[Asterisk-Users] Sangoma VS. Digium

[Scott Stingel]

Peter Svensson wrote:

>Resellers are almost universally a useless money-sink. Most add no value 
>at all, they are simply another logistics point. Distributors, on the 
>other hand, are usually very knowlegable and are able to support their 
>customers (the resellers) quite well. 
>
>My advice: always *always* buy from as early in the channel as possible. 
>Prices are better and the support is _way_ better.
>
>Of course, if you are not familiar with the problem space for which you 
>are purchasing a solution then resellers can add a lot of value. 
>
>Peter
>
>
>  
>

Hi Peter-

In my experience, I've found that the biggest advantage to buying 
through a distributor is the availability of stock, in-house and 
available for rapid shipment.   Distributors typically handle dozens of 
lines and do not have the manpower to be technically up-to-date on all 
products.

I agree with you though about buying as "high up" in the channel as 
possible.  

For a small company like Digium, it makes perfect sense for them to 
provide the hardware support for their products directly, as they are 
the only ones who can do so practically until they are of a size to 
develop the huge amount of training materials, spare parts kits etc to 
allow distributors to provide any kind of support to the customers.   
Unfortunately, the volumes are probably not really there yet to justify 
this.

Digium needs to take a hard look at it's support and hardware 
documentation, as well as size of its engineering staff.  It seems to me 
that they are at a point of growth where a significant investment is 
required to allow growth to the next level.

Regards
Scott Stingel

www.evtmedia.com