Stallard Technologies: Helping Companies "Go Green and Save Green"

Stallard Technologies, Inc. buys and sells new and pre-owned Dell servers, workstations, and EMC storage solutions. A key aspect of the company's business model is flexibility: customers can visit the Stallard Technologies web site and custom-configure from 30 different Dell models. Stallard sells to both resellers and end-users worldwide.

As the world economy has faltered, Stallard Technologies has prospered. The Overland Park, Kansas company increased sales 17% this year by expanding its customer base to include…. competitors! In a business often known for cutthroat competition, Stallard has built bridges instead, becoming a major supplier to other resellers.

Phil Poje, Chief Marketing Officer at Stallard, explained that the idea of strategic partnerships with other resellers was a natural outgrowth of efforts to manage the expense of maintaining a multimillion-dollar parts inventory:

"Each week, we receive a tractor-trailer load of off-lease OEM hardware. We ship 40-60 servers each day and have over 1,300 parts in stock. With our strategic partnerships, we can keep inventory moving and give smaller resellers access to a large inventory of parts and equipment."

Managing that much inventory can be a challenge. Stallard has to balance the incoming product with customer demands, so the company is always looking for new suppliers and customers.

"We use Tradeloop to market our parts inventory and find parts we need to re-configure servers, workstations, and storage devices. It has also been a great place to meet new vendors and create business relationships."

Stallard Technologies is a busy place. The twenty-five employees, including four Dell-certified technicians, receive the equipment, scrub the hard drives, pull the processors, RAM, etc. and put those parts into inventory. When a customer places an order, technicians configure a custom unit with original OEM parts, upgrade the firmware, and conduct a 20-point inspection of the hardware before shipment.

Poje believes the arrangement is a win/win for everyone involved. Customers purchase products that meet their exact specifications while sellers recycle their off-lease or excess equipment and keep it out of the waste stream:

"We call it 'Go Green and Save Green' because we're taking corporate waste and recycling it. In difficult economic times, companies are trying to stretch their IT budgets as far as possible. Our customers have confidence that they're buying name brand equipment with a warranty and no hassle return policy.

Everybody loves a deal and we have a great one: good equipment at half price."

Stallard supports customers after the sale as well, with a free one-year limited warranty on all equipment. Poje said the service policy is simple. "If something goes wrong, we fix it. If our technicians can't troubleshoot the problem over the phone, we send them a new part."

It's an attitude that builds customer loyalty, Poje concluded:

"You have to back up what you're going to do. If people trust you and like you, they'll buy from you. It's just that simple. At Stallard Technologies, we've assembled a group of people committed to service. We're here to help customers find the best IT solutions for their home and business use."