al-li-ance (e-lì-ens)

noun 1. a. A close association of nations or other groups, formed to advance common interests or causes.

A firm's vendor alliance list often looks like a name-droppers version of an industry 'who's who' register. The goal of these lists seem to be to simply impress the viewer, while the alliances, themselves, seem more oriented at furthering the interest of the service firm rather than those of their clients. Rich Finney & Associates views alliances in a different fashion. At RF&A, our alliances are formed first and foremost with our clients. The goals of our alliances are to advance the interest or causes of our clients through the exercising of the knowledge, skills, experience, and service offerings RF&A has to present. We first pledge an allegiance to our clients and their requirements before pursuing any technology or service from a third-party source.

While our alliance philosophy starts with our clients, we have also partnered with some of the key technology and service providers in the industry. These alliances form the second and third tiers of the RF&A alliance philosophy. The second tier focuses on foundation or infrastructure-oriented technology and communication platforms. The third tier focuses on technologies and tools that uniquely or precisely help bridge the gap between information technologies and business solutions. Alliances in these two tiers include companies like Cisco Systems, Microsoft Corporation, Southwestern Bell, VP Productions Dot Command Center and Broadwing Communications.

Rich Finney & Associates is neither a hardware vendor nor an exclusively bound sales representative for any of our vendor alliance partners. In fact, we do not focus on selling any vendor's hardware or services to meet any internal or vendor-based quotas. The principle role of both the second and third tier alliances is to provide both our staff and our clients with the latest strategic and technical information about a vendor's products, and access to high-level technical support. If our client's interest is not properly serviced then none of the technologies or services of the second and third tier alliances are introduced or involved.