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| OUT-SOURCED: Michael Roberts’ SourceDirect.com sells HP products, but not at HP prices. photography by Jeremy Sharp |
Michael Roberts is a quick learner. When he was as young as 5 years old, his father let him tag along to fancy steak dinners and business trips provided by companies who sought his services. Roberts’ father, a purchasing manager for a large oil company, was not a man of means, but he was an effective teacher for his son. The lesson: Working for big companies has its benefits, but people with real wealth run their own.
It didn’t take him long to put this lesson into action. In 1989, one year after he graduated college, he started his own company in his Dallas apartment, reselling HP servers to companies. Now SourceDirect.com sells and supports HP products with offices in eight U.S. cities. They are Hewlett-Packard’s biggest competitor in regard to mission critical support.
Roberts encountered his biggest obstacle to success when he was asked in the early 1990s by HP to become an authorized “channel partner”—essentially gaining the company’s seal of approval. He thought this was wonderful, that he would be able to work with HP, not against it.
“It was the worst decision I ever made,” Roberts says. “It was like having the flesh ripped from my bones.” The company, he says, took away his ability to offer clients the lowest price for equipment and to compete honestly for bids.
Now his company uses its expertise—approximately three-fourths of SDC’s employees are ex-HP—and connections with 600 contacts within the HP network to find clients the lowest price for servers and server parts. Often significantly lower: One recent bid for servers averaged $1.44 million from HP-authorized sellers, while SDC won the client with a bid of less than $400,000. Roberts says his company has superior maintenance and service, too.
Seems HP has some learning to do.
