs for 30 days. The vendor then runs reports for the customer based on the data collected during that time. “The reseller can devise a tactical plan for the customer that’s in line with the portfolio they’re selling,” Hoggan said.

The software then runs for another 60 days at the customer site, giving the customer access to additional reports. After 90 days, the software is uninstalled, and the customer can purchase it at a 50 percent discount.

Tek-Tools assessments range from less than $10,000 to $50,000 or $60,000, depending on the size of the company. The solution provider’s margin on assessments is about 30 percent, according to Tek-Tools. “Once a reseller does several assessments, they can get trained and certified on Profiler and earn 600 to 700 percent margins,” said Hoggan.