Value Added Resellers of managed services in the UK sometimes have an uneasy relationship with their vendors. On the one hand, end users become licensees of the vendor's technology, and hence the vendor often feels that they "own" the customer relationship. On the other hand, the reseller often recommends the vendor's product or solution in the first place, knows the end user, invoices them and carries the credit risk. Resellers feel, often justifiably, that vendors see them simply as a means to acquire new customers, and once this is accomplished, sidestep them entirely. Vendors often feel, also justifiably, that there is no point in leaving hard-earned subscription renewal fees to a reseller who does little other than collect the money once a year.

Who is right and who is wrong? This white paper attempts to put into perspective three different business models that define the vendor/reseller relationship. For the purposes of this discussion we will used managed email filtering as an example. Hosted services currently enjoy a large and growing percentage of the total anti-spam market, and represent what is likely the managed service most commonly sold to the end user through networks of value added resellers.