Open Systems Technologies Adds New International Offices, CEO Says Global Capabilities Are Big Competitive Differentiator

Fast growth solution provider superstar Open Systems Technologies (OST), No. 150 on the CRN SP500, is expanding into Hong Kong and Singapore in response to rising demand from its customers for global IT services.

OST, which launched its first international office in London three years ago, says the new locations are on a fast sales ramp with a plan to generate $12 million in additional sales mainly in the data center and cloud storage markets.

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The Hong Kong and Singapore locations have been set up to respond to demands from existing customers quickly, said OST President and CEO Meredith Bronk.

The global capabilities that the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based, $160 million solution provider brings to the table is a big differentiator not only for multinational customers, but also for enterprise customers digitally transforming their businesses for the cloud era, said Bronk.

"For enterprise accounts, global matters," she said. "Whether they are operating globally or not, large scale accounts are affected by what is happening on a global scale. So our ability to think and operate globally transcends into value even for clients who don't operate globally. If I am talking to a healthcare system that is down the street what is happening globally matters and affects them. We are able to bring that perspective."

The global footprint is a critical competitive differentiator for OST as enterprise customers aggressively move to provide more "creative, relevant and capable" solutions for their own businesses, said Bronk. "Traditional CIOs and IT buyers are trying to figure out how to stay relevant to their business with ideas like DevOps," she said.

OST's business transformation services, which include a robust application development team and an innovative "human-centered design" practice, go hand in hand with the global expansion, said Bronk.

"What is so exciting for us is the emergence of how technology is being leveraged inside and outside of historical buying patterns," she said. "We are seeing forward-thinking CIOs who are staying nimble, but more and more technology driven decisions are being started outside of IT."

OST's acquisition of the human-centered design company Visualhero Design in January has been critical in helping win over the increasing number of customers looking to transform their business, said Bronk. "We call it aligning to the cadence of business," she said.

The global expansion began with a demand from multinational customers for OST to provide global procurement and supply chain capabilities, said Bronk."We went global in response to a need that our existing global accounts had," she said. "Our model is understand what the customers need is and come up with creative solutions."

OST's "proprietary" procurement service has reduced compute deployment for key customers from six to eight weeks to 24 hours, said Bronk. "What we are doing is providing availability of compute ahead of demand so customers can have that compute power in their hands in 24 hours," she said.

Bronk credited global distribution giant Ingram Micro and vendor partners Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco and Dell EMC as key partners in helping OST deliver global services for customers. "We have the relationships and the great partners that have allowed us to expand globally," she said.

OST partners have made major program and policy improvements over the last several years that have helped power the OST global expansion, said Bronk. "We are all being challenged to think and operate globally," she said. "Each of our partners have stepped up to the plate in different capacities to help us."