Sounds a lot like a Jerry Seinfeld line, but a lot of people have been asking this lately.
The establishment of SITECH Technology Dealer’s has sharply accelerated in the last few months. If you have been following Machine Control Online’s “Latest Machine Control News” section, you have seen announcements for locations in Texas, Florida, Georgia, India, Germany, Northern California, Brazil and others. If you missed the announcements; here’s a recent example:
“SITECH South East Joins the First Fully Dedicated Global Distribution Network for Construction Technology Solutions"
SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 7, 2010—Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today that a SITECH® Technology Dealer has been established to serve contractors in Florida, Georgia and Alabama. SITECH South East joins the premier network of SITECH dealerships—the first fully dedicated global distribution network offering the most comprehensive portfolio of construction technology systems available to the heavy and highway contractor.
SITECH Technology Dealers represent Trimble® machine control systems for the contractor’s entire fleet of heavy equipment regardless of machine brand, along with Trimble’s portfolio of Connected Site™ solutions—site positioning systems, construction asset management services, software and powerful wireless and Internet-based site communications infrastructure.
The experienced construction professionals at each SITECH Technology Dealership can advise contractors on the appropriate construction technology solutions to utilize, and can provide high-quality local customer service, personalized training and technical support. As authorized dealers for Trimble site-wide solutions, the SITECH Technology Dealers understand how to apply innovative construction technology to help solve a variety of contractors’ construction challenges. Leveraging technology, contractors can gain greater insight into their operations, enabling them to lower operating costs and improve accuracy, safety and productivity.
Through the adoption of construction technology, contractors can experience new levels of productivity that enable more competitive bidding on projects. SITECH Technology Dealers offer the most advanced and complete set of tools to revolutionize the construction workflow.
Trimble is establishing SITECH Technology Dealers in the Americas, Europe and Asia / Pacific regions. SITECH South East will serve heavy and highway contractors throughout the states of Florida, Georgia and Alabama involved in a range of earthmoving applications such as the construction of roads, highways, railways and airports as well as site prep for large commercial, industrial and residential projects.
SITECH South East was formed by Southern Precision, Inc. (SPI) and Trimble.
About SITECH South East
Founded in 2010, SITECH South East is now a part of the worldwide SITECH distribution network, which offers consultative advice on construction technology solutions, customized training, data services, installation, service and technical support.”
The SITECH website provides the following statement as to their purpose:
“Your Authorized Construction Technology Provider"
SITECH is a distribution network for the most reliable and rugged construction technology systems available to the heavy and highway contractor today. The experienced construction professionals at your SITECH dealership provide local customer service, personalized training and technical support.
The team at the SITECH dealership understands how to apply innovative construction technology to effectively solve some of the biggest challenges in the construction industry. They will guide you on how to leverage Trimble and Caterpillar machine control systems for your entire fleet of heavy equipment along with Trimble's complete portfolio of Connected Site solutions-–Site Positioning Systems, Construction Asset Management Services, construction software and powerful wireless and internet-based infrastructures.
Learn how easy it is to utilize technology that makes significant improvements in project workflow-dramatically increases your production, improves your accuracy and lowers your operating costs. And the proof that it works: documented increases on your bottom-line.
Adopt construction technology and accelerate the growth of your company. With the addition of Trimble site-wide solutions to your heavy and highway projects, you're in a more powerful competitive position in the marketplace. Whether you choose to start small or go all in, the expanded capability will enable you to earn the bid and be profitable, project after project.
Grow your business with your local SITECH dealership.”
The establishment of the SITECH brand is an exciting development. To me, it is a logical and powerful idea. SITECH® is Trimble's brand for its independent distribution network. Trimble is developing SITECH dealerships worldwide, and over time, the existing Trimble Heavy and Highway Construction Dealer network will be converted to the SITECH distribution brand.
The local Cat dealership and the local SITECH dealer are separate entities, have separate physical locations, and are independently operated. They maintain separate management, sales and support staff.
This is an important distinction, because the SITECH dealer is able to guide contractors on how to leverage machine control systems for their entire fleet of heavy equipment, regardless of machine brand.
Other dealerships and manufacturers try to achieve this goal by working closely together to support the customer and do a very good job of it, but this is a different model altogether. It may take some time to see how the new organizations realize efficient synergies but early reports are that they have hit the ground running. My personal knowledge is that the former Trimble machine control dealers were among the best and most proven and I expect they will only up their game from here.
It will be extremely interesting to see if other machine control dealers and heavy equipment manufacturers/dealership create similar synergistic relationships in the future. I think there will be real value for the customer if they do so.