IT is always a key foundational department for companies operating internationally. It’s even more important now for companies to implement their digitalization strategies in core areas such as cloud computing, IOT, enterprise networking, and security. Scaling up IT projects at an international level is always a challenge for a variety of reasons, ranging from adopting globally-consistent commercial terms to understanding local tax advantages.

In response, Logicalis has partnered with Cisco for a number of years to help our mutual customers navigate the complexity of global IT projects more efficiently and successfully.

Efficiently deploying global IT projects

How do IT managers–working for multinational companies with offices, factories, and data centers located worldwide–achieve operational efficiencies through standardization and centralization when deploying global IT projects? This can be especially challenging as IT attempts to navigate different time zones, language barriers, specific regional requirements, and local teams vying for non-standard, local decision-making.

This was the challenge Vertiv faced when its IT organization wanted to install a global LAN-WAN refresh consisting of Cisco switches into 180 facilities located in 35 countries. The Vertiv CIO wanted to streamline the process and deliver this global project from North America. To do this, Vertiv worked with Logicalis, leveraging their international sales hub and Cisco’s global capabilities.

Logicalis’ international sales hub consists of a virtual team of over 50 individuals located in 26 countries. This team can apply a laser focus on improving their customers’ experiences and was formed specifically to navigate international deals for Logicalis’ clients and partners. They’re not the sellers. Rather, they’re a sales operations team created to support the sales process from start to finish. This includes navigating across regions, coordinating pricing proposals, escalating challenges, and overseeing deliveries.

Ultimately, Logicalis’ international sales team presented Vertiv with a single proposal that included a consistent BOM, pricing, and terms for deploying a standardized platform and technology.  All are based on the Cisco® product portfolio with the capability to grow with the business going forward. Logicalis also saved Vertiv an estimated six months on the schedule, through the execution of a single engagement representing 35 countries.

Cisco global gold partner certification

Logicalis’ customers benefit from Logicalis being a Cisco Global Gold partner. This is the highest status of the Cisco partner programs and involves a rigorous partner certification and audit process that acknowledges a Cisco partner’s expertise across all regions and geographies. With this certification, Cisco recognizes the depth of Logicalis’ business and technology expertise, along with the consistent delivery of its global services.

For Logicalis’ customers this means:

• Common global expertise: Logicalis, with its locations around the globe, together with Cisco, provides a seamless experience with global managed services and consistent Logicalis and Cisco processes (e.g., global licensing capabilities, trade regulations, and landing sites) for simplified management and faster deployment.
• Local presence, global standards: Logicalis’ centres of excellence in local markets consistently demonstrate the ability to scale and share their expertise around the globe, ensuring customers receive the highest quality of products, solutions, and services to grow their businesses and to enter new regions with confidence.
• Unified global approach: As a global managed service provider, Logicalis has created a common services platform (CSP) that allows it to deliver a unified managed services experience with exceptional operating standards and technical expertise, regardless of customer location.

For Fortive, the combination of the Logicalis International Sales Hub and global Cisco expertise meant that Logicalis turned around global pricing for an IT project destined for 22 countries in only four days. Normally, this type of proposal could take a month or more. Logicalis’ speed is due in part to having people in each country, seamlessly coordinating with each other. It is not uncommon, for example, for a customer to have a desk located in North America reaching out to distributors in other countries, attempting to gather pricing. This is one reason why this approach often yields incomplete proposals, as some countries might not respond to pricing requests.

Consistent service delivery and experience

Once a proposal has been accepted, Logicalis’ customers also benefit from the consistent delivery of Logicalis’ managed services portfolio. Logicalis accomplishes this by having highly-trained resources in 180 locations worldwide. Logicalis enables consistent service delivery and quality assurance through its CSP that provides a common framework to deliver services in all Logicalis countries and locations. As an example, for over five years Korn Ferry has outsourced its help desk of over 9000 staff located in 50 countries to Logicalis to run as an outsourced global service help desk.

Simplifying complexity in global deals

Finally, it can be extremely complex for customers to transact business internationally, for instance dealing with currency fluctuations, local taxes, duties, and local government trade regulations and legistlation. These can be quite specialized within each country, but need to be captured and reflected in global projects. But again, Logicalis’ international team is available to help customers.

For instance, Logicalis provides access to a global account rep, providing a single point of contact for communication involvoing global proposals and deployments. And behind that global account rep is a dedicated team that coordinates quotes, local services, fulfillment in local currencies, and invoices, as well as sharing knowledge of local tax advantages available in each country. In essense, Logicalis structures global deals to deliver maximum efficiencies on the purchases of both hardware and software solutions, as well as professional services.

Logicalis also provides multiple commercial and procurement models, coordinated as part of a global purchase. In addition, Logicalis locations around the globe act as distributors to deliver customer solutions within the customers’ countries of choice, helping to remove concerns about customs, shipments, and import regulations. Ultimately, this delivers local value, but with global structures, while enabling customers to maintain project control.

Going forward

As discussed, Logicalis can provide customers that have global IT projects with a number of efficiencies through its global framework and processes, while also operating in and understanding the nuances of local markets. That said, today’s world is seeing supply chains being significantly disrupted, as regional supplies are demonstrating themselves to be more resistant to global factors. This only accentuates the importance of being able to operate locally. In other words, operating globally cannot be about shipping products from country A to country B. Rather, helping customers deploy global IT projects is about being a single source to navigate the intricacies of global business, which includes accessing local product and talent. And this is an important area where Logicalis, partnered with Cisco, shines.

Learn more about how Cisco and Logicalis are partnering together.

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