February 10, 2003

 

MSI - EXCLUSIVITY

Last week I had a very interesting conversation with the people as MSI.  This manufacturer is basically “kickin’ butt” on every other motherboard manufacturer out there.  They have high quality product, priced at a more than reasonable level, and great customer service to boot!  We have been selling MSI boards for over a year.  We are now selling about 4 to 1 MSI over every other manufacturer.  The RMA rate is extremely low and the turnaround time for RMA’s is faster than any other manufacturer. 

 

Currently we are not going direct to MSI.  However, they are interested in us as a regional distributor.  We are interested in them as a provider of not only motherboards, but video cards, and multimedia products as well.  We are watching them and they are watching us.

 

In an effort to promote MSI products we have decided to discontinue listing all other motherboards on our pricelist, with the exception of a few we still have in stock..  This is not to say that we are no longer selling these boards.  We simply want to promote the best products.  If you are looking for another manufacturer, please call us or email us and we will quote price and availability.

OFFSITE DATA BACKUP

During the Denver ITEC show, a company that is selling offsite data backup services approached me.  Recently one of our customers also told me about his new company doing the same thing.  This appears to be an increasingly popular segment of the industry.  The service works like this:

 

A customer sets up an account with the firm providing the service.  There is a typical monthly charge varying by type of service purchased.  A program is installed on the customers computer that will transmit files needing backed up on a daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever time frame the customer wants, basis.  It can be transmitted by modem, but it obviously works best when a broadband connection is available.  These files are then available whenever the customer needs them for whatever reason.

 

The number of individuals and companies out there who don’t have a reliable backup system is staggering.  Do you realize how much data recovery costs these days?  Most places won’t even take in a dead hard drive for less than $300 and that’s only to get them to accept it.  There is never a guarantee of successful data recovery.  If they can recover it you will pay a lot more.

 

Offsite data backup offers a convenient, and relatively inexpensive way to keep your data safe.  By the way, for all you people out there who have a tape backup or other backup device, do you have offsite backup?  What if you had a fire or theft?  Think about it.

 

S&K