Softchoice adds Dell to their Keystone Managed Services portfolio, to provide a complementary wrap to Dell’s own ProSupport services.
Mark Connell, Softchoice’s Director of Business Development, Datacenter
National IT solutions and managed services provider Softchoice has become the first solution provider in North America to offer a unique managed service for Dell servers. Their Keystone Managed Services portfolio has been extended to encompass Dell for the first time, with Keystone Essential Services for Dell Servers.
Softchoice in recent years has become a core partner for Dell. They have won the award as Dell Canada’s Channel Partner of the Year for the last two years. They are also one of only seven Dell National Solution Providers in North America. Their premier Keystone Managed Services portfolio has never had a Dell component to it previously however, until now.
“This is an extension of Keystone Essentials, as the Dell support was something we never had before,” said Mark Connell, Softchoice’s Director of Business Development, Datacenter. “The idea developed in the middle of last year but it took some time to get it operational and get it going. It took some time for Dell to understand how our Keystone program worked, as it took time for us to understand how Dell ProSupport works.”
The result, Connell said, is that Keystone and Dell ProSupport are strong complementary offerings.
“We are not competing with ProSupport,” Connell said. “We provide enhanced services as a wrap around the existing support model that Dell has.”
Softchoice also has the advantage of being able to provide an offering no one else has, since this is the first managed service specifically for Dell that one of their partners has been able to provide.
“One of the differentiators on this service is 24/7 first call support with a second level Softchoice Dell engineer,” Connell said. “That’s a big item for customers. The Keystone NOC has a 94 per cent resolution rate, but there is additional Dell support on the backend if needed, and Dell does the break-fix on site.” Keystone Essential Services for Dell Servers also provides incident and problem management, hardware replacement parts, business technology review sessions, and unlimited configuration mentorship, which includes sharing of best practices.
