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PCR interviews 3C Technology’s purchasing manager Simon Preston about growth areas, and rife competition from MSPs and VARs.
What products and services does 3C Technology offer?
Since 1991, 3C Technology Ltd has offered a comprehensive range of cloud, hybrid and on-premise services to the SMB market and public sector.
3C Technology provides integration tools hosted in the cloud – including Exchange, SharePoint and Hosted Desktop.
We are finding on-premise integration solutions are still dominant, particularly in the SMB market, but IaaS integration solutions have found strong adoption and are set for significant growth.
3C Technology’s sales teams include individuals with 20+ year careers in sourcing, procurement and IT for both leading hardware and software vendors. Our vendor partnerships and pre-sales knowledge help provide transparency to the market, and our significant bid pricing and discounts help businesses save considerable amounts of money on their hardware and software purchases.
What’s been your biggest growth area recently?
Data storage and secure online backup has been a growth area for us in the past 12 to 18 months. Our cloud server backup lets a customer decide what works best for their business – one size doesn’t fit all.
Some businesses want it automatically, some prefer it scheduled. Monthly, weekly, or daily – sometimes even throughout the day. Again, it’s not a case of one size fits all and 3C Technology can tailor services according to our customers’ needs.
What are the biggest issues you face with today’s market?
Competition from other MSPs and VARs is still rife, but 3C Technology has a proven record of customer satisfaction and retention due to our excellent pre-sales advice, customer service and technical support.
How important is social media to the business?
We use Facebook and Twitter as a means to increase website traffic. Social media is extremely useful to businesses as it provides instant feedback and helps us target our audience more effectively and find new customers.
What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
We will be helping more businesses move towards a secure, cost effective platform that encompasses on-premise, cloud or hybrid solutions. SMBs are keen to learn the business benefits they can expect from adopting the right solution, and we can help them evaluate the risks, challenges and considerations.
Internet connectivity is also set to grow over the next 12 months, as businesses look to find the most cost-effective way to access the internet and use the web to its full advantage – perhaps with data storage or VoIP services.
Fibre leased lines, EFM (Ethernet First Mile), FTTC, bonded DSL/ADSL/SDSL, 3G and 4G mobile broadband and M2M (machine to machine) offer different benefits depending on the customer’s needs and their location and usage.
What are the benefits of working with Synaxon?
Being a long time member of Synaxon has been of huge benefit to 3C Technology. The EGIS system has allowed us to streamline procurement procedures and the gradual increase in European distributor listings has helped us increase margin on sales.
