WAV, Inc. prides itself on its industry expertise, helping its clients not only with Tier 1 and Tier 2 support on the products they buy, but also with guidance in finding other solutions that fit their needs.

by Jeff Goldman [March 22, 2007]

WAV, Inc. was founded in 1990 as a value added reseller (VAR) of point of sale equipment. Soon after its founding, the company got into wireless, with the aim of helping its customers transmit data to the store floor. "That was early on—before the wireless industry, of course, had any standards," says company president and CEO Norm Dumbroff.

The company became a wireless equipment distributor in 1995. "That's about the same time that the wireless channel, or more accurately the data collection side of the channel, started using distributors," Dumbroff says. "We were one of the first distributors for Telxon Corporation, and that's where our roots as a distributor started—servicing value added resellers in a two-tier structure."

WAV, Inc. 2380A Prospect Dr. Aurora, IL 60504 Voice: (800) 678-2419

Dumbroff says his company's greatest strength lies in its industry expertise. "If you look at general distributors such Ingram or Tech, they're broad but don't necessarily have the level of expertise to support their VARs on leading edge technology," he says. "Where WAV has made our home is in supplying not only the equipment, but the knowledge that goes behind the equipment, in order for the value added resellers to successfully install and implement newer technologies."

Distribution channels
WAV generally sells to ISPs and WISPs through resellers, though Dumbroff says "there are some WISPs that are resellers, and we service those guys directly." It often depends, he says, on the nature of the channel as defined by the manufacturer. "When we look at large channels like the Motorola distribution channel, a WISP would be an end user, and they're more effectively serviced by a reseller," he says.

That delineation, Dumbroff notes, can vary widely—on the enterprise side, it's often very strictly defined, but "in the WISP community or in the broadband community, it's a little looser at this point, depending on what channel you look at," he says.

The company's online store lists all of WAV's vendors and products, and is customized for the VAR upon login. Dumbroff says he doesn't see his company's pricing as a key differentiator—instead, he focuses on specific value adds like support, lines of credit, leasing and other business needs.

Key value adds
Basic things like having items in stock and shipping them quickly, Dumbroff says, are just "what you need to do in order to get into the game." Instead, he sees the company's key value adds as things like the ability to provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 support on any product that WAV sells. "That's really what makes WAV different," he says.

And WAV's support doesn't stop at answering a client's questions—Dumbroff says it's also about being proactive in offering product advice. "If you were installing, let's say, wireless for education in a school, we may come to you and say, hey, have you considered Fortinet?" he says. "Because Fortinet, with what they provide—with content filtering, anti-spam, anti-spyware—is a perfect fit for that environment."

Similarly, WAV can help with financing and leasing arrangements. "We work with many leasing organizations that have met our criteria of what we know our resellers are looking for, and we offer those relationships as well in order to help our resellers get leasing for products that they may be selling," Dumbroff says.

WAV's efforts to help its resellers, Dumbroff says, can also extend to things like blind drop shipping, so that packages come directly from WAV's warehouse but don't have WAV's name on them. "It's really about anything that we can do to make our reseller more profitable and help them make their life and business a little bit easier," he says. "That's really our goal."

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