Keeping regional Victoria connected and growing with resilient, responsive IT partnership

Maxsum Consulting has delivered strategic technology services to businesses for more than 20 years, evolving from basic technical services to managed and professional services for industries including manufacturing, retail, and hospitality. Originally based out of Bendigo, Maxsum’s team works extensively with customers throughout regional Victoria – connecting their uniquely local business needs to technology from best-in-class global suppliers.

“Our clients come to us because they look for responsiveness and a close working relationship together,” says Joe Ciancio, Managing Director of Maxsum. “When we’re looking to engage new business partners, we look for exactly the same things.”

Challenges:

  • Pressure to deliver seamless solutions, at scale and speed
  • Ripple effects from supply chain disruptions to customers’ projects

Solutions:

  • Back-end support for specifications, hardware, and licensing from Dicker Data
  • Aruba as exclusive network solutions provider

Benefits:

  • Greater trust from customers
  • Technical capacity to target more larger organisations
  • Adaptability to evolving customer needs

 

Challenges: Providing frictionless IT expertise amidst supply chain disruptions

“We noticed that coming out of the pandemic, businesses are finding technology even more complex than before,” says Rebecca Ciancio, who leads Maxsum’s marketing and communications efforts. “Our aim these days is to really conquer those complexities and help them find a simpler, more straightforward way through their challenges.”

That increasingly requires Maxsum’s team to expertly configure, manage, and troubleshoot critical networks for customers – including those looking after systems like air conditioning, elevators, and CCTV or other security systems. Doing so can put immense pressure on Maxsum’s relatively lean team, an issue that’s only amplified by persistent supply chain disruptions to on-time product delivery. When that happens, Maxsum’s customers can quickly find themselves at risk of losing business and reputation alike.

“Those delays have a flow-on effect on all the other parts of a project – if we can’t complete the network, you can’t commission the other services relying on it and you can’t hand the building over,” says Jason Thomas, Managing Director of Eascom Electrical and one of Maxsum’s customers. “Being able to solve (the delays) means that we aren’t the ones dragging the chain.”

 

Solution: Fast and flexible support and procurement from Dicker Data and Aruba

“We recently had one such situation where we couldn’t acquire the hardware we needed in time,” says Joe Ciancio. “Dicker Data, however, was flexible enough to source an alternative Aruba solution. If they hadn’t been, the client wouldn’t have been able to move into their construction site by the time they needed to – which is obviously a huge potential disruption for the business and its people.”

Maxsum has partnered with Dicker Data for more than a decade, with Dicker’s team helping bear much of the technical and operational load of rapid growth in customer demand. “We’ll generally work with our internal technical team to create high-level specifications,” Joe Ciancio says, “but Dicker Data will handle the detailed specification list, the hardware and licensing requirements, even technical assistance that we might need from testing all the way to deploying.”

That relationship – built on a level of responsiveness and flexibility that, in Joe’s words, gives them “the best chance of winning business together” – also involves Aruba as the exclusive network technology provider for Maxsum’s solutions. “We chose to work with Aruba because the products provide the best performance, reliability and price point that our clients are looking for,” Joe Ciancio says.

“Our clients will often have issues around security, availability, and performance, but understandably struggle at times to articulate their exact requirements. Aruba gives them exactly what they need in terms of both capability and simplicity.”

For customers like Jason Thomas, that three-way partnership translates into service that well surpasses the industry norm – and gives firms like Eascom Electrical a competitive advantage. “Joe was great in finding something equal or better that was available which could bring our project online at speed, rather than waiting for the 12 months that seems to be the norm now,” Thomas says of a public-sector development that encountered abrupt hardware shortages. “That means the builders will be looking at us much more favourably for their next projects.”

 

Benefits: Trust from customers and strong foundations for growth

The strength of relationship with Dicker Data and Aruba has also opened opportunities to co-present and co-deliver solutions to customers – which in turn has bolstered their confidence in Maxsum’s strategic capacity. “Our clients have been increasingly wanting to know what goes on behind the curtain and the supply chain conditions for what we’re selling them,” says Rebecca Ciancio.

“What’s been great about working with Dicker and Aruba is that we’re able to bring their representatives to meet our customers at events and other engagements. It gives them this surety that these are real, trustworthy organisations we’ve prioritised working with.”

The partnership also puts Maxsum in a strong position to go after even greater growth amongst larger regional clients, both from a technical and strategic perspective. “One of the advantages of Aruba devices is being able to remotely connect, monitor, and administer our networking implementations after they’re in the field,” says Joe Ciancio. “That’s particularly valuable when clients are often quite geographically distant from you, and even more so when you’re aiming to scale up solutions across a greater number of such customers.”

As Maxsum looks to deliver higher-value offerings while maintaining competitive, comprehensive pricing, its strategic relationships with Dicker Data and Aruba look set to grow in significance. “The thing that makes Dicker Data different to other distributors is the relationships – which enable us to get fast responses to just about anything we need,” says Joe Ciancio.

“Working with the people at Dicker and Aruba has been fantastic. Just being free and comfortable to give them a call at any time – it really simplifies the way we do business, so we can concentrate on simplifying IT for others.”

 

The Author

Marilyn Li

Marilyn is the Alliances Manager for the Networks Team at Dicker Data. She works with the team to develop and execute attainable strategy plans with vendors across solution areas. Marilyn is also passionate about assisting strategic partners accelerate their growth through programs and marketing activities.