Channeling the right service partner
The data recovery market and what resellers need to know about this market – responses to CRN’s questions from Vicky Brauner, Managing Director, CBL Data Recovery
What is the best approach for resellers taking on data recovery for the first time?
First of all, let me say that data loss is pretty much inevitable. Regardless of whether it’s a stolen laptop containing vital emails, or the faulty backup that means data is gone when disaster strikes, chances are that data loss will affect most of your customers in their working lives.
Reselling a data recovery service gives you the opportunity to swoop in and save the day. It’s a brilliant way to cement loyalty – if you are sure the service you’re offering is truly the best in its class and will, in most cases, restore some or all of their data. So in my view, the best approach for resellers is to jump into the market with both feet, having first made sure that you’re working with a quality provider.
What types of data recovery organisations do resellers need to look out for?
There are a number of questions you can ask to work out a service provider’s capabilities – the first of which is to ask their success rate.
At CBL, we stake our life on our success rate, by offering a “no recovery – no charge” service which means we only get paid when we succeed in recovering data.
We’ve been operating this way since CBL’s Canadian parents opened 14 years ago, so it’s testament to our capabilities that CBL now supports two Australian facilities and has a presence in 10 of the world’s largest markets.
We recommend resellers also check on a provider’s expertise. For instance, I would always ask “do you work on my original drive?” and be prepared to back away quickly if the answer is “yes”.
Working on original drives is a huge mistake because, if things go wrong – and let’s not forget here that we’re piecing together bits and bytes – the damage is irreversible.
Additionally, many smaller data recovery companies may also only really be capable of dealing with PC hard drives, and very few providers have actual experience with complex enterprise storage devices such as RAID arrays.
Another issue that’s important to resellers is geographic reach. One of CBL’s resellers,
Scott Jones, General Manager of IT Leaders which provides IT products and services to over 500 clients in NSW and QLD, says having a local Australian supplier on board gives clients peace of mind that their hard drives are not being shipped overseas and also makes it easier for them to deliver their affected media within 24 hours.
A final differentiator between data recovery services providers is their commitment to customer service.
Resellers, of course, know that customer service is a life or death issue, and so we weren’t surprised when a company of the calibre of IT Leaders was hesitant to let us speak directly to customers in the early days of our relationship.
However, I’m happy to say that, having established CBL’s commitment to service, Scott is now happy to let us deal direct with his customers – keeping him in the loop - so as to save time during the recovery process.
What kind of rewards and incentives work well for resellers in today’s marketplace?
Different providers vary in their commissions back to resellers – CBL provides a flat 20 percent – while some providers lure resellers by focusing on rewards programs with significant cash and overseas holidays. The decision for resellers, of course, is weighing the reward or commission against the ease of dealing with the data recovery services provider as well as how likely their customer is to value the outcome of the project.
Most importantly, what types of resellers suit the data recovery market?
Data recovery is a service that fits naturally with any reseller operation involving hardware with storage media – from digital cameras through to 2TB Raid servers.
The most important thing to remember is that, when carried out by a quality provider, data recovery services can provide you an additional source of revenue and, if it helps you alleviate their pain when data gets lost, can cement their loyalty to you. If that’s the type of business offering you’d like, then data recovery is a service you just might be fond of.
About CBL Data Recovery Technologies Pty Ltd.
Since its establishment of operations in Australia in 2003, CBL Data Recovery Technologies Pty Ltd (CBL) has experienced a fast growing demand for its data recovery services and expertise. From coast-to-coast, individuals, corporations and Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depend on CBL to recover lost data as a result of hardware failure, natural disaster, software malfunction, virus contamination, or human error. Headquartered in Brisbane, CBL also has facilities in Sydney and can be found on the web at www.cbltech.com.au. Resellers interested in becoming a CBL partner can call 1800 287 225, email partners@cbltech.com.au, or register online at www.cblpartners.com.au.
