Primer
- Why partner with KeyMark over other resellers?
- Why partner with any reseller, for that matter?
- Why partner with KeyMark over building a custom solution?.
This blog will address these important questions and more, providing evidence and resources along the way to help you select the best framework for your digital transformation journey.
KeyMark or Straight from the Source
We use the term value-added reseller to indicate the X-factor (or K-factor) of a You + KeyMark partnership. But what does value-added even mean?
When you purchase software through KeyMark, you’re not just receiving a quality product made by quality vendors. You receive that product, and receive a team of experienced technology gurus to accommodate you with award-winning implementation services, training, and support that lasts the lifetime of our partnership. And we take that concept — a lifetime partnership — very seriously. So seriously that we’ve staked our entire business model on the concept that the best customer is an existing customer. To meet that end, we aim to continually support you in your short-term and long-term business goals.
In addition to a long-term commitment focused on you, KeyMark amplifies your freshly purchased software with a knowledge-base from over 125 years of combined experience and hundreds of thousands of hours of projects and support. With all that experience, we understand the pros and cons of competing software and monitor the market to help you find solutions and configurations that best serve your niche needs.
KeyMark or Another Reseller
As we just discussed, a value-added reseller brings you a great deal more performance and support for your newly purchased solution versus buying something right off the shelf. But admittedly, KeyMark is not the only “value-added” reseller out there. In fact, solution providers will often offer connections with thousands of available providers and partners. So, why KeyMark?
1.) Expertise
We pride ourselves in being technological gurus for intelligent automation software. As such, we keep ourselves up-to-date on the latest and greatest industry information and updates. Our staff is fortified with over 30 certified members, 103 total certifications, and many more people involved behind the scenes consistently moving the needle for our customers and their business objectives. These efforts are recognized in decades of awards in the highest echelon of partner programs — setting us apart from those thousands of other partners.
Read about our latest achievement, Hyland Commercial Partner of the Year.
2.) Experience
KeyMark has been in the game for a long time — over 25 years, in fact. We’ve seen automation technology grow and change over time (we knew AI before it was cool), and have helped our customers navigate those changes and plan for the future. Just this past year, KeyMark completed well over 30 thousand project hours, from over 200 distinct projects — marking an all-time record of 2,178 customer projects (and counting).
KeyMark experience by the numbers.
Download our eBook to learn all about the experience + expertise needed in an award-winning automation partner.
3.) An evolved tech stack
In addition to there being a lot of automation partners, there are also a lot of automation solutions to choose from. Discerning excellence among them can be challenging. It’s through a combination of expertise and experience that KeyMark has secured strategic alliances with industry titans recognized globally as the best-in-class, including UiPath, Hyland, and Blue Prism, to name a few. With solutions for every stage of digital transformation, we help organizations of all sizes and verticles to seamlessly embark on automation endeavors.
4.) A partner's mindset
A KeyMark partnership is YOU-centric. We are committed to YOUR long-term goals, YOUR success, and in understanding YOUR pain points. That means sticking around long after the implementation of a solution to support your needs with training, support, and a partnership to last a lifetime. It’s a simple concept that resonates well with our customers, shown clearly by our our record-high NPS score. If that sounds like a type of partnership you’d be interested in — see what more a You + KeyMark ship has on offer by checking out our support, implementation, and services pages.
KeyMark or building solutions in-house
The most significant requirement for building an in-house is an experienced and capable IT team. A close second is clearly defined automation goals and a strategy. We recommend setting up a center of excellence consisting of specialized positions to communicate automation needs and set objections. Read our guide to building a center of excellence.
With everything in place, building a custom solution comes with three benefits that we’ll conveniently call the three C’s of solution building. They are as follows:
The case for in-house
- Cost: Building a solution in-house could cost you less in initial investments, provided your IT team is up to the challenge.
- Control: You retain complete control over your data and security measures by keeping everything in-house. That’s especially appealing for companies operating in highly regulated industries or dealing with sensitive customer information.
- Customizability: Building an in-house solution comes with the benefit of complete customizability over the design and functionality of a solution.
Cause for pause
That seems like a lot of great reasons to go ahead and start building your automation solutions from scratch… so what’s the catch? We’re all for a good DIY project, but when it comes to custom solution building, several long-term considerations could be enough cause for pause.
Consider the following long-term costs of a custom project.
- The cost of expertise: Building an in-house solution will soak up a lot of IT time. That creates delays in other projects or the build itself as priorities shift. As a result, custom solutions often take a lot longer to reach visible ROI. You may also need a greater quantity and/or quality of IT personnel, resulting in extra hiring and upskilling — both of which accrue additional costs.
- Knowledge Expiration: Your savvy IT team builds a solution, but over time, those same solution architects graduate to different positions or move on from the organization altogether. What happens to your custom solution when the people who built and knew it intimately move on? Poor change management over time results in information and data loss that is both costly and a security/compliance risk.
- Maintenance and Updates: Every minute that a system is down has a cost. Once your in-house solution is operational, you'll be on the hook for any and all ongoing maintenance, updates, and support. That’s a significant burden for IT staff, especially as technology evolves and greater capabilities become available.
A personal choice centered on your needs.
The automation market is swimming with solutions to help you reduce inefficiencies through process automation. Ultimately, the best choice among solutions and providers are the ones that best benefit you!
That said, we’d love to start a conversation help you find digital solutions to everyday problems. It all starts with a discovery chat to learn more about your goals and needs for automation. Get in touch below to start that conversation, or for more information about our partnership process, check out what to expect when working with KeyMark.
Let's get started!
You’re now one step closer to improving enterprise value and minimizing process pain points through automation. Next stop — Introduction and Discovery! Reach out to us for answers to your important questions and continue your automation journey!
