Technology as a Service - First Close

Well, I closed my first Technology as a Service deal with a client last week. We were able to sell the client on 20 laptops and 2 desktops, with a three rotation for replacement. The nice thing for Syand is that we will be able to garner Recurring Revenues for an extended period of time and have basically locked ourselves into a long term relationship with the client.

In fact, Syand has really made large in-roads at working with clients to attain long term, relationshp based, recurring revenue streams. This client, for example, is using us for the following items:
* Managed Services
* Anti-Spam services through MX Logic
* Back Up through Zenith Infotech
* Technology as a Service

Bric and I have focused almost exclusively on this in 2008. We are trying to get out of the Project and Equipment based IT Services. Part of this is because of the 2008 economy and part of it is because of my desire to create a longer lasting revenue streams for the business. We have done poorly this year in the Project and Equipment part of the business, though. We are down about 25% in Projects and almost 50% in equipment sales. I think this is because we have worked so much at the Recurring part of the business, which is up almost 125% over last year.

This deal also was my first heavy exposure with Lenovo. I have had difficulty with selling Lenovo because of two major reasons: we have trained our customers in buying Dell and also the lack of name recognition. We are trying to change this now. Lenovo is a superior product, in my opinion, and also offers more flexibility for Syand.

I wanted to thank Steve Riat for all the great advice and help with figuring out this deal. He has been an incredible asset to me and Syand.