For many businesses, operational efficiency and profitability have become key drivers of success. Leaders of these companies often seek simplified solutions, even for complex technical challenges.
It is important for businesses to have seasoned expertise at every step of the IT modernization process, with any complexities handled by a trusted and proven transformation partner. That’s why Kyndryl has been working with multinational electrical distribution and services company Wesco Anixter for 28 years.
“We have a 360-degree relationship with Wesco Anixter. They are a very important alliance to us. They are our customer — and they are a key and trusted ecosystem partner within our own business,” said Chris Scott, Global Alliance Leader at Kyndryl. “We’ve been partnering with Wesco Anixter for more than 20 years. The work that we are doing together to evolve our relationship positions us well to work in this new transformational environment.”
So, how do two companies with long-lasting relationships turn their partnership into something new? In a candid conversation, Scott speaks with Delroy Rhooms, Vice President at Wesco Anixter, about emerging industry trends and how the two companies are helping customers navigate them.
Scott: Let’s start by talking about how Wesco Anixter and Kyndryl work to help our customers.
Rhooms: The great thing about how we’ve worked together over the years is that we understand how the other operates and does business. That means we can work together to serve customers better than either of us could help them alone. Kyndryl has the size we need to reach big customers with big projects, and Wesco Anixter has the on-the-ground expertise that Kyndryl can rely on for the tactical aspects of an engagement — pre-provisioning, pre-assembly and installation of systems for a range of industries.
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We have a 360-degree relationship with Wesco Anixter. They are a very important alliance to us. They are our customer — and they are a key and trusted ecosystem partner within our own business.
Scott: What are some examples of success?
Rhooms: In general, we bring local relationships and an intimate knowledge of regulations and common practices to the table. By working in tandem with us, Kyndryl can bypass many of the entanglements that are common across markets. One example that springs to mind is what we were able to accomplish for a petrochemical company. By working together, we advanced the customer’s IoT (internet of things) rollout by constructing private 5G networks and installing and providing the handheld and other devices to access them. Kyndryl had the scale, and we had the regulatory knowledge and technical expertise.
IoT is about more than just what happens on the factory floor. For a petrochemical company, IoT also includes things like lighting control and providing secure access and monitoring for large facilities with lots of outdoor space. The customer needs to know what’s happening in the parking lot as much as what’s going on throughout the workings of the plant. It’s an example of how expertise and scale can complement each other to deliver an integrated solution to the customer. It also makes us easier to do business with.
Scott: How does the Wesco Anixter-Kyndryl partnership make it easier for customers?
Rhooms: Our customers have complex problems that require sophisticated solutions. They trust us to help them identify their challenges and design ways to manage them. Essentially, customers come to us for results, not process. We are the experts who understand the complexities, and part of our job is to ensure that our customers don’t get bogged down in the details of how we structure a system. They just want it to work. The more we can give them a simplified view of how we fix things, the better. That’s why we do a lot of pre-provisioning and pre-packaging of our systems before delivery, so when we arrive, we can install completed systems. It’s a simplified and efficient way to deploy systems in a timely and cost-effective manner, whether you’re talking about a datacenter or a private wireless network.
Scott: What are some important trends for businesses to watch?
Rhooms: For our network and edge customers, it’s all about private 5G and LTE networks that give them visibility and operability across their digital and mechanical assets in ways that are both efficient and secure. People think of security threats as a challenge to IT platforms, but bad actors can get into a network through its weakest link, which could be any device or system connected to a network. So that ends up being very sophisticated and important work for us.
For our relationship with Kyndryl, we’re more able to capitalize on our long history together by moving in the direction our customers are headed — giving them the services and solutions they want and need as their industries evolve. It’s not quite a “solution in a box,” but because of our 360-degree partnership, we’re able to bundle our deliveries in ways that reduce risk for our customers.
