One of our most recent customer wins is also a testament to the STA commitment to focusing on solutions that add value to a customer’s business and relentlessly sticking to our principles. In this case, the customer was working with an Oracle ERP rep, who introduced us to them.

Situation

The customer was evaluating Oracle, SAP and an industry-specific (IBM) application to devise a superior ERP application. STA provided guidance in the initial stages, and the customer selected Oracle and their implementation group, DAZ.

The customer, however, quickly became overloaded because they consulted with a variety of independent resources, which blurred the objective. ERP implementations and purchasing consolidated data storage solutions weren’t their primary strengths. This became evident once the project was underway. To compound the issue, the customer also purchased the Oracle ERP software during one of their quarter-end price promotions. Unfortunately, they didn’t purchase enough of it, a fact that the STA team proactively researched and identified. The combination of varied, conflicting information and not enough software was quickly becoming an issue.

Solution

Once issues were identified, STA stood by their original architecture design and worked to alleviate the customer’s concerns about costs and project feasibility. Our team took the initiative to demonstrate to them that HP was clearly superior for delivering what they needed both in terms of technical solutions and value. We researched the entire issue, working with HP, and in the eleventh hour created a “Best and Final” pricing layout that was indeed competitive with both IBM and Dell.

STA and HP were extremely proactive and flexible to work within the CIO’s budget parameters. From the beginning, the CIO always believed in both HP and STA in terms of capability. Pricing was the issue, and it was our duty to address that. Working with HP, we delivered a solution package that was fair for all parties involved.

We proud to say we were awarded the job late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve. And we are proud to act as a guide for this company through their first-ever ERP implementation.