GeoMetrick Enterprises is a Thermo Scientific Consulting Partner

A number of the software vendors in the laboratory informatics industry provide partner programs for the services companies that have an interest in their products. Each vendor that provides these types of programs provides a different variety of programs focused on different types of relationships. As such, the word “partner” means something entirely different depending on WHOSE program it is and on WHICH program it is.

More Details on the Program
In the case of Thermo Scientific, they have a variety of partner programs. Some programs focus on sales partners who have a financial arrangement with Thermo Scientific to sell and/or distribute the products. These partners often display Thermo Scientific logos that include verbiage to the effect that they have distribution privileges. With regard to GeoMetrick Enterprises, there is no such arrangement since GeoMetrick Enterprises is a Consulting Partner with Thermo Scientific.

The Consulting Partner program is entirely an educational and not a financial arrangement. My company is occasionally sent information on what’s new at Thermo Scientific and given access to a wide variety of product information.

In return for this, Thermo Scientific doesn’t require GeoMetrick Enterprises to select, use or distribute their product nor try to influence the running of the business at GeoMetrick Enterprises.

How it Affects the Customer
Being a Thermo Scientific Consulting Partner probably doesn’t affect GeoMetrick Enterprises’ customers all that much. For customers that I work with to do a product selection, I would normally contact the software vendors, directly, for information on their products. For those of you who have gone to look at products on-line, you know that finding that information on the vendor web-sites is a hit-and-miss proposition. With regard to Thermo Scientific, I don’t have to worry about that because I now happen to have direct access to all that information. If I can get the information more quickly, it might cost you 10-20 minutes less of my consulting time than if I was calling or e-mailing someone from the Sales department.

By the way, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t still contact them. If they were considered a serious candidate in a product selection, at that time, the sales people would be brought into the selection process. Reading a bunch of documents is good for getting a general idea what a product is like but there’s a point where the process must become interactive and involve living, breathing human beings.

However, since I do implement Sample Manager, having access to all the product information is definitely a nice-to-have. It’s not that I can’t get that information by talking to other people, but it’s nice to be able to just go and get it when I need it.

Will GeoMetrick Enterprises Display Thermo Scientific’s Logo
If I never end up displaying the Thermo Scientific logo on the GeoMetrick Enterprises’ web-site, don’t read anything into it. It neither means that I’m upset with them nor does it mean that I think that doing so would unfairly advertise them. The real issue is that dealing with someone else’s logo is a tricky thing. Most companies have a multitude of rules regarding how to display their logo and I don’t want to spend the time messing around with it. If I were a Sales Partner, I would probably feel differently about it. In that case, I would probably feel it my duty to get the logo up on my web-site.

As far as mentioning companies such as Thermo Scientific and their Sample Manager LIMS, or someone like LabWare and their LIMS, since my company provides services to those products (independent of the software vendor selling it), it’s a natural thing to mention those products. It is not specifically meant to promote those products but, if it does, it’s a by-product of the actual discussion about whatever the issue might be.

Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/