1T2C, or One Throat to Choke

This is a follow-on/update to a blog entry from February 18, 2012. It extends the concept AND highlights a vendor of TriAxis' that, frankly, I am still surprised that there aren't more professionals familiar with them. Best kept secret and all that stuff

The vendor about whom I am referring is a Sunnyvale, CA-based firm: TERiX Computer Service. They have a compelling value proposition: eliminate all (or as many as you would like) of the various infrastructure vendors support contracts and they will be your one throat to choke, or, if I may, 1T2C. And, they'll provide better customer service. Why? Because they have to.

They do this by providing flexible and innovative hardware and software maintenance service offerings that range the spectrum of OEMs. And, they have thousands of customers worldwide, including some of the largest corporations in the world and many of TriAxis' clients. This includes one of ours, a DoD defense contractor that sits squarely in the top quadrant of the Fortune 500. And it includes many of our smaller clients, also.

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'Driven' is the concept that has set them apart. I got this term from their website and I wholeheartedly agree. TERiX is a company comprised of engineers and support personnel with a passion for hardware, driven to provide organizations the best, and most innovative, service options available today. Why? As I said previously: Because they have to in order to succeed against the likes of Oracle, IBM, HP, Dell-EMC and the like. We've been able to continue renewals of existing contracts as well as grow our client-base. This is due to TERiX's commitment to a superior customer experience. As they say, "Their unapologetic (cool choice of words that) goal is to exceed the capabilities of the OEM and other third party support providers across a wide range of metrics." And you know what? They do it. Every time they engage our customers.

How do we know it? Three easy to understand metrics:

1. Customers Renewals
2. System Count Added to Existing Contracts
3. ​New Customer Count

Want to know why? Our customers get longer life out of existing investments. They choose NOT to be held hostage by the 'forced obsolescence' sales concept that many of the major OEMs wield over their customers to drive new product sales. There are clearly times when our clients have already too much invested in a particular tool, to replace it. They, TERiX, then take ownership of the support and ongoing maintenance, hence: 1T2C.

Essentially, our customers get treated as ... well ... as customers. And, at TriAxis, we are just fine with that!

Recently, we provided a new contract to an existing customer (not to be a tease, but I can't yet release the name) for an EMC Storage environment that was working great. But the cost of maintenance (remember forced obsolescence?) was making the financial justification for keeping them more and more difficult. That's when they asked us if we (TERIX via TriAxis) can support their CLARiiONs.

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My initial introduction to TERiX was in the previous millennium (late '90's.) I liked what I saw. The key founders, Bernd Appleby and Jim Olding, knew what it took to compete with the major OEMs and had a natural affinity for customer service. These were the right ingredients to create a competitive offering in the third party maintenance marketplace.

It's also when I met Dottie Fulginiti, a professional about whom I consider their star "Client Caregiver." She has been the 'go to' person for all of the accounts to whom TriAxis has introduced TERiX's services. I continue to like the value and expertise TERiX is bringing our clients, especially since Dottie is still responsible for all of the clients that entrust TriAxis/TERiX for their support and maintenance. It occurs to me that they were the first vendor TriAxis signed, back in 2003. And, as I recall the circumstances, it was an easy decision since I had worked with them successfully for years prior to then. They gave real value to our customers then as they continue to do today.

The way I see it, here are your choices:

• the traditional multi-vendor approach: “Dell says the problem is on the NetApp side…" or "I'm sorry, but our maintenance after three years always goes up. Maybe it's time to buy something new..." and so on. And so on. Or...
• the 1T2C approach, as described above.

Not to get too far off the subject concerning 1T2C, but I recently had a discussion with the CEO of another technology partner of ours, Srinivas Yalavarthy of Indmax. We were chatting about a few accounts with whom we collaborate and how, in a multi-vendor approach, especially in the infrastructure support space, we are achieving 1T2C. We are increasingly finding that the complexity of legacy (read: Dell EMC, NetApp, IBM, HP, Cisco etc.) storage, networking and server systems is helping fuel his outsourced remote IT management services growth. This continues to present itself as an area of growth to TriAxis as well for our SaaS-focused clients. More to come on this topic as I continue to look at managed services (gratutitous plug for TriAssist Services here...) to provide measurable value and supplement our current storage-related offerings to our existing clients as well as to assist new ones.

1T2C it doesn't roll off the tongue, but it is a growing and successful model, nonetheless.
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Tom Mumford is Co-founder, CEO & CTO for TriAxis, Inc.

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