Everything's Bigger In Texas: A Tour Of Denali's Mobile Integration Center

Denali Climbs A New Mountain

Denali Advanced Integration, No. 116 on CRN's Solution Provider 500 with $180 million in annual sales, changed the mobile device landscape when it opened its state-of-the-art 20,000-square-foot facility in Plano, Texas. Denali celebrated the grand opening with a weekend of activities from Oct. 4-7. Here is a look at the new facility from the Redmond, Wash.-based powerhouse, whose corporate logo is a vista of Mount McKinley (Denali), the highest peak in North America, with the tagline "Above The Rest."

The Wall Of Giving

The new facility, like every Denali office, has a "Wall of Giving" in the lobby dedicated to highlighting Denali's involvement in community charities and activities. Denali, which raised $50,000 this year for Seattle Children's Hospital, participated in two Texas charity activities on its grand opening weekend: a casino night for Dallas-based Children's Medical Center and golf tournament with a $15,000 donation to the Wipe Out Kids' Cancer Golf Classic.

Welcome To Denali's Plano Facility

Pam Tammen, executive vice president of client services for Denali, welcomed visitors to the new facility. She said Denali has focused first and foremost on mobility services in Plano. But the facility also will be able to handle all other configuration services, including data center services. "We have built this facility to deliver the full spectrum of configuration services," she said.

A Thank You To Denali Sponsors

Denali Founder and CEO Majdi "Mike" Daher stands in front of a banner thanking the many sponsors of the grand opening festivities, including Zebra Technologies. Here Daher is flanked by (left) Zebra Channel Account Manager Ken Griffin and Zebra Sales Director, Western Region Dean Sanders. "We value our partnership with Denali as a technology leader," said Sanders. "Their approach to assisting customers in solving IT business issues by engaging in operational planning sessions to scope out customers' entire needs is setting new standards in the industry."

Mobile Device Management Prowess

Denali, which has more than 40,000 mobile devices under management, is already moving 1,500 mobile devices a week in and out of the Plano facility for Crossmark, a 108-year-old Plano-based sales and marketing services giant with 34,000 associates in 47 offices including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico. Here a Denali technician preps ruggedized Motorola mobile devices.

Room To Grow

Everything's bigger in Texas. So is Denali's 20,000-square-foot mobile device integration center. Denali CEO Daher (left), who is seen here with Andrew Foster, client and mobile solutions sales specialist in Plano, said there is still room to grow at the Plano facility. "I'm a believer that you always have to have capacity to grow," he said. "Because when the business comes, and it will come, you have to be ready for it. Mobility is the single largest opportunity in the IT business."

Denali's Chief Configurator

Brett Tietjen, configuration center manager for North America for Denali, makes sure that the new Plano mobile device integration facility meets the rigorous standards for configuration, imaging and shipping that have made Denali, with its 80,000-square-foot Redmond facility, one of the most respected solution providers in the country. With the mobility business, Denali is providing end-to-end management of mobile devices and even taking responsibility for devices that it does not sell such as Android-based mobile phones.

Denali's Cisco Gold

Denali, a Cisco Gold partner, ships data centers on a pallet for customers. Here is some Cisco gear at the Plano facility ready to be configured and deployed for customers. Denali this year won Cisco Breakaway Partner Of the Year award in the U.S .West region. Denali has experienced triple-digit sales growth in its Cisco business over the past year.

A Color-Coded Key For Success

The Denali configuration facility uses color-coded bins to ensure best-in-class processes for configuration. The beige bins signal inspection necessary, yellow is inventory ready to be put on warehouse shelves, blue is for deployment, red is for repair, and green is for recycle. Here is a Denali sign identifying the color-coded keys hanging on a warehouse shelf just below an Intermec mobile device box.

The Denali Family

Daher thanked customers, vendor partners and employees, all members of what he calls the Denali family, for making the Plano grand opening possible. "Thank you for your partnership," he told those celebrating the opening with a Texas barbecue With the grand opening, Daher said Denali, which has been serving customers in Texas for nearly three years, is no longer Texas' best kept secret.

Hard Eight Pit BBQ In The Denali Lot

Bryan Blair, pit master for Hard Eight BBQ, adds more wood to the pit right in the Denali lot. The menu included Texas brisket, smoked sausage, baked beans, potato salad, coleslaw, iced tea, and cherry and peach cobbler.

Good Music And Good Food

Denali customers, employees and technology partners, including representatives from Cisco, VCE, Zebra, BlueStar and Tech Data, listened to country music from Crawford & McAdams.

An iPad Moment

Nearly every Denali customer event includes customer giveaways. Here a lucky customer accepts an iPad from Daher. Denali is an Apple value-added reseller.

Queuing Up For The Barbecue

With the tour complete, Daher celebrates the grand opening with a plate of genuine wood-smoked Texas barbecue provided by Texas' own Hard Eight BBQ. That's genuine Texas brisket being served. You can't get that in Washington State.

Touchdown

If it's Texas, there must be football. Denali's grand opening festivities included hosting, along with vendor partners Cisco and VCE, customers at AT&T Stadium for the Notre Dame vs. Arizona State University Shamrock Series. Here, Daher, decked out in Irish green and a Notre Dame cap, raises his arms signaling a Notre Dame touchdown. Final score: Notre Dame: 37, Arizona State: 34. Denali: No. 1.