Cisco has just published a report that has surveyed 400 UK small businesss and found:
- ..the majority of small businesses (42%) feel left in the lurch after purchasing technology, due to insufficient post-sales support or training
- …41% of the respondents felt that enterprise scale technology was imposed on them, as opposed to products tailored to their size.
I think both of the above can be caused by the standard VAR (value added reseller) model, whereby the emphasis (and majority of the income and therefore profit) is centred on the initial sale with less attention given to the post sales period which is traditionally less profitable.
The Software as a Service (SaaS) model should help to rectify this by having an income model which is interested in the long term for ongoing revenues (and less based on the initial income) which should ensure a better post sale and support experience.
