Case study: intY’s access to leading experts is incomparable, says Linten
“People have different perceptions as to what makes a personalised service. In IT for example, it might be a bespoke solution designed to address a specific challenge or a service agreement designed to cater for a particular business need. These points are valid, but, from my perspective, a personalised service forms directly from the relationships of the people you work alongside, working together for the best possible results for your customers.”
Background
Originally, Linten, started life in North Yorkshire, providing bespoke IT consultancy and support to rurally-based clients. The firm quickly grew and now operates out of two sites; one based in Manchester’s northern quarter, and one in Walsall, west midlands.
As a business, its remit is simple; it works with its customers, helping them when it comes to sourcing, installing, setting-up, supporting and managing IT services. Linten’s client base predominately operates in high pressure fields such as legal, property, hospitality and manufacturing services. It sees its role as taking away the pain-points often associated with the managing and maintenance of IT services, which in turn allows its customers to focus on what they do best, safe in the knowledge that their IT estate is maintained and protected.
Challenge
Historically, Linten used to acquire software licensing direct from IT vendors, but this process was not without its challenges
“Working with some of the biggest IT vendors on the planet is incredibly reassuring for our customers. They know that through us they can access the best technology possible, which in turn provides a huge value-add for their business. From our perspective, we pride ourselves on the relationships we have with the likes of Acronis, Microsoft and Symantec but, we’re also realists. The size and scope of these firms, when compared to our own, means that direct communication is not always instant and any challenges experienced with any of the services we use, can sometimes take time to resolve, which can impact on our customers. The vendors themselves recognise this too and have taken active steps to address this.
Three years ago we were purchasing our antivirus licensing directly from Symantec, but in line with those challenges, they recognised that in order to continue supporting existing relationships with resellers, as well as grow new ones, help was needed, seeking this through its cloud distributor network. It was at this point we were then introduced to intY.”
Solution
Since it was founded in 1997, intY has developed unparalleled expertise and knowledge in distributing cloud services, ensuring that its partners have access to the latest cloud solutions, all supported with the necessary training and resources needed to make them as competitive as possible. intY’s breadth of experience and success in the cloud marketplace is reflected not only in its global reach, with operations in the UK, US and main-land Europe, but also in the depth of its partnerships with the biggest names in the industry – something which became quickly apparent to Linten. Allan continues:
“Two things stood out very quickly to us once we were introduced to intY. Firstly, the level of attentiveness we received was unprecedented. From the very first day, intY worked tirelessly to understand our business and the customers we serve. Any questions that we had, we could go to them directly and get an immediate response, which in turn rapidly increased our response times to our customers. Historically, when we’ve had to engage with distributors the services, packages and support received have tended to have restrictions in place – this is not the case with intY at all. Their ethos is very much built around the need to personalise their service to meet our demands. This allows us to pass on huge benefits and savings to others, and is something not seen amongst other cloud distributors.
The second aspect which stood out was their access to the experts. We were hugely impressed with how quickly intY could respond to our requests, but this speed was also mirrored with how quickly intY were able to liaise with the vendors directly. What might take us days or weeks to get a response to, intY could achieve in a few hours. Additionally, it wasn’t just the speed which was impressive, it was all also the level of information they were able to share from those relationships.”
So much was the impression made that shortly after intY took over Linten’s Symantec Endpoint Protection licensing, Linten then passed over responsibility for intY to handle licensing for its, Acronis Backup, Microsoft Office 365 and MigrationWiz, their Microsoft Office 365 Migration tool. In turn, having these licenses all based with intY provided Linten with a huge competitive advantage, not only through unbridled support, but also a direct pipeline to the experts amongst the vendors. This is something Allan, believes Linten would not receive from another distributor anywhere else.
Result
“Our relationship with intY is truly unique. Recently, we attended its annual Cloud Fest conference hosted in London. At the event, there were presentations and opportunities to engage directly with senior figure-heads and influencers from the likes of Microsoft, Acronis and Symantec. In any ordinary scenario gaining access to that level of seniority would be incredibly challenging, but the power of intY’s connections put us in direct contact with those people, which has ultimately allowed us to grow and improve our offering on behalf of our customers.”
A testament to this was Linten being recently awarded intY’s Cloud Aggregator of the Year, at its Cloud Fest Partner awards. The previous year it was named as Expert Partner of the Year, in one of its most contested categories. For Linten these accolades are incredibly rewarding but are also a validation of the strength of the relationship it has with intY. It has grown its business significantly in the past few years and a key component comes with that direct, hands-on, support.