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Avanciel Data Products… Success Built on Service By offering attractive value-added computing services, Avanciel Data Products has built an impressive client list consisting of corporations, governments and institutions. This philosophy obviously has wide appeal: Avanciel now counts among its customers many of Canada's leading companies in industries such as aerospace, health care and natural resources, as well as Canadian Federal Government agencies in Quebec and Ontario. At its inception in 1987, the company decided to concentrate exclusively on providing software to its large customers, and to deliver the extra services these buyers needed. Now, as trends and markets evolve, Avanciel is reacting to customer demand by developing new niches to suit specific requirements. MAKING SERVICE A SPECIALTY "The way we tried to differentiate ourselves was to specialize in software initially, but also to provide all aspects of service our customers wanted," says Daniel Carpini, co-founder of Avanciel. "And that meant offering a lot of pre-sale and post-sale assistance. That's always been our hallmark, doing a lot of the little things that translate into top-notch service for our customers." Some of the service areas in which Avanciel specializes include pre-purchase decision-making aids like product evaluations, demonstrations, reviews and technical specifications, as well as post-sale support and assistance in arranging site licenses and obtaining updated drivers. Avanciel is also active in providing software upgrades, and in sourcing difficult-to-find products that are normally only available directly from U.S. sources. The latter helps customers avoid dealing with the extra hassles of importing and customs. In fact, before software upgrades had become commonplace business, Avanciel was one of the first dealers to get involved with product and competitive upgrades. The company became the first WordPerfect upgrade dealer in Canada, and is currently a leading dealer for virtually all of the major software publishers, including Borland, Lotus, Microsoft, Software Publishing, Symantec, and WordPerfect. For large corporations, Avanciel also assists with company-wide software deployment and upgrades, and has the capability to ship new or updated software to all of a company's branch locations, whether across the country or around the world. COMPETITIVE PRICING COUNTS While Avanciel has always followed the value-added model of retailing, the company is acutely aware that while their customers appreciate the extras, competitive pricing is still key. As a result, everyday prices range 25% to 50% below suggested retail prices. Moreover, volume discounts and periodic specials can mean even bigger savings for Avanciel customers. "We saw from the beginning that we would have to offer prices competitive with the clubs and warehouses, yet still give that extra level of service that institutional buyers want," says Carpini. "And we have grown to the point where we can provide the best pricing and yet still offer a full suite of extra services." After achieving success as a reseller of software to the corporate and government sectors, Avanciel began looking at extending its product line and widening its target clientele. This decision led the company to offer its value-added software retailing services to individual purchasers, and to add certain hardware peripherals to its range of specialty products. NEW BUSINESS IS CLIENT-DRIVEN "Like companies, most individual buyers out there want extra value for their money," says Carpini, "so we are now offering them a lot of the same things we provide to our corporate customers. Consumers like the prices at the warehouse outlets, but would also like to get a little bit of service, instead of the 'It's on the shelf in aisle 5' approach." "It's important for them to deal with people who know what they are talking about, or who at least consider it part of their job to make several phone calls to get the correct answer for them." Avanciel is closely attuned to requests for the new and different from its customers. When they started asking for the same competitive pricing and service on hardware and peripherals that they were getting on software, Avanciel was quick to respond. "We started very selectively to get into some hardware lines and it has been a big success for us," says Carpini. "We also plan to offer a competitively-priced multimedia-ready compatible PC very shortly." Avanciel was recently granted authorization to resell Hewlett-Packard products, and is a LANtastic 5-star Authorized Dealer, which helps the company meet the growing interest in networking from small and mid-size companies. They have also added other specialty hardware items such as CD-ROM drives and multimedia kits. The growing demand for more storage space to house all these extras has also launched the company into reselling high quality hard drives from major manufacturers such as Western Digital. Rapid growth has forced Avanciel to move twice since its founding in 1987, but it has stayed in industrial areas where rents are relatively low in order to keep costs down. By basing its operations in suburban Ville St. Laurent, Avanciel has been able to keep overhead low and volume high. Having strong relationships with its software suppliers also means the company can provide just-in-time delivery, which reduces the need to maintain a huge inventory, and keeps turnaround time down to overnight on in-stock items. Avanciel even offers same-day delivery within the Montreal metropolitan area. POISED FOR SOLID GROWTH "We stick to what we know, which is providing high quality and great service," says Carpini. "When adding new product lines, we are careful to do so only in areas that make sense both for us and for our clients. We have grown quite a bit by adhering to this philosophy, but we do not want to be the biggest dealer in town. We only want to be the best." RETURN TO WRITEANGLE.NET HOME PAGE This page and all its contents are copyright © 2002 by Daniel Carpini and may not be reproduced in any form for any reason. |
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