Vendor Response To Global Disasters
By Angel R. Rojas, Jr., DataCorps Technology Solutions, Inc.
As I write this, we are now several months into the Global Disaster we know as COVID-19. By now, I’m sure you’re tired of hearing about it, as am I, but I wanted to take a moment to pause and look in retrospect at some vendor response and support that we, the MSPs, have received.
This unprecedented event hit us all simultaneously. I had the opportunity to share on various podcasts and events around the subject of being prepared for client fires (and even our own), but I don’t think any of us have prepared for everything to be on fire at the same time!
Early on into the pandemic, we were getting double to triple the helpdesk requests to assist our clients in transitioning to work from home. This was a worst-case scenario security-wise because there just weren’t enough computers, man-hours, and licenses to protect everything as quickly as we needed to. We found ourselves facing red tape, procurement issues from vendors, and cost increases that would need to be temporary, but some vendors simply had no policy for temporary ramp-ups and required everything to be permanent.
This type of response prompted me and others to turn to social media to vent our frustrations, shielding our clients from the fight we had going on behind the scenes to keep the security and process baselines we’ve fought so hard to establish and maintain. The frustration was directed at vendors who expected us, in the middle of massive uncertainty, to increase our costs without a guarantee (and in most cases, the ability) and to pass the increase along to clients. This wasn’t a time to increase billings, it was a time to be united, collaborative, and helpful.
We got through it, many peers did, too. And many vendors stepped up – free licenses for 60 days seemed to be a norm. This was a welcome tactic since it gave us plenty of run time to figure out what was next. In a crisis, sometimes all we can do is the next right thing while we stabilized. Others, however, didn’t stack up.
Some areas where they missed the mark:
- The help was needed immediately. Many of us didn’t receive government assistance until much later. Also, many of our clients and peers were having (and still are) trouble accessing government assistance. This was not the time to attempt to increase our clients’ spend.
- To be crystal clear, we weren’t looking to cut our costs, increase our margins, or get better terms – we were looking for ways to help our clients without increasing their spend.
- The size of the companies we (DataCorps, my company) needed help from and the nature of the products we needed more of made it a perfect opportunity to show goodwill and good partnership – essentially, being a good neighbor. I was, however, highly encouraged to see a lot of the smaller vendors band together and put fantastic packages together.
- All of us demanding some free help are the unsung heroes who go to bat every day for small businesses and who stand in the gap between industry giants and end-users. No doubt, we will face a global crisis again. It is my hope we band together and truly be “all hands on deck” as an industry the next time this happens. Times like these are an opportunity for all to shine and exude the unity I know we are all capable of!
About The Author
Angel R. Rojas, Jr. is President & CEO of DataCorps Technology Solutions, Inc.