OEMs Customers
OEM -- or original equipment manufacturer -- is defined as a company that manufactures a product that is sold to another company, which resells the product under its brand name. Business textbooks often refer to OEMs as "contract manufacturers." The genesis of the term OEM comes from the Dutch phrase, loosely defined, simply means "under own brand." The term is flexible, but OEM usually refers to manufactured products in major industries. Yet it could also mean a company that makes the ingredients that go into a fast-food milkshake, for example. OEMs are different than value-added resellers, or VAR's. A VAR is a company or business that buys the OEMs component, part or product, and either improves on it or adds even more components to increase its value and ultimately sell it to customers directly. A good way to look at OEMs and VAR's is this . . . An OEM usually sells its products on a business-to-business model. A VAR sells directly to OEM cus...