Partner Case Study
Partner Layers Incentives
to Build Up Competitive
Advantages
DynTek uses Cisco incentive programs to fund training, build labs, and outperform
competition.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Customer Name: DynTek
Industry: Professional Technology Solution
Provider
Location: Newport Beach, California
Company Size: 220
CHALLENGE
• Win new business by demonstrating
DynTek offers superior value
• Maintain competitive edge even in
price-sensitive markets, such as
government sector
• Contribute significantly to company’s
aggressive growth goals
SOLUTION
• Cisco Opportunity Incentive Program (OIP),
Teaming Incentive Program (TIP) and
Solutions Incentive Program (SIP)
• Cisco Value Incentive Program (VIP)
• Cisco Technology Migration Program (TMP)
RESULTS
• Incentives help fund training of engineers
in advanced technologies and purchasing
equipment for labs and customer demos
• Deeper discounts enable DynTek to bundle
services with equipment at same price as
competitors bid for equipment alone
• Infrastructure and data center practices
grew over 120 percent last year, with
almost 45 percent of revenue coming
from advanced technologies
Challenge
DynTek is well aware of how competitive the market is for technology solutions
providers. The company uses every advantage to distinguish itself with
customers, starting with a strategic decision in 2003 to strengthen its investment
in Cisco. Chris Hagmann, the company’s managing director for data center and
infrastructure solutions, says that, “DynTek watches industry trends carefully and
talks to customers constantly about strategy. Cisco has the best end-to-end
architecture story, and we knew that their solutions could help us solve the types
of business problems that our customers face today and into the future. Being a
Cisco partner takes us to the next level of solution selling, and gives us the ability
to provide a richer experience for customers. It has made us a better company.”
The company is a Cisco® Gold DVAR Partner with certifications in many
specializations, including Data Center Network Infrastructure, Data Center
Storage Networking, Advanced Unified Communications, Physical Security & IP
Video Surveillance, and Unified Compute Systems.
Dan Minella is the district sales manager for the DynTek Las Vegas office, one of
the company’s seven regional offices. He says that being a Cisco Gold partner
definitely gives him a competitive edge. “Customers know that the Gold partner
achievement reflects a tremendous investment in training, so they have a higher
degree of confidence that we can help them architect the right solution. When
I became part of the DynTek team, it was just about the time when we began
taking advantage of Cisco Incentive Programs.”
As a Gold partner, DynTek automatically earns a discount based on the bill
of materials. “Participating in the Cisco Incentive Programs, we can layer the
programs and deepen our discounts,” says Minella. “We can invest in more
training and lab and demo equipment, and add more value around equipment
sales to win business while staying price competitive. We keep finding new ways
to use these programs to our advantage.”
© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
1
Partner Case Study
Solution
DynTek uses the Opportunity Incentive Program (OIP) and Teaming Incentive Program
(TIP) on a weekly basis. “We are just starting to make greater use of the Solutions
Incentive Program (SIP), but we expect that program to be a major contributor,
because it is built around solutions selling, which certainly plays to our strengths,” says
Hagmann. “We have to be as aggressive as we can with every deal, so when we have
the opportunity, we also take advantage of the Cisco Technology Migration Program
(TMP), which gives us sales credits for the trade-in of competitive equipment.”
He provides examples of how the company has used incentive programs individually
and in combination to win business over the competition. “We had a new business
opportunity for a videoconferencing solution to be used for executive briefings. By
using OIP, which simply requires that DynTek register the new contract, we were
able to get the entire bill of materials around a TelePresence solution discounted,”
says Hagmann. “With the discount, we added a whole bundle of managed services
on top of the equipment sales for the same price that the competition was quoting
for the hardware alone. We emerged as the full-service solution provider, as well as
price competitive. In addition, by bundling in services, we automatically added greater
stickiness to the client engagement.”
“We can layer the programs
and deepen our discounts.
We can invest in more
training and lab and demo
equipment, and add more
value around equipment
sales to win business, while
staying price competitive.
We keep finding new ways
to use these programs to
our advantage.”
