Imtech
Imtech ICT is a subsidiary of Imtech, a European technical services provider in the fields of electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and ICT. Imtech, with almost 25,000 employees, achieves an annual turnover of over 4.3 billion euros. As part of the ICT division Imtech ICT Communication Solutions focuses on supplying communication solutions for organisations with 250 to 5000 employees; mainly government ministries and agencies, educational institutions, utilities, industry and service providers. In the majority of cases Imtech relies on Cisco technology, making Cisco an important partner.
As do many other equipment and software vendors, Cisco has an extensive partner programme with audits on service delivery and product implementation. Pascal Rijs, Alliance Manager with Imtech ICT, describes his experiences with this approach.“ Cisco helps us with new product development, combined marketing, and business development. On the support services side, we prefer the model of joint service delivery: we take care of the first, second and even third line service calls, and in return we get a discount on the service fee.
The partnership with Cisco requires a lot in terms of training, processes and communication, so it should deliver good value for us as well. The most important component is price differentiation. Cisco has a large market share, supported by a strong local presence. The number of opportunities is in line with the number of Cisco partners in the Dutch market; as such that there is enough profitable business for everyone.
We can receive an extra discount if we are the first to register an opportunity in the Cisco customer relationship system. As this discount is only given to the first, we can use this extra discount for extra margin or to lower our price to secure the deal( usually a mix of both). Cisco furthermore has technology migration programmes for the exchange of equipment or discounts for new technologies, and Cisco funds part of our business development programmes.”
Every year Imtech and Cisco make a joint plan with revenue targets, goals, strategies per goal, a communication plan, and a set of „ conditions of satisfaction ‟. These are „ softer ‟ performance indicators like lead sharing, knowledge development, joint marketing and the perceived profitability of the alliance. A Channel Account Manager from Cisco works at the Imtech office two days a week and has a Cisco incentive on revenue with Imtech.
The parties collaborate on long-term opportunities as well. Pascal Rijs:“ Imtech is involved in the development of smart grids: networks for the efficient distribution of energy from for example wind-energy parks to office buildings. Here we work with Accenture, IBM, Cisco, General Electric and ABB. Cisco provides specific network components for substations, for example. Together with them we have enough volume to design a grid for a whole town.
These kinds of collaborations fit within a trend. Instead of products, we will increasingly be selling solutions. Therefore we need others. In this case Accenture comes with the concept, IBM with the software, and together with Cisco we take care of the infrastructure layer.” 65