Cichelli, president of LANTek, a networking solution provider headquartered in Kutztown, Pa., is searching high and low for products and innovations from small, and perhaps lesser-known, companies. Why? Because LANTek wants niche technologies that will help the company build more solutions while still retaining a strict market focus. "We really look hard for new niche technologies today. These types of products haven't saturated the market yet, so there's still a lot of value-add opportunity," Cichelli says.

So far, the gambit is paying off. His software business has grown because the company has added niche security vendors, for example, that complement its network solutions. Their products not only give the solution provider higher margins, but also help LANTek distinguish itself with more unique offerings.

Other small-business resellers are doing the same, expanding their line cards with ISVs and hardware companies flying under the radar. The practice raises an interesting question: Can a VAR become more specialized while expanding at the same time? Small-business solution providers like LANTek say the answer is yes. The trick for these resellers is finding technologies off the beaten path, be they from young start-ups with innovative products or established alternative vendors that make dedicated small-business products.

"I think innovation is pretty healthy today," says Joe Heinzen, president of e-Convergence Solutions, a specialty distributor based in Centreville, Va. "But it's not occurring at the big vendors. It's happening at the smaller, newer entrepreneurial companies."

New Networking

Some small-business VARs look specifically for technologies designed exclusively for their ends of the market. Ben Rinehart, operations manager at Computition in Lewisburg, Pa., says Netopia is one of his best vendors. For his small-business and home-office customers, Rinehart says, Netopia's networking products, such as the R-Series routers, provide better, more stable alternatives to bigger names, including Linksys and Netgear.

"The Netopia routers are phenomenal products," he says. "They have dedicated small-business routers that can handle more than one IP address coming in from a broadband connection." The R-Series also has built-in VPN and a firewall and can be expanded to different WAN connections.

Other resellers are finding niche solutions in fast-emerging markets, such as wireless. Jude Daigle, president of Computer Connections in Greensburg, Pa., says SMC Networks has been very successful for his business, which has begun to concentrate on home technology.

"We've gotten some good accounts because they've taken the time to make calls to customers with us," Daigle says. "They've been very channel-friendly."

Along with wireless accessories, such as antenna and notebook adapters, Computer Connections recently began offering more unique products, such as SMC's Wireless Multimedia Receiver, which is designed to handle digital video, photos and music for home-entertainment centers. While SMC isn't exactly a hot start-up--the networking manufacturer was founded in 1971--the company's more recent multimedia-focused products are attracting VARs intent on unlocking the home-networking market.

Indeed, consumer electronics and home technologies are emerging as popular, high-growth segments on which distributors, such as Ingram Micro, have begun capitalizing; the leading IT distributor recently acquired AVAD, a home-technology distributor that will allow Ingram Micro to carry vendors, including Niles Audio, which makes home-theater automation systems and other audio/video products (see "For Ingram Micro, There's No Place Like Home," page 76). Daigle says his hottest product segment today is media-center systems.

"We're seeing a lot of small businesses get into the media-center trend," he says. "They want the multimedia presentation capabilities for their boardrooms."

While terrifying tales of spyware are all too common these days, antispyware technology remains a young and somewhat overlooked market, especially when it comes to small businesses. Too many companies continue to believe that only brand-name companies are at grave risk of being hacked or having crucial data stolen from their networks. Yet research shows that spyware is pervasive: Webroot's State of Spyware report this year shows that in the first quarter of 2005, at least one unwanted program, from adware to system monitors, was found in 87 percent of the PCs scanned by Webroot's Corporate SpyAudit.

Therefore, solution providers have begun capitalizing on the problem by picking up antispyware technology and bringing the solutions to the SMB market. Ed Schaperjahn, owner of Help! Small Business Solutions in Fulton, N.Y., has adopted antispyware technologies as his lucrative security niche and made Webroot his primary vendor.

"I'm quite pleased with SpySweeper," he says. "Webroot has a great product, the reseller program is good and the margins are excellent, too."

Schaperjahn often leads with Webroot's SpySweeper, but says that he also combines various antispyware programs to form a stronger, unified defense.

"Sometimes, you need two or three layers to catch everything that's out there," Schaperjahn says. "It's the same idea behind having a firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention and everything else to protect your infrastructure."

Then there's the idea of combining network management and security into one solution: an appliance. For Computer Connections, ClearPath Networks' appliance-based SNAP solution is perfect because, according to Daigle, the product offers firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention and network management for managed-services companies that is specifically geared toward SMB customers.

LANTek has also embraced niche security solutions. "Like most other VARs, we realized that if we relied too much on hardware, we were in trouble," Cichelli says.

"So we turned to niche products in the security software space." LANTek has picked up two noteworthy vendors in the market, PrivacyWare and Safend. Both companies fulfill a specific role in the overall solution for Cichelli's small-business customers. For example, PrivacyWare's ThreatSentry Intrusion Prevention system is designed to protect Microsoft's ISS server software from various threats by comparing each server request to an evolving database of threats and security parameters.

Meanwhile, Safend covers an even more specific area: USB ports. The start-up, which was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, built its first product as an endpoint security solution, dubbed USB Port Protector, as a way to keep unauthorized devices from accessing ports. The product uses Safend's "Digital Membrane" technology to construct security policies around connectable devices and access points while accurately identifying and blocking certain devices. Therefore, a hacker or cyberthief looking to gain physical access to a system via a USB port will be stopped in his or her tracks.

"It's going to be a hot solution because there's nothing else out there like it," Cichelli says of USB Port Protector.

For those who argue such products are too specialized, well, Cichelli says that's the point. Solutions such as Safend's solve a very specific problem and give partners more value-add opportunity because of their uniqueness.