Mosaic Technology: Collaborative, Customer-centered IT Solutions at Affordable Prices

Mosaic Technology supplies IT systems, options and storage solutions to an international group of end users and resellers. The company's sales staff works with customers to evaluate their IT needs and develop affordable custom solutions to meet business goals. Mosaic is headquartered in Salem, New Hampshire and maintains sales offices in New Hampshire and Bellevue, Washington.

Matt Rhoades is the Reseller Ecommerce Marketing Administrator for Mosaic. He assists resellers and sales staff to develop marketing materials, monitor inventory, and "facilitates anything Web related." This constant flow of information gives Rhoades a good feel for the IT industry and state of the marketplace.

"Because of the economy, there's room for a company like ours to grow and expand our customer base. We help IT departments stretch their technology dollars because we can supply both high quality equipment and business and technical expertise. We work with customers to design individual systems that meet their IT needs."

Although Mosaic supplies some new equipment, most of their stock is high quality used and refurbished items – with an emphasis on Sun products. Rhoades notes that Mosaic faces the same problems as other used equipment dealers – finding enough high-quality equipment to meet demand. The company's Tradeloop membership (Mosaic has been a member since 1999) is vital to that effort:

"Tradeloop is perfect for a company like Mosaic. We can Broadcast items instantly and display a controlled, real-time inventory to customers. The Internet lets people find and buy products online within minutes and we have to support that. With Tradeloop, we can monitor the market, pricing, and keep buyers and sellers coming back to Mosaic."

With over 15 years in the IT industry, Mosaic had developed a reputation for quality and integrity, says Rhoades. "We don't put much effort into advertising. Our customers do it for us! Most of our new business is through word of mouth."

These long-term customer relationships help Mosaic in another way too. Over time, many customers have evolved into the dual roles of both customers and suppliers. "When your suppliers are also your customers, a good working relationship is essential," Rhoades explains. "These relationships are built on trust and our business partners know we treat them fairly."

Mosaic's business model couples these business partnerships with value-added services and support. The company maintains its own labs for testing and repair. These labs are staffed by trained, certified technicians. "I have to boast," says Rhoades, "because we have some highly qualified engineers and technicians. They're the best I've ever worked with." He also praises the shipping department – an important but often overlooked part of most organizations. "We've invested time and money into training for international shipments. Whether it's packaging, customs, or tax issues, our shipping department has the expertise."

Rhoades credits Mosaic's success with its collaborative, customer-based approach that studies each customer's requirements, challenges, and technology goals. That approach, together with a commitment to high quality at reasonable prices has served the company well.

"We're lean enough to supply customers with an extremely competitive price, but our infrastructure and products are extremely high-end. At Mosaic, we work with customers to give them the best of both worlds: low price and high quality."

Could we feature your company? Each month, we profile a Tradeloop member company. It's a great way to introduce your products and services to the Tradeloop community. Contact us if you'd like to be placed on the waiting list for this popular feature.

Sun Microsystems Changes Software Maintenance Contract Terms

The Association of Service & Computer Dealers International (ASCDI) recently alerted members to Sun Microsystems' decision to change the pricing structure and discounts available for software maintenance and support. Previously, Sun end users could receive discounts when purchasing Solaris software-only support subscriptions, but that changes in December:

Sun Microsystems change in Solaris removes discounts for customers
Sun Microsystems recently announced a discount category change for Solaris Subscriptions (Basic, Standard and Premium) from Category K to Category D. (NON DISCOUNTABLE). This change is effective 12/12/2009.

This change affects end users who prefer to self-maintain their Sun hardware or who purchase third-party support contracts.

ASCDI strongly recommends that all Sun dealers immediately notify their customers about this change. Customers may be forced to purchase both hardware and software maintenance from Sun if they want to take advantage of discounts, ASCDI noted:

"This is in essence forcing the bundling of Hardware and Software from Sun, for products that were previously available as separate offerings."

As of December 13, end users should visit the Solaris Software Support area of Sun's Web site to purchase support subscriptions instead of contacting a Sun reseller.

Tradeloop is a member of ASCDI, which is a worldwide, nonprofit organization, made up of companies who provide technology business solutions, technical support and value added services to the business community.

Set Your Privacy Preferences on the New "Privacy Settings" Page

We've made it simpler for Tradeloop members to contact each other. Now, your email address is automatically displayed on your profile page. Other members can quickly send you an email directly instead of using the member contact form.

Members can opt out - and set other privacy preferences - using our new "Privacy Settings" page. We let Tradeloop members decide how much information they want shared with other members and public users.

We began displaying email addresses in response to member requests. Many dealers wanted the ability to simply click a link and send an email to another dealer without having to use Tradeloop's contact form. When a clickable email address is displayed, it's more convenient for members to contact each other.

This change helps connect buyers and sellers; it's an especially good feature for those who monitor their email reports (like Search History and/or Saved Search reports). When a seller sees that someone has been searching his inventory, he can more easily contact the searcher if the email address is displayed.

We know that some members may prefer to keep their email addresses hidden due to concerns about spam, viruses spread through email clients, the burden of an increased volume of email, or other reasons. That's why we're giving all members control over their information.

You can choose to hide your email address from other members (the public users never have access to that information). Just log into your Tradeloop account and select the "Privacy Settings" link under the "Account" tab located on the top navigation bar. The Privacy Settings page gives you other options too, such as the option to hide your entire member profile from public users.

Even if you opt out of having your email address displayed, other Tradeloop members will still be able to contact you by email. However, they'll contact you via the Tradeloop contact form instead of their own email client.

Note that you can set your email preferences now and immediately begin either hiding or displaying your email address to other Tradeloop members.

Other options on the Privacy Settings page are still in development and will be launching soon. Visit the page now and select your options. We'll save your preferences and implement them as soon as we finish testing and implementing the page's other privacy options.

We welcome your feedback on this and any matter related to your Tradeloop membership. Contact us and share your suggestions.

Ethically Speaking - November 2009

During October, the Tradeloop Ethics Committee voted to ban two companies from the trading community.

Infinity Micro, Inc. was banned for failure to respond to the complaint (case #5045). In this case, the complainant alleged that Infinity Micro failed to process a refund after goods were returned. Since the company didn't respond, the Ethics Committee couldn't evaluate the facts of the case. Tradeloop's Ethics policy requires that all companies respond to complaints and companies that don't comply can and will be banned from the community.

xFusion Trading, LLC was also banned from Tradeloop (case #5044). The complainant charged that xFusion Trading had been paid in advance for a deal that was canceled, but failed to process a refund.

Ethics complaint #5039 involved a payment dispute over the sale and condition of laptop computers. The companies involved worked out an agreement and the Tradeloop Ethics Committee voted to Broadcast the complaint to the community for informational purposes.

One new case is still in the information-gathering stage. A non-member contacted a Tradeloop member via information in a public Broadcast. The member suspects that it could be a fraud attempt and filed a complaint. At this point, the Tradeloop staff is investigating and assembling information for the committee to review.

Remember that Tradeloop members have the option to make their Broadcasts available to Web searchers and the general public or restrict them to just Tradeloop members. We will soon launch a new "Privacy Options" page that gives you even more control over the company and contact information you share with the public and other Tradeloop members.

Learn more about the Tradeloop Ethics process and review details of other Ethics complaints at the Tradeloop Ethics blog.