
- October 26, 2021
- By Dutch Deol
- AOM, MSP, TPM
Capabilities Statement – Reseller
Integrating an Alternative to OEM Maintenance (AOM) with Procurement and Asset Management
Creating the Complete Product Solution for the MSP – TPM Elevated!
Maintenance makes the margin in MSP product sales. The margin you make from maintenance contracts sold with new equipment is usually many times larger than the product margin itself, and it’s MRR! Monthly recurring revenue that just keeps paying you and paying you. That’s why you should be selling maintenance agreements enhancing and extending the original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM) warranty on every system you sell.
Also, hardware-attached services are easiest to sell along with the product procurement.
But quoting and proposing warranty enhancement and extension remains a long, painful process of look-up products to be covered and calculating a price. And making sure everything is covered in the maintenance agreement is usually done manually, which is often difficult and error-prone.
Fast-Forward
The next big margin sale awaiting you is the contract renewal for next year. By then the OEM warranty has expired so you need to raise your price to extend it for another year or more.
Depending on who the OEM is, you may find them competing with you for that renewal. Or they may offer to partner with you to sell their warranty extension, earning an often unimpressive margin for your effort.
If you’re like many MSPs, you may have eliminated hardware repair (break/fix) services from your offerings leaving you with only that OEM service offering to sell to your customer.
The Alternative You’ve Been Waiting For
We’ve been in the channel for over a quarter-century and have felt your pain.
Our solution is the Alternative to OEM Maintenance (AOM_
After a quarter-century in the IT channel, ZPI introduces a new approach that integrates every stage of the process to make including maintenance coverage easy. Don’t lose out to the OEMs who will pursue your customer’s maintenance business if you don’t. Don’t wait until the warranty runs out, or the customer needs services not covered by the warranty. The easiest way to sell maintenance is at the time of product purchase.
A Direct Connection
Having helped CDW create its Proline, and Ingram Micro its Netpatibles, ZPI has aligned with all the major distributors to draw a straight line between procurement and maintenance agreements.
When your customer procures equipment from you, your distributor forwards all the pertinent data about those products into the AOM system, including SKU, Model info, Serial Number, and more. MSP salespeople simply consult AOM to receive their maintenance quotation, including all new products added. No more product lookup, no more calculating fees, no more mistakes.
Existing products already in the customer’s installed base can easily be included by simply looking up their model number or SKU. Maintenance price is quoted instantly.
Asset Management at No Charge
AOM is an asset management system at heart. As soon as you start working with ZPI you have complete access to this functionality. Create asset management services for your customers to increase your revenue at no extra cost.
Avoid Losing Out to OEMs and TPMs
OEMs traditionally compete against you, servicing customer equipment themselves leaving you no opportunity. Third-party maintainers (TPM) will compete against you directly and often use resources that compete against you as well. With AOM you get there first, so you get the business, you get the revenue, you get increased margin, and you earn the customer’s satisfaction.
People Beyond the Portal
While the AOM portal presents all the powerful features, the people at ZPI stand ready to help in any way you need to make sure you get your maintenance price quotes quickly and win the business.
AOM Core Functionality
- IT Equipment Maintenance (Break/Fix)
- Automated Instant Maintenance Cost Quotations
- *Contract Management
- *Asset Management
- *Complete Service Ticketing System
- *Product Lifecycle Analytics
- *Remote Monitoring & Management
*Included free-of-charge!
Everything you need to extract every ounce of opportunity from every procurement project. Gartner estimates that there are currently over 10 million data center assets under TPM support. Now provide your customers with a better alternative that benefits YOU!
What Makes AOM Different & Better?
- You quote warranty enhancement and extension right with the purchase, when its easiest to sell!
- You don’t go hunting for model number, serial number, SKU, or anything else. That’s all provided direct from your distributor.
- You don’t calculate anything. The agreement prices are generated for you automatically
- You get free asset management capability
- You get free service ticketing plus monitoring and management capability
- You get free product lifecycle analytics to help you get in front of renewal and upgrade opportunities
- You get a complete, professional, experienced, expert team to back up your high-margin service sales
- You enjoy the benefit of a quarter-century of experience serving the IT channel
Corporate Data
Facilities and locations, company data, company information
Codes & Certifications