GFI passing me off to a VAR?

[BrianB]

Maybe someone who has dealt with GFI can help me out, as I'm a bit confused here.

On their website, there's a video on GFI Max that describes a Resources tab on the Dashboard that sounds like it has good marketing collateral and other paperwork:


http://www.gfi.com/pages/GFIMAXRM-BuildingBlockstoManagedServices.asp

Go to 10:34 in the video. The guy on the left says:

"Everything you need to get going, including sample fliers, sample letters, web site text, phone scripts, SLAs, statements of work, cost calculators, pricing calculators, proposal templates, implementation guides, and probably a few more things."

A sales rep also told me about the resources packet. The video says sign up for a trial to get it, the sales rep said you had to be a paying customer to get it. The problem of course, is that this is a packet that seems designed to help get a customer, so if I'm trying to land that support contract, I'll want a look-see at the info before I have stuff to monitor.

So, I signed up for the trial. Turns out the sales guy and not the video guy was right: No Resources section on the Dashboard, so I must have to do something else to get access to it.

I called GFI's sales line and asked them what I'd need to do to get to the info. The guy told me that I didn't have to be a paying customer, just had to be set up as a customer, which involved filling out a form and faxing or emailing it back to GFI. Cool.

THEN he told me he was going to set me up with Roy. Roy (Miehe) is apparently a VAR for GFI. So, I ask Roy about this packet of info. He helps me navigate around setting up remote control on my test machine. He chats me up a while, and seems like a nice enough guy, and fairly experienced in his specialties.

Roy says he'll send some more info. He tells me that he charges $x per workstation and $xx per server. That's a big markup from dealing directly with GFI, but he assures me that GFI is adding Landesk functionality, and that's going to add xx per workstation, but he won't be raising his price, so he's just accounted for that change in advance. Ok, sounds logical. Fishy, but logical enough.

I ask Roy if he has any info on other GFI products (he's their VAR, right???), but he says they're basically crap and talks up his security products for a while. I research his solutions (www.aaantivirus.com, his other company lists them), which include a network appliance firewall, a spam filtering SaaS, and an antivirus for the client. None of them see to have any market share or be particularly good. Norman Defense turns up a two star review, he's one of TWO resellers for Red Condor, and a "failed" review which paints it as mediocre at best, and Watchguard Firewalls seem to get OKish reviews, but aren't priced much under CISCO products that are better known (customers recognize the name), and better supported.

So, I get some pricing info on Roy's triple threat solution above, still nothing to sign and return to GFI.

I write Roy back and ask him for the marketing collateral and other info to unlock this resource tab and he says I have to be a paying customer to get it basically (which is contrary to what I was told by the sales rep who passed me off to Roy), but he'll download some stuff to send me.

Well, I get the "stuff" that Roy promised. It's nothing more than his poorly-written marketing e-mail series in text files and some PDFs on GFI Max that duplicates basic info already on the website.

At this point it's clear that Roy has no clue about marketing or selling GFI products in general, doesn't know what I'm talking about with the now mythical seeming Resources tab, and is not adding anything for his mark up. I'm seriously not seeing the value add here.

I already blasted him back an e-mail asking wtf is going on, and clarifying what info I'm trying to get out of the company. I have a limited time frame to get this crap and put together a pitch to my potential client.

Has anyone dealt with this crap from GFI before? I like the product so far, but this whole passing me off to a VAR who claims a close relationship to the company but can't get me to a basic information packet promised in GFI's own marketing videos screams "SCAM" to me. I'm getting a used car salesman vibe now from the whole thing.

EDIT: I removed pricing information because I (belatedly) realized this is in the public-readable section of the forum. Not the place for such info, surprised someone didn't call me out on that. Sorry.

 

[Graystar]

Afraid I can't assist with the real issue. Just think about this.
If this is the service they provide as they are trying to "get" your money, imagine what service you will see once they "have" your money.

