Trace3

THE SECRET TO GROWTH FOR TRACE3 iS THINKING LIKE A MANUFACTURER.

The three-year-old storage solution provider closely aligns itself with a handful of vendors and then makes their goals as important as its own.

“In a way, our vendors are some of our most important clients,” said Trace3 CEO Hayes Drumwright. “We need to make sure we are in sync with what they want to accomplish.”

Drumwright makes it a point to keep tabs on regional growth goals and expansion plans for partners such as Network Appliance, Veritas/Symantec and Riverbed Technology, and said he is an active participant in helping each meet its targets. In return, Trace3 enjoys a tight bond with vendors that have a stake in seeing the solution provider’s business grow.

Part of that growth includes opening offices in new regions. Irvine, Calif.-based Trace3 expects to expand into Phoenix this year, and Drumwright continues to work with vendors on other opportunities. “We talk to our vendors a great deal about where they would like us to go,” he said.

Mike Arends, vice president of sales at Arrow Electronics’ Enterprise Storage Solutions division, said Trace3 is known in the industry for its strong ties to vendors. “Trace3 regularly provides an accurate accounting of details surrounding new opportunities and programs,” he said. “They have terrific focus and commitment.”

Drumwright puts a similar focus on Trace3 employees. He recruits senior people so he can concentrate on vendor relations and growth opportunities. “Most of our employees have 10 to 15 years’ experience in data management,” he said. “They were well known in the industry when I hired them, and they came on with a book of business.”

In addition to expanding into new regions, Drumwright is using Trace3’s relationships and skills to develop new services. For customers with tight IT budgets, Trace3 is setting up satellite offices as disaster-recovery sites. The solution provider also has added WAN acceleration services through a partnership with Riverbed, San Francisco.

“We can centralize administration of outside offices with WAN acceleration,” said Drumwright. “Riverbed makes outside offices perform like they are at corporate.”

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