How Solution Providers Are Adapting To Coronavirus

In the midst of the global coronavirus crisis, solution providers are transforming the way they do business even as they work to keep locked-down customers humming and uncover new paths to growth.

If you had asked Anexinet CEO Todd Pittman a few months ago to close a deal with a brand-