Distribution

Problem

Our business has been focused primarily on engineering, manufacturing, and healthcare industries for the past 5 years. Each of these businesses has unique needs that our CompleteCloud IT Platform addresses perfectly—from our industry-first CAD solution to compliance security and the ability to aggregate multiple sites into feeling like one centralized location. We are so successful in these markets that they make up about 60% of our total business. We know this space well and have been helping businesses in these areas for the last 15 years.

We've recently seen explosive growth in yet another industry, distribution. We've always worked with this industry, but we've seen an increasing number of distributors looking to make the jump away from their traditional on-premise model or current expensive and convoluted IT systems. It may not seem like these businesses would have very complex IT systems, but they do. To help illustrate the complexity of these environments, let's take a look at one of our newest distribution clients.

At a high level, our client—like every other distributor we work with—had three IT challenges plaguing them.

  • Multiple Shifts: They had three shifts that required support outside of normal business hours. They couldn't afford to have any downtime, so support that worked around their schedule was critical.
  • Diverse Type of Users & Mobility Needs: The client had a variety of user types from those who simply input data on the warehouse floor to remote sales staff traveling the country. Each needed to integrate seamlessly into one IT environment, regardless of where they were or what they were doing.
  • Vital Wi-Fi Needs & Robust Shipping/Receiving Stations: They had large warehouses that required solid Wi-Fi coverage throughout for a variety of devices, ranging from bar code scanners to forklifts on the floor.

Solution

This client was in a tricky situation; they were in the middle of merging two separate companies. This would double the size of their original business, so the demands and complexity of their IT increased dramatically. Fortunately, with our CompleteCloud Platform, we had everything built and ready, and over the weekend of migration, both companies were flawlessly merged into one business. This wasn't a one-time concern for our client, however. Their plan to grow into a nationwide presence relied heavily on acquiring new business and adding more sites across the country.

One of the reasons CompleteCloud was so appealing to this distributor was the predictable pricing and scalability of our solution. The CompleteCloud Platform is billed on a per-user per-month pricing model, which means they knew exactly what they would be paying if they acquired a new company. This made it easy to estimate new IT costs and scale their business in a predictable way.

Being able to scale their business easily was obviously important, but they also needed their data protected, which is where our managed security suite came in. With private cloud security, DNS filtering, a Security Operation Center, multifactor authentication, encrypted email, and cyber security training for employees, they had confidence in their data protection that they didn't have before. Knowing the most secure IT platform on the market today was protecting their data, they could expand their business without any IT worries.

With a scalable and secure business, the only thing they needed was solid IT support to handle their growing business and work outside of the traditional 9-5 schedule. Avatara provides 24/7/365 support for all our clients—not just those who work during normal office hours. And where most IT providers charge more for support outside of traditional work hours, we don't. Whether a warehouse employee is having connectivity issues with a kiosk or a remote sales rep needs help on a Friday night, we have them covered.

With a variety of users, locations across the country, and a rapid-growth model in the coming years, the only IT solution that made sense for this client was the security-first CompleteCloud Platform.