Proact Estonia secures major deals and expands market share with Hitachi Vantara

Overview

Challenge

• Help enterprises tackle increasingly complex IT challenges, from supporting mission-critical applications to running cutting-edge AI and analytics workloads.

Solution

• Partnered with Hitachi Vantara to deliver best-in-class block, file, and object storage solutions, and harness valuable sales support and resources.

Outcome

• Combining Hitachi Vantara technology with Proact’s expertise creates a compelling sales proposition, winning major deals with enterprises across Estonia.

Challenge

For more than 18 years, Proact Estonia has helped clients to unlock the power of their data and achieve positive business outcomes. Part of the Proact IT group, which operates in 12 countries across Europe and North America, the company offers expertise in infrastructure, networking, data protection, cybersecurity, and cloud.

Karel Kannel, Managing Director at Proact Estonia, explains: “We specialize in working with organizations where the availability of data and core applications is critical. Most of our clients are large enterprises in the telecoms, government, and financial services spaces, but we can support organizations from any sector.”

In today’s environment, clients are navigating an increasingly complex set of data management challenges. For example, Proact often receives requests to help organizations handle data growth cost-effectively, protect against emerging threats such as ransomware, and design platforms to support cutting-edge AI and analytics.

“Things are evolving very quickly,” adds Karel Kannel. “Many organizations are now facing data sovereignty issues and want to move workloads off the cloud. We also see many who are unhappy with rising VMware licensing costs and are looking for storage infrastructure that will support alternative virtualization technologies. They often struggle to find vendors and partners who have the right solutions for their problems.”

Solution

From day one in its journey, Proact Estonia has partnered with Hitachi Vantara to satisfy demand for best-in-class storage infrastructure. Over the years, the company has provided clients with the full range of Hitachi Vantara block, file, and object storage solutions, including the latest generation of Hitachi VSP One solutions.

Andres Parts, Sales Director at Proact Estonia, explains: “Before joining Proact, several of us worked at a company that was the first to offer Hitachi Vantara in Estonia. When we came here, it was natural to continue our work with Hitachi Vantara, and the wider Proact IT group had an existing framework agreement in place to facilitate this.”

As part of the collaboration, Proact Estonia harnesses demo equipment from Hitachi Vantara to showcase new concepts to prospective clients at its offices and at sales events. For example, the company recently developed a solution combining Hitachi Vantara storage with Oracle Linux Virtualization Platform as an alternative to running VMware.

“Hitachi Vantara has always been a partner that keeps its promises,” continues Karel Kannel. “The communication from Hitachi Vantara is excellent, and any time we receive an unusual request from a client, the team will find a solution for us. For example, when we had an order for a product that was no longer available, Hitachi Vantara delivered a newer-generation version for the same price, and the customer was very happy with the result.”

Outcome

Through its partnership with Hitachi Vantara, Proact Estonia has developed a compelling sales proposition based on scalable, secure, and resilient storage to support everything from mission-critical applications to AI and analytics projects. As well as designing and implementing solutions based on Hitachi Vantara systems, the company also offers a full range of support and maintenance services to optimize performance.

Andres Parts continues: “We operate in a relatively small market here in Estonia, and opportunities to work with enterprise clients don’t arise every day. So, when we win a client, we really need to keep them. That makes quality of service so important, and the Hitachi Vantara solutions and our wider expertise help us to meet expectations and ensure client satisfaction.”

Over time, Proact Estonia has won many major deals based on Hitachi Vantara solutions. For example, the company supports a large government client with storage to run its critical databases, and recently secured a win with a pioneering green energy manufacturer. Plus, the company has provided Hitachi Vantara storage for many years to Elisa Eesti, one of Estonia’s leading telecoms providers.

“With Hitachi Vantara solutions, we can provide the best possible platform for clients, whatever their data management challenges,” concludes Karel Kannel. “When we talk to clients, they often tell us that they have had a poor experience with a product, and will never use that vendor again. We never hear that with Hitachi Vantara.”