By Tom S. Noda
Computerworld Philippines
June 1, 2008

Reliable, relentless, and proactive. These are just some of the qualities behind the success of VSSC Distribution Inc., a fast-growing enterprise security solutions provider in the Philippines.

For Jun Santos, president of VSSC, the company’s post-sales support serves as the marketing strategy that carried VSSC since its incorporation two years ago, earning the commitment and trust of their channel partners.

“The best differentiation we’ve ever innovated in this company is that when a customer buys our product, we make sure that they are implementing it, using it, and are happy with it,” Santos tells Computerworld Philippines.

Established in 2006 as a distribution unit of Valueline Systems and Solutions Corp. (Valueline), also headed by Santos, VSSC initially handled only two security products but now has five in its portfolio.

Valueline, however, is an end user company that Santos himself started in year 2000. It is a systems integrator firm that has been integrating a lot of IBM and Oracle servers in addition to providing services. Today, Valueline and VSSC have their respective operations head, own employees, and technical support teams. Although having different business models, VSSC helps promote Valueline among the user community.

VSSC currently serves banks and financial institutions, utility companies, telecommunication firms, and some government owned corporations and agencies in the area of information and network security management.

Among the security solutions that VSSC now exclusively carries are: Lumension Security for vulnerability management; ESET’s Unified Threat Management including NOD32 as anti-virus systems; Arkeia Data Protection Appliance and Software for backup and disaster recovery; NetFox Blue for unified threat management system; and the ForeScout network access control with built-in intrusion prevention, firewall, and vulnerability standard.

God Given
Santos describes VSSC’s birth, six years after Valueline’s establishment, as “God given” as it serves as a trusted business partner for the latter.

“When God gave us the opportunity to put up VSSC, it was a promotion and I thank God for it,” Santos says, adding the spin-off of Valueline’s distribution unit into the newly incorporated VSSC was a strategic move to consolidate and strengthen Valueline’s business as it positions itself for future challenges.

Santos recalls when Valueline incubated VSSC at its office in Quezon City in 2006, it naturally developed on its own—achieving independence in just a year later.

“In 2007, we started to incorporate the VSSC Distribution; then we told our operations head to move out and look for an office in Makati to show to our clients that VSSC is different from Valueline and that we are doing the right thing,” he says.

VSSC started with two products—the ESET NOD32 anti virus software and Patchlink Vulnerability solution. And, as the company progressed, it was referred by a principal to other companies. Santos says they made sure that all products they carry complement each other, and the tactic did the company well.

“We are expanding both the companies right now; and I am happy because this is what the country needs now—entrepreneurs who would help in providing jobs,” Santos says.

Both Valueline and VSSC have a total of about 42 employees and they share the same number of manpower when it comes to products being marketed up to the support side.

“We have a product manager, pre-sales engineer, and post-sales engineer,” Santos says. “They all have different functions. The pre-sales engineer always goes with the product manager, while the post-sales always make sure with the sales support team that once a product is bought, they must ensure that it is up and running and the customers are happy.”

Amplifying Commitment
Santos explains that more than just selling, VSSC works to strengthen its commitment among its clients. “We always put ourselves in the customers’ shoes—that if we were them, we should be using the products and are happy with it. Otherwise, the money is wasted.”

He says VSSC’s sales support team extends the firm’s commitment to users by reaching out to them even if the products had passed through channels. They ask permission from channels to call end users just to verify if they were able to implement the products fully.

“We want to show them (end users) that the distributor is behind them, and we are really committed to support them, not because they buy our product but because we know our support is reliable and it is a major issue,” Santos claims.

Being spiritual in his stance, Santos says the mission of the company is to give glory to God and to the right stock holders, customers, employees, and society. He believes in good returns in all areas of life through quality products and excellent services. Yet they also envision VSSC to be the distributor of choice, not only by partners but also by end users.

He shares VSSC somehow served as a rescue to Valueline because of the latter’s difficulties in surviving the IT industry market during its early years, recalling several people from the industry commented that the company had no more hope.

“They were all wrong. When VSSC distribution came out, they started asking us, ‘how did you do it?’ I said, ‘no, I didn’t do anything. God did everything!’ We just focused on what we were assigned to and our responsibilities and we moved on and on,” Santos says.

Growing Company
Santos says VSSC’s greatest achievement, so far, is the company’s continuous growth in the past years, which he attributes to certified and loyal engineers capable of providing the support needed.

Although he declines to provide growth figures, Santos says that, since VSSC began launching its products in 2006, the company made its numbers every first quarter. “What we did in 2006 we did in 2007 in Q1, and what we did in 2007, we did in Q1 in 2008 which means we are growing.”

The VSSC president even cites the company’s achievement within the region—that it is now in the radar of its principals. “It means we’re making our numbers and we’re doing the numbers very well, from five of our products and five principals.”

With banks, utilities and schools as most of its customers, Santos says they are trying to reach out to government through VSSC’s partners and are seeing some “good lights” from their efforts.

“But basically on the private sector we are okay, including SMEs (small and medium-size enterprises),” he notes.

Aiming Big Time
Santos believes that with VSSC’s team of competent, dedicated, young professionals, the company could make its presence felt more within the industry and attain the goal of being the No. 1 security solutions provider, not just in the Philippines but in the global market.

He hopes VSSC will keep on growing and become very strong in the local market to eventually achieve its goal of becoming a Filipino-multinational firm, having offices throughout the Asean Region. To achieve this, they are monitoring latest developments in technology.

Backed by certified engineers, VSSC set up its own laboratory toward the end of last year. With the facility, all technical trainings will be done in the Philippines with constant guidance from principals.

“Singaporeans are the ones coming here. It used to be the other way around,” he says. “That’s our goal and we are already doing that. The beauty is I know how they work. We all have the equipment. When they conduct training outside, they even look for equipment and where they will conduct the training. Our office is complete.”

Santos says VSSC will keep on innovating every year and look for technologies that makes sense and will make the company different from its competitors.

“In this world of technology, you cannot sit and wait. You have to be there fighting the war, and at the same time creating new equipment for the war because you have to win the war differently,” Santos says.

Seeing software-as-a-service to take off in the future, Santos claims they are already prepared for the market. He shares they are doing some research and development on software service from the products they carry so they can offer it as a service to companies who cannot afford to buy them.

“That is the innovation we are crossing right now because changes are happening so fast; and the only way you can adapt is if you look at it and try and do it internally first before you let it out. Because we test all the products we carry before we market it,” Santos says.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Symantec to focus on ‘specializations’ in enhanced partner strategy
• Partners Usher Windows 7 Win For Microsoft
• With merger, Oracle reassures Sun customers
• Leveraging partners ushered Windows 7 win for Microsoft
• Salesforce.com rolls out VAR program for Force.com

 Print This Post