Alan Schweitzer didn’t know it, but long before his brother passed away and he was forced run one of Canada’s best-known resellers, he was getting an education that would prepare him for the business world.
Schweitzer, whose late brother Michael founded the Vaughan, Ont.-based RAM Group, had
spent 30 years as a New York court stenographer.
Then five years ago he moved on to “”captioning”” university classes for hearing-impaired students, which led to many of those days absorbing lessons from Columbia University’s MBA program.
But in May 2003 he learned of his brother’s death at the age of 61. “”Suddenly, I was unwittingly prepared”” to take over, he says, even though he was was a stranger to the IT industry and the business world.
At the time, Schweitzer had been working on Broadway, doing captions for local shows. But with the theatre season coming to a close he was able to make a temporary move to Canada. The bigger issue, he says, was assuming the helm of an organization that was still deeply in mourning.
“”There was an obvious void. People were afraid — they didn’t know what they were supposed to do. This had been a very old-fashioned company, where Michael did everything from getting new customers to buying the paper clips.””
Schweitzer’s first step was to assemble a senior management team that would convene once a week to handle the major business issues. Before long, however, he could see it wasn’t working. The RAM Group, which had grown with steady momentum since its days as a seller of computer ribbon more than 20 years ago, suddenly lacked focus.
“”They were looking at me as something temporary. The company was stunned,”” he says.
“”At one meeting, I said, ‘Look, I occupy the corner office, like it or not. And I kind of like the title of president, it’s kind of nice, and I don’t intend to relinquish it. But at some point one of you will be president, I guarantee it. But it won’t be up to me, it’ll be up to you. But for now let’s back to work and pull this company together.’
“”And the amazing thing is, it worked.””
Early this year Schweitzer passed the president’s role to Ken Killen, a former executive with JetForm and MGI Software who had been working with his brother as a consultant, coaching RAM’s management team. Schweitzer kept the title of chairman.
Killen said his best hire to date has been Richard Lichtenstein, who had been developing an SAP product for the mid-market for American Expresss. The RAM Group is now the national reseller for the SAP Business One-American Express Edition, a suite of the SAP Business One software and a group of applications put together by Amex’s Tax and Business Services division.
“”This is very much missionary work,”” Killen says. “”SAP has a great product, but they have yet to really turn their engine on creating demand for the product. Market awareness has barely started.””
Selling Business One will mean not only approaching mid-market businesses who have never heard of SAP, Killen says, but also reaching out to those who have been scared off by ERP implementation horror stories.
“”We run into a few situations where we have to point out that those stories are probably 10 years old or more,”” he says. “”This is not R3 or a subset of R3. This was developed specifically for the small and medium business market.””
Schweitzer and Killen say they want to see the RAM Group evolve from a traditional reseller to a “”trusted advisor”” to SMBs, with an emphasis on quality IT services.
“”I have seen a number of cycles where manufacturers invest in a channel approach, usually followed by a ridiculous ‘go direct and destroy the channel’ strategy,”” Killen says. “”We’re at a point now where the organizations where we’re working with are very focused at small and medium enterprise. That’s very consistent where we are going.””
The RAM Group still works with a number of large enterprises, Killen adds, but the expectation is that at some point, the major manufacturers are going to want to own that marketplace.
“”We choose not to knowingly get under their feet,”” he says. “”That’s not a comfortable place to be.””
Although Schweitzer has since moved back to New York, he says he’s grown more comfortable in his role with the RAM Group, and considers himself the keeper of the company culture.
“”All I can say is, you can learn an awful lot in six months.
“”Look, I’m probably the luckiest guy in North America, because I get to fulfil the legacy of a man I looked up to all my life. That was my brother.””