KiZan Technologies Acclaimed in Cloud Computing Services

Grazed from Wall Street Journal. Author: Editorial Staff.

A computing lighthouse for over two decades, the Midwest-based KiZAN is a proven business solutions integrator and trusted Microsoft partner. Robert Steele, KiZAN’s co-chair and managing partner, says 95 percent of the information technology solutions offered by the company and chosen by its clients, come from Microsoft.

No wonder, then, that KiZAN is positioned to ride the cloud computing wave.

“Our cloud business has grown from basically having no cloud practice to being one of our main offerings when we talk to customers about solutions,” said Bill Rieger, KiZAN’s principal go-to-market architect…

Citing a focus on Microsoft Office 365, both men say KiZAN specializes in educating clients on the best solutions for their needs, plus, providing them with choices.

That hands-on approach is a successful formula. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, KiZAN has a Cincinnati, Ohio office, and expansion plans in Indianapolis, Indiana; Nashville, Tennessee; Columbus, Ohio and Detroit, Michigan.

Per Steele, the company has experienced tremendous growth over the last five years, including a 38 percent year-over-year revenue gross from the previous year.

Critical to that growth is KiZAN’s Microsoft partnership, evidenced by it winning the first Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in 1995. The company also just claimed the Heartland Partner of the Year for 2012 demonstrating its continued effectiveness.

Another factor is KiZAN’s willingness to offer on-premise infrastructure solutions as well as cloud solutions. Such an arrangement allows clients to sample, rather than declare instant allegiance.

“What people are doing, are finding something in the cloud to dip their toe in the water, if you will,” Rieger said. “ ‘What is it and how can I try it out to see if it’s going to work for my business?’ ”

This baby-step process works for many small- and medium-sized clients.

“Probably about 60-70 percent of our customers do that,” Rieger said. “And then there are other customers that we’ll go in and do a demo, and show them the features and make sure that we manage expectations with them. And they’re like, ‘Let’s do it. I don’t understand why we wouldn’t.’ ”

In the small-to-medium-size business sphere, many companies don’t have the budget for costly infrastructure overalls.

“They don’t have things like online meetings and they don’t have any one place where they can really, truly manage documents and that’s what they’re looking for,” Rieger said. “They’re looking really to get into that next model of their business, where they can work more efficiently.”

Microsoft Office 365 often provides a perfect solution. Clients who simply put their email in the cloud often find that the accompanying Office 365 business tools are indispensible — especially at a fraction of the cost of their previous email platform.

“That’s a huge benefit and it really increases the velocity of business,” Rieger said.

The Alltech Experience

Alltech, a Lexington, Kentucky-based company that operates worldwide in the animal health and nutrition industry, exemplifies KiZAN’s and Microsoft’s partnership.

Chief Information Officer Tim Arthur says Alltech and KiZAN have worked together for 10 years. So, he knew exactly who to harness when his department began researching cloud email options.

“We literally consider them an extension of our MIS department,” Arthur said. “We have service tickets come into our department that automatically get routed to them… they’ve been invaluable as a Microsoft partner and been incredible with their leadership through this Office 365 migration.”

After 18 months of research and testing, 98 percent of Alltech employees now communicate via the cloud. While cost always matters, Arthur says Alltech’s leadership was more concerned with improving round-the-clock and round-the-world access.

“Our MIS department is tasked with providing parts and services to all 128 countries and that gets to be a challenge,” he said.

And Office 365 helps reduce the cost of servers, software and their platforms.

“It’ been great since day one because KiZAN has stepped in and said ‘We’re willing to do what nobody has — let’s get it fixed, first, and then decide how to build it,’ ” Arthur said. “It’s not a vendor-customer relationship. We’re truly partners.”

Eye on the Future

Thriftiness, a virtue in any economy, also translates to the personnel side. Steele says most KiZAN clients prioritize hiring the best minds, which usually doesn’t mean someone with single-specialty backgrounds. With a cloud-based computing solution like Office 365, a client’s technology talent is better positioned to contribute in other areas.

“A lot of times it allows some of those people who are managing these environments that are moving to the cloud, to do more strategic things that focus more on building the bottom line of the business rather than keeping the server up and running and making sure the mail is sanitized,” Steele said.

Reliability is another crucial factor in KiZAN’s cloud-computing offerings.

Steele, a frequent business speaker, says he often asks his audiences if they would prefer email or electricity if they had to be in their offices at midnight.

“And every single one of them says email, every time,” he said, explaining that the cloud’s reliability mimics the comfort level people expect from utility companies.

Steele says when someone reports a power outage, that person isn’t worried how power plants run. That person only knows he or she pays a bill and wants a resolution.

“In Office 365 you have that same comfort of knowing as long as I’m paying my bills, then I have the comfort of knowing the service is being provided, that I can use this as a collaborative tool for my organization,” Steele said.

On KiZAN’s horizon is more hand-in-hand innovation with Microsoft. KiZAN now is a partner with Microsoft’s Windows Intune cloud solution, and recently launched a management service line for those clients’ desktop environments.

In addition, KiZAN is now a member of Microsoft’s Azure Circle which means they have certified Azure developers on staff to build applications in the cloud. Windows Azure is an open cloud platform that enables developers to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters.

“A lot of organizations, especially in the small and medium stage, also want a company like KiZAN to guide their organization – what’s the latest, greatest thing to come down in 2015?” Steele said. “What’s the next technology that’s going to be like the cloud is now? And how can those organizations leverage that?”

In another arena, KiZAN employees work on development, creating applications to meet clients’ needs. The premise, per Steele and Rieger, is that clients prefer focusing on business and leaving technology solutions to the companies focusing on technology.

“The goal is to stay in front of the curve,” Steele said. “And adapt to providing different services that are still adding value for our customers as the infrastructure moves in a different direction.”