Big HPE GreenLake Win: Advizex Saves Day With SAP Consumption Based Solution Versus Public Cloud

‘The GreenLake solution we recommended with HPE’s Global Managed Services group providing all the support services and migration was the most flexible and economical solution with the quickest migration time and the least risk,’ says Advizex CEO C.R. Howdyshell.

When a top specialty retail company was caught off guard by a change in direction by a public cloud provider, Advizex, a Fulcrum IT Partners company, saved the day with a Hewlett Packard Enterprise GreenLake pay-per-use, on-premises cloud services deal.

The three-year $4.8 million blockbuster Advizex HPE GreenLake consumption deal—which was inked in April and moved the specialty retail provider’s mission-critical SAP ERP application to an HPE GreenLake service—bested a public cloud competitor that was pushing hard for the business, said Advizex CEO C.R. Howdyshell (pictured).

“The GreenLake solution we recommended with HPE’s Global Managed Services group providing all the support services and migration was the most flexible and economical solution with the quickest migration time and the least risk,” said Howdyshell, who has transformed Advizex into an Everything-as-a-Service powerhouse.

[Related: Advizex President C.R. Howdyshell Is Driving An Everything-As-A-Service Revolution]

Howdyshell said his company’s 10-plus-year relationship as a trusted adviser to the specialty retailer along with Advizex’s HPE GreenLake prowess were critical factors in what has turned out to be one of his company’s biggest GreenLake deals. Advizex—one of the top GreenLake partners in the country—has provided the customer with a wide range of solutions over the past decade including data center and VDI consulting and services.

“We’ve developed a lot of trust with the customer based on our value-added services,” said Howdyshell. “We are their trusted adviser when it comes to evaluating their mission-critical IT needs. With our GreenLake experience, the customer knew we had the experience to execute on this solution because we have done so many GreenLake deals. When it comes to consumption, you can’t fake it. Experience is key. The deals are complex. You have to know how to execute and Advizex does it better than anyone. We always lead with consumption.”

Howdyshell credited Advizex sales rep Patrick DeZellar, a 25 year Advizex veteran, for establishing a longtime trusted relationship with the specialty retailer. “It all started with Pat DeZeller,” said Howdyshell. “Pat had the long-term relationship, confidence and trust of the customer. His commitment to the Advizex customer for life experience made all the difference in the world. It’s all about trust.”

The HPE GreenLake win came after Advizex conducted a “comprehensive evaluation” of potential solutions for hosting, equipment, SAP deployment, migration and core platform management services.

“We recommended a cloud-based, off-prem, colocation provider solution with HPE’s Global Managed Services group providing all the support services and the migration,” said Howdyshell. “HPE Global Managed Services is responsible for the entire stack including migration. The customer wanted a single point of accountability. That was key to the win versus the public cloud provider, which had a third party doing the migration. That mitigated the risk for the customer.”

The specialty retailer deal included additional software applications provided by Advizex including Veeam Software, Microsoft and SUSE Linux, said Howdyshell, who was named to CRN’s Top 100 list in 2021 as a disrupter for his Everything-as a-Service leadership.

Advizex has established a strong retail vertical expertise that includes President and COO Kurt Schnieders, a former superstar CIO for retail giants like L Brands and Dick’s Sporting Goods.

“We have the retail expertise from the executive level on down to give CIOs the comfort that we have the experience to meet their scheduling requirements so they can meet holiday demand,” said Advizex Vice President of Consumption Chris Allmen. “That’s part of our core competency and what allowed us to get the deal done with added capacity and agility for SAP. You don’t win opportunities like this without being a trusted adviser to the customer.”

The HPE GreenLake SAP solution provides a” defined billing and cost structure for expansion,” said Allmen. That defined billing structure was a key differentiator versus public cloud, said Allmen.

“Consumption and consumption billing has become a core competency for Advizex,” he said. “The challenge for customers in the public cloud is being aware of the cost pitfalls and managing that process. With the GreenLake solution, we architected it to the customer’s specific application demands. That architected solution comes with price bands and a pricing structure that is well defined and increases or decreases based on utilization. So if there is lower use, there is lower cost.”

Advizex’s presales technical team provided the SAP infrastructure sizing expertise with assistance from HPE, said Howdyshell. “The partnership with HPE has allowed the services that we provide to be seamless with the ones provided by HPE Global Managed Services,” said Allmen.

Advizex —an HPE Service Partner of the Year in 2021—is providing monthly reviews of the SAP environment with HPE and the customer to ensure that the Advizex and HPE teams are “meeting expectations and challenges,” said Howdyshell.

The specialty retailer win is a prime example of the power of the Everything-as-a-Service model, said Howdyshell.

“Customers want a single bill and a single point of accountability that comes with the Advizex Everything-as-a-Service subscription model,” he said. “With the economic pressures facing companies, we are seeing more customers look at GreenLake as an alternative to public cloud.”