Since its founding in 2006, Centorrino Technologies has focused on delivering second-to-none customer service as its competitive advantage. The managed services provider upholds rigorous standards in customer satisfaction scores, helpdesk response, datacentre uptime, and other indicators that keep it accountable to its customers Australia-wide. However, Centorrino’s team was well aware any slowdown in operational process could threaten this reputation – and needed to be addressed as cohesively as possible.
Challenges:
- Inconsistent performance from other distributors
- Fragmented engagements with distributors and vendors
Solutions:
- Consolidated distributor agreement with Dicker Data for all Aruba-related pricing, stock, and support
- Adoption of Aruba Managed Service Provider program
Benefits:
- Substantial growth in deal volume and size
- More efficient, proactive network management
- More resilient customer care, powered by Dicker Data’s service quality
Challenges: Service quality risks from a fragmented distributor network
Centorrino, like many other MSPs, had historically worked with a relatively large number of distributors, even when sourcing from a single vendor. When even one distributor fell short of its commitments, however, Centorrino’s timeliness and accuracy of customer service would face significant and sometimes recurring risks.
“When we’re working on proposals for clients, we strive to be as fast and precise as possible – it’s part of our brand promise,” says Philip Milione, Head of Operations at Centorrino. “And buying from this big network of distributors wasn’t always allowing us to hit our quality standards. We were encountering repeat issues with other suppliers and knew we needed to make a shift.”
Centorrino’s team also saw substantial upside in consolidating its distributors, both from a support and pricing perspective. “We felt that if we could centralise our distributor and vendor choices, we might be able to achieve greater economies of scale that would not only help our bottom line, but also result in back-end efficiencies that we could translate into timelier customer service,” Milione says. “Their level of service directly correlates to what we’re able to offer.”
Solution: Doubling down on trusted relationships and economies of scale
Milione and the Centorrino team decided to start by consolidating their Aruba solutions through Dicker Data. “We were originally working with three distributors for Aruba product, but Dicker Data’s team definitely stood out from the rest,” Milione says. “The relationships we had with their people were consistently giving us the best performance on price, stock, and support – and we felt like we could really trust them to do much more.”
The personal depth and trust in those relationships played a key role in the decision. “When I think of Lisa Harris (our Dicker Data account manager), I know who she is as a person – who she supports in the footy, where she likes to holiday, what she’s going through,” Milione says. “And I also know that we can not only have a good chat, but also get urgent work done together, with absolutely no doubt that she and the team will deliver on their promise.”
In one instance, Centorrino was undertaking a large-scale campus network refresh for an independent school – one of the firm’s biggest Aruba deployments at that point – when a key distributor failed to procure sufficient stock. “We had non-negotiable deadlines because of the school holiday window, and there was real fear we were going to lose what was a very major deal at the time,” Milione recalls. “But when we pivoted to Lisa and Nicole from Dicker Data, they turned around quotes and got hold of stock in next to no time – essentially pulling a rabbit out of the hat so we could deliver on time.”
Dicker Data now handles Bills of Materials, quotations, and stock procurement for all Centorrino Technologies’ Aruba deployments, acting as what Milione calls a “trusted advocate” for Centorrino’s interests. And building deployments on Aruba Central has led to much easier deployments with substantially higher levels of support for customers – allowing Centorrino Technologies to simplify the rollout process and even lower the skills threshold needed to do the work required.
The consolidation process also freed Centorrino’s team to investigate new possibilities with its vendors – like becoming an Aruba Managed Services Provider in 2021.
“The Managed Services Provider program has amplified Aruba Central’s impact to give us even bigger efficiency gains,” Milione says. “Instead of having to run hundreds of logins like we do on other vendors, we’re now able to go through a single multitenancy portal for Aruba Central which forms the cornerstone of our network operations centre. We’re now able to not only monitor all our customers’ network performance in real-time from the one platform, but proactively jump in if an issue pops up and resolve it before users even notice.”
Benefits: More resilient customer care and substantial sales growth
Adopting Managed Service Provider status has given Centorrino Technologies a new edge in customer service for its wireless solutions. “You’re able to reach this new level of professionalism with proactive monitoring,” Milione says. “Being able to call your customer, instead of them calling you, and tell them there was an issue but it’s been fixed – it sends a clear message that we’ve got their interests front of mind every day.” It’s a change that also paves the way for two of the firm’s strategic priorities: interstate expansion and growth into new markets like education and government, without compromising service quality.
At the same time, partnering with Dicker Data has helped Centorrino’s team improve revenues and margins alike, with the Dicker team helping to negotiate more attractive pricing and support bids for bigger deals. “Our team at Dicker doesn’t just help us win business, but also become more successful from the perspective of our operating margins. It’s a win-win at both ends of the spectrum,” says Milione.
Centorrino Technologies has already expanded its partnership with Dicker Data beyond Aruba, to include HPE Hybrid IT solutions as well as licensing for related products like Veeam. That relationship looks set to grow even further as Centorrino’s team take on increasingly ambitious infrastructure projects, including a full datacentre refresh and a move towards end-to-end Aruba and HPE deployments for larger enterprises.
“It’s a logical progression to go deep with these selected vendors who have earned our trust,” Milione says. “When they support us, we’re able to support our customers; and as we grow, so will the partnership. The team has full confidence in Dicker Data to grow alongside us and deliver on those big wins together.”
Ready to grow your business with Aruba? Reach out to aruba.presales@dickerdata.com.au to learn how.
