Based in Fairfax, Virginia, Ira Saul is an attorney who provides legal services to an array of small business clients. Focusing on areas such as transactional law, Ira Saul has represented numerous information technology-industry clients, including value-added resellers (VARs).

Filling an important role in the computer industry are companies known as VARs that enhance the value of computer components, such as hardware and software, by combining products and services into a specialized bundle before reselling. The added value can take a variety of forms. For example, a traditional VAR would often create one or more custom applications for a specific hardware or software platform and then resell the system as a whole. 

A VAR can be hardware-centric, if a majority of its income is from reselling hardware, or it can be service-centric. Today, it’s more common for VAR firms to offer complementary services as their main value-add. These services can include consulting, installation, troubleshooting, and training services for the components it resells. A VAR company that provides professional services along with products are generally known as solution providers.