May caution be around you grasshopper

 

[CarrobesIT]

Brian,

I'm curious as to what's going on here as my experience of GFI has been completely different. Also, I really don't know how this particular VAR can state that the LanGuard integration is going to cost 0.70 per workstation as this pricing (to the best of my knowledge) hasn't been set yet, let alone released.

If you PM me your e-mail address though, I will send you the resources you are looking at.

Regards,

RobC.

 

[BrianB]

Just talked to a different sales rep at GFI.

Rob's right: The pricing isn't set yet for the LanGuard integration.

Also turns out, the cost for the Teamviewer integration (which works really well, btw) is WAAAAY lower than good ol' Roy is leading me to believe.

Roy's company is apparently a distributor. According to the rep I talked to, I shouldn't be dealing with a distributor, and he's mystified why this happened.

 

[BrianB]

I figured I'd post a follow up, since this thread is still hanging out there and I've got a little more info to add to it.

When I sorted things out with GFI, I requested and was given a new account manager, Jeff. Jeff got me set up with the original information I requested, has looked into a couple of other things for me, and has hosted what I thought was a helpful conference call with one of their tech guys.

I've had some decent hands on time with GFI Max, primarily testing the WS client and the Teamviewer integration, and the product seems like a really good fit and price point for my uses. As I stated elsewhere, I'm really impressed with Teamviewer as far as speed and features go. I'm not sure how the normal deployment works, but the GFI Max integration seems smooth and hassle free. Hopefully, I'll get a client set up with it soon and will be able to see it in a live environment. I'll report on that when/if it happens.

As far as Roy goes, I've had another chat with him. Well, Roy's Roy. He's the owner/CEO of AAAntivirus.com, which he says does a lot of volume. He stands behind his three product approach. I remain unimpressed with two of those products due to my own research (which goes beyond Google, and more into checking with high level people in very large enterprise IT shops), and I can't say I'd feel comfortable with them. Roy does seem to stand strongly by his approach, though, so I'll give those a second look, though I think based on what I found, both companies need to make a bit of effort on promotion.

As to his pricing discussion, Roy says that his costs are indeed $1.70, but that this is because he provides a bit more functionality and a good deal of scripting support. He says he adds good value to help techs get over the learning curve faster. Of course, I shouldn't have been in the position of getting into a discussion of his costs. GFI dropped the ball on that one by discussing how our direct relationship would work, then having one of their guys pass me off to a VAR. So, while it may have sounded fishy at first, I can't say anything unusual is really going on. If Roy adds value, then he's entitled to charge for it.

So, overall, GFI looks decent. Roy seems to be who he says he is, and there doesn't seem to be anything scammy going on here. Just want to clear that up.

Did GFI screw up a bit? Yeah, or at least one of their guys did. The company had no problem with me dealing with someone of my preference, though, so they made good on that.

Here's the thing: I called IronPort about one of their products and asked about becoming a reseller and how it worked. They told me straight up that since I was new in dealing with them, they were going to have me deal with a gold level reseller they knew for the first few deals, until they felt comfortable that I could sell and support/install the products. They then passed me to one of their VARs, a company not unlike Roy's. Basically, the arrangement allows me to resell their products at a better price than I could offer as a small volume reseller, the VAR provides service and support for the sale and install, and I close the sale. Me and the VAR split the profit. It's not a bad arrangement, and is very fair.

The problem with the GFI issue is that they told me at first that I would be dealing with GFI directly, and when I called back requesting information on their other products and access to the area of their dashboard with the marketing materials, Joe sent me to Roy with very little explanation. The sudden shift away from my expectations is what caused the problem. I was pretty clear with Joe on what I wanted, and he was possibly having a bad day. For whatever reason, my expectations were violated.

The lesson here is that when you deal with a customer, you need to be crystal clear with setting expectations of your relationship, and you need to be careful about violating those expectations.

Anyway, the whole thing seems to be a minor glitch overall. Heck, Roy may be selling something I want to buy down the road, so it may have actually resulted in a useful business contact, who knows?