|
Declan Van Esbeck leads by example in attaining top-level competency
Managing Director of Redstone Technology, Declan Van Esbeck, has a first hand appreciation of the benefits to be had from being part of HP's Certified Professional Program. Despite his strategic position at the helm of the company, Van Esbeck is a highly certified HP professional who embodies the philosophy of being "hands-on".
Van Esbeck provides added impetus to Redstone's service offering having not only qualified as an Accredited System Engineer (ASE), but also as a Data Center Specialist - one of only two partners in Ireland accredited to such a level.
Based in Dublin, Ireland, Redstone Technology is part of Redstone Plc in the UK and supplies end-to-end ICT solutions to customers. Operating as the company's infrastructure division, Redstone Technology provides the high-end business critical computing infrastructure - including large server farms, clusters and storage area networks - to its many large blue chip customers.
An HP Preferred Partner for the last four years, Redstone has long benefited from a close relationship with HP, the foundations for which were laid several years prior to that when the company was a Compaq partner. Redstone Technology continues to go from strength to strength, enjoying significant growth of around 40% last year - something that Van Esbeck attributes in no small part to the accreditations and expertise attained from being part of HP's Certified Professional Program.
Says Van Esbeck, "In this industry, having reliable partners who offer a quality product is paramount for winning customers and developing long term business relationships with them. If the solutions we are providing are anything less than outstanding, then we jeopardize the prospect of securing repeat sales and maintaining customer loyalty."
"The quality of the technical information that we derive from being part of the HP Certified Partner Program together with the recognition such participation offers, gives us a tremendous advantage over our competitors. Indeed, to potential customers, certification offers a reliability guarantee which proves that we have the right people and professional services skills to fulfil their requirement", he continues.
This competitive advantage has been proven recently with a series of customer wins for a number of high-level contracts - among them the Irish Police Force, Irish Post Office, the Department of Social and Family Affairs and the Department of Agriculture.
As it entailed replacing competitor equipment, the contract to supply the Police Force was, according to Van Esbeck, perhaps the most satisfying for his company. The Police Force sought an infrastructure that spanned storage, servers, software and support for their main business critical system - an application called PULSE.
In Q1 of this year, Redstone Technology completed installation of a virtualised solution, the biggest advantage of which is hugely simplified infrastructure management. Importantly, this contract was secured thanks to the credentials and knowledge acquired through the HP Certified Professional Program.
"Thanks to HP's Certified Professional Program we not only had an extremely in depth understanding of HP technology advantage, but crucially, were able to convey this to the customer. This allowed us to demonstrate how more advantageous our offering was as a technology than the one we were competing against. Had we not that detailed level of knowledge, I don't think we would have won the contract", explains Van Esbeck.
One of eight HP Certified Partners at Redstone Technology, Van Esbeck is naturally keen that his people attain partner certification in order to ensure that key contracts continue to fall to Redstone. Indeed, the imminent qualification of two members of staff as Master Accredited System Engineers, is set to increase such opportunities and further reinforce Redstone's competitive advantage in the marketplace.
|
Printable version
