VARsynergy Seeks To Empower VARs Through Collaboration

In this exclusive Executive-To-Executive interview, Hunter Allen, the CEO of point of sale solution provider Cervion Systems, talks with Business Solutions President Jim Roddy. Allen, regarded as the pre-eminent Retail-as-a-Service VAR in North America, talks about two new channel organizations: MobileBytes and VARsynergy. Allen explains how these organizations and their unique partnership could impact VARs and ISVs, why five well-known solutions providers formed VARsynergy, and the importance of reseller collaboration especially with the emergence of recurring revenue.

"I started this transition into the recurring revenue model quite a few years ago – about 2007,” Allen says. “What I’ve come to understand over the last couple of years, particularly with some of the transactions and changes that have occurred in our industry, is that when you’ve built a reseller model around a recurring revenue type of product or deliverable … we’re taking a product or a service from a vendor and then offering that to our end user customers, and the basis of that model is that that’s going to be a long-term relationship. So that really places a significant amount of importance on the relationship that we have with our vendors."

Also in this podcast, Allen implores resellers interested in the retail, hospitality, and grocery verticals to join the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA). He says the networking opportunities offered by the RSPA helped spark the formation of VARsynergy.

Allen will speak at the Retail IT VAR Of The Future Conference, powered by Business Solutions, May 17-18 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center (next to O'Hare International Airport). The conference agenda will feature the four hottest topics in retail IT: payment security, POS-as-a-Service, customer experience, and mobile POS.

VARs, MSPs, and ISVs who register with the promo code PODCAST01 can take advantage of a complimentary registration offer. To register, visit www.retailitvarofthefuture.com/registration.