Case Studies > DSI edge out Dell with Sun power efficent servers

Maxima is one of the UK and Ireland's leading IT solution and service providers, offering a unique blend of deep industry knowledge and specialist technology expertise to deliver real business value to organisations of all sizes across a wide range of sectors. Maxima's portfolio spans a broad spectrum of customer IT requirements, from ERP, CRM, business intelligence and performance management solutions to high quality managed services for your applications and IT infrastructure.

Distributor Systems International Limited has been a trusted partner and supplier to DXI Networks since 2007, and the relationship continues to flourish since Maxima Group acquired DXI in July 2008, with DSI now being a preferred supplier to the Maxima group.

The relationship began when Ben Ford, Business Development Manager at DSI had a remit to build a new customer base for himself and DSI. Ford happened to come across DXI at the time and made an introduction phone call, Keith Foster Operations Director received that call and was impressed by the professionalism and knowledge of Ben and latterly the whole DSI team. Maxima's preferred server vendor at the time was Dell and they initially had concerns over the pricing of the Sun x86 offerings but had heard that Sun had some of the leading eco-friendly servers and smallest form factor while maintaining the highest performance. With Maxima offering a hosting service to their customers form factor, power and cooling are of a great concern and the Sun offering addressed these and it was not long before Sun and DSI alleviated Maxima's concerns over pricing.

DSI are a long standing partner of over 14 years with Sun Microsystems and work closely with the Sun account management team to help make sure we provide the right level of service, pricing and lead times to our customers. Maxima asked DSI to provide a competitive quotation against a Dell offering and we picked up that challenge to make sure DSI and Sun were offering the right products at the right price, Ford says "Everyone knows Dell offer very aggressive pricing and the perception is that Sun are more expensive, however the build quality and reliability are ratings that customers are looking at the saving that can be made on rack space, power, and cooling plus the servers are very competitively priced"

Initially DSI and Sun were not as cheap as Dell but both keen to bring on Maxima as a customer and never like losing to the competition, so we worked closely on some very aggressive pricing to make sure that Maxima knew we were interested in competing to provide not only the best price, but also a higher performing and more energy efficient system. Maxima recognised that they sometimes have to pay a small premium for the leading x86 products and after sales service from Sun and DSI.

Keith Foster, Operations Director at Maxima says "Ben and the DSI team are proactive, agile and quick to respond to our business needs, some of our projects appear out of nowhere and I have the confidence and comfort that DSI are always available and quick to respond to our needs no matter how big or how small"

DSI supply Maxima with a multitude of products and services in addition to the full range of Sun solutions, and the partnership continues to flourish. We build long standing relationships with our customers and at times they become an extension of our team, we believe Maxima will continue to be part of this long into the future.