Alternative IT Maintenance support continues to succeed while OEM contract sales falter
Posted on Tue, Dec 14, 2010 @ 12:00 PM
2010 marks our 20th year of operation here at XS International. Since our inception back in 1990, we’ve been driven to provide a wide range of fast, safe, and secure alternatives to OEM support. And we’ve tried our best to minimize the overhead and bureaucracy that slows OEM support operations.
It is heartening to start this anniversary year knowing that we have more than doubled our Alternative To Cisco SMARTnet® contract sales to the Federal Government, and that our overall sales are up 60%. We were especially proud of this when we saw that, in November of this year, Cisco announced that some of their government sales have plummeted by almost 50%. We’re glad that our experience and expertise have allowed us to remain successful in what has become a very tough time for other providers.
But we won’t succeed for another 20 years if we simply sat back and expected the market to come to us. We’re not OK with that. Instead, we’re keeping an eye on our markets, and making changes that benefit our buyers. Here’s a short break down of market trends we’re expecting to continue into the next 2 years or so.
- Cisco detractors - As Cisco continues to face both monetary and legal complications, previously loyal Cisco clients will be scrutinizing their decisions to team with the company. If Cisco cannot quickly adapt to this his market landscape, we expect that they will continue to lose contracts to other OEMs and Alternative vendors.
- Increasing demand for high IT ROI - Both Government agencies and Corporate organizations are going to pressure IT departments to squeeze more and more performance out of their department. They’ll expect CIOs and CTOs to work with identical or even reduced budgets, so enterprise IT buyers will be looking for maximum ROI from every single purchase they make.
- More data center moves and consolidations - Progressive CIOs and CTOs across the nation are going to continue to look to data center moves and consolidations as a relatively fast and cheap way to lower some of the costs of IT maintenance and support. We think that most organizations will attempt to reduce the amount of hardware they use to support their services. In addition, they’ll continue to move their hardware into facilities that use cheaper, greener energy.
- A focus on technology refurbishing - Although Cisco and other OEMs often pressure organizations into buying completely new hardware on a set calendar, executives with tight purse strings are continuing to find that they can support their vital services with refurbished legacy equipment.
In the end, we’re not foolish enough to think that we can just expect to continue our success without a lot of hard work. Our experience has taught us to keep an eye on the market, and we’re certain that the trends listed above will continue to be an issue in the enterprise IT market. On the other hand, nobody is perfect. We have to be ready to adapt for unforeseen changes.
As the next 2 years press on, we’re excited about engaging in the conversation around our market. And we’re excited about the prospect of working with the smart CIOs and CTOs in this market to provide real enterprise IT solutions for another 20 years.