—D
an Minella, District Sales Manager,
DynTek
Of the company’s 220 employees, about half are customer-facing IT talent. “We are
a very strong technology company,” says Hagmann, “and maintaining a high level of
proficiency and knowledge requires ongoing training. DynTek was an early user of
Cisco’s flagship Value Incentive Program (VIP). We use a significant portion of our
VIP rebates to invest in building our Cisco practice. Going back to the example of that
TelePresence business we won, we have invested a substantial amount of that rebate
money in training engineers and buying equipment for laboratories to ensure that we
are proficient in business video and collaboration technologies, which gave us a clear
advantage in proposing the right architecture for this customer.”
Minella is also a big proponent of breakaway programs. “Recently, Cisco announced a
promotion for the Nexus 3000. We have a few customers who have been on the fence
about when to invest in a unified fabric for their data center. I can show them that they
can get all the features they are looking for at a competitive price. We can also use
that promotional program in combination with the Cisco Incentive Programs and put
together very attractive deals for our customers.” Minella says this has been especially
helpful with the price-driven government sector, which represents about half of
DynTek’s installed base. “The Cisco Incentive Programs do not distinguish by industry;
we can apply them to any industry that we want to pursue.”
Results
Recently, DynTek used the Cisco Incentive Programs to win a major contract with
the University of Nevada Reno. “This was a brand new customer for us,” says
Minella, “and we wanted to find a way of demonstrating the kind of go-the-extramile philosophy that we have.” The business opportunity was for a large wireless
installation. With the extra margin that Minella knew he would have using the
incentive programs, he dispatched an engineer to conduct site surveys at no cost
to the customer before the project was even awarded. “We went to 12 clinics in
Las Vegas and nine clinics in Reno, and completed detailed wireless site surveys
that told them exactly how many access points they would need to install in order to
support the new applications that they planned to run. The incentives allowed us to
stay competitive in price, as well as subsidize engineering time for the site survey,
which was the best way to demonstrate our strong service ethic and attention to
detail to the customer, and why we won the account.”
© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
2
Partner Case Study
Overall the infrastructure and data center practices grew over 120 percent last
year. Hagmann notes that the majority of growth came from advanced technology
areas, such as borderless networking, mobility, and collaboration. “In those areas
we are growing 40 to 45 percent year-over-year. This is significant because these
emerging areas keep us fresh and relevant to our clients, and help ensure that we
continue to have double-digit growth year-over-year. Our growth is one of the keys
to being able to meet the vision of our CEO to double the company in the next 30
months. For us, it just confirms that Cisco has the best partner programs.”
In the region for which Minella is responsible, sales have almost quadrupled from
2010 to 2013. “We continue to invest in buying the latest equipment,” says Minella.
“Our goal is to create a mini-executive briefing center where customers can come
to see Cisco products at work. We want to make it easier and more attractive for
the local Cisco sales team to refer customers to us because they know we have
a first-class facility to showcase their products. We plan to add a lot of security
equipment here next, including Cisco Identity Services Engine, which is still a fairly
new technology for most partners.”
“The value of the Cisco Incentive Programs goes beyond the discounts,” says
Hagmann. “In a competitive marketplace, it is really important to have a close
working relationship with Cisco. Through these programs, we have gained greater
visibility with Cisco sales. I think there is a higher level of trust between the two
companies; they know that we are not going to bid a competitor’s equipment,
and we know that they will not bring another partner into one of our accounts.
You cannot put a value on the importance of having that kind of relationship with a
strategic partner like Cisco. They protect us and we protect them, which is what I
think these programs are designed to do.”
For five consecutive years, DynTek has been the recipient of the distinguished
Gold Star for Customer Satisfaction from Cisco. In the United States, the target for
customer satisfaction is to achieve 4.4 on a scale of 5, says Hagmann, “and we are
above 4.8.” DynTek’s consistently high scores are also an achievement considering
that the customers surveyed are randomly selected by Cisco. “We do not give Cisco
a list of customers that we think will give us the highest marks. For us, our score
validates the fact that we are succeeding in our mission of providing every customer
with the best experience. Cisco partner programs give us a lot of opportunities to
achieve that. ”
For More Information
For more information about Cisco Incentive Programs, visit http://www.cisco.com/
go/incentives.
In collaboration with:
© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.
To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the
word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R) This document is Cisco Public Information.
C36-729243-00 09/13