VARStreet Management: We’ll Do Even Better As Independent Company
When Autotask sold VARStreet back to VARStreet’s employees today, The VAR Guy reached out to VARStreet to learn how the company plans to march forward in 2012. Shiv Agarwal, VP of sales at VARStreet, says 2012 plans call for a new online store; stronger integrations with ERP systems; and a push into Canada. Here’s the update.
VARStreet is an e-commerce platform that allows VARs and MSPs to source IT products from multiple distributors and partners. Potential rivals include options like CNet’s Channel Online, Quosal (backed by ConnectWise) and QuoteWerks.
Now, VARStreet’s perspectives on today’s news and 2012 strategies…
The VAR Guy: Should VARs and MSPs expect any change in service levels/support hours now that VARStreet is independently owned?
VARStreet’s Agarwal: It will be even better than before as we will be only focused and dedicated on VARStreet now. We are retaining all the employees that we had (NO change at all) and also keeping all the systems and processes as is — so from that standpoint there will be no change. We have always provided prompt and responsive support which is validated by many of our long standing large customers who have continued to use us for a long time. So – This buy out provides us an ability to focus completely on what our core competency is and I am sure, customers will get benefited from that.
The VAR Guy: About how many employees does VARStreet have?
VARStreet’s Agarwal: Around 30. And our team has been stable over the past few years and it will remain stable going forward with all key people committed going forward.
The VAR Guy: What are VARStreet’s top priorities for 2012?
VARStreet’s Agarwal: Some of the top priorities are…
- Build a completely new store with all the modern day features built into it. We want to make this among the best available stores in the market which will provide our customers an ability to compete with big players like CDW, Tiger Direct, New egg etc. We already have done a lot of work in this direction and we should be able to get this out real soon.
- We also plan to develop our integrations and want to build out of the box integrations with third party systems like Microsoft Great Plains, NetSuite, Navision, Sage etc. We already have a very tight integration with Autotask and Salesforce and we want to strengthen that even more so that we can provide more value to our mutual customers
- We also plan to Launch VARStreet into Canada in a big way. Again, we have already done a lot of work in this area and we should be move this quickly too.
The VAR Guy: Are VARStreet’s primary owners the executive management team or outside investors?
VARStreet’s Agarwal: The primary Employee owners are the executive management team.
The VAR Guy: I believe VARStreet was mostly used by larger VARs before the Autotask purchase. But during Autotask’s ownership, I believe more small VARs/MSPs discovered VARStreet. Going forward, will you focus on large VARs or small VARs or both?
VARStreet’s Agarwal: It will be a mix of large, medium and small VARs. We are also looking at the MSP, system integrators and solution providers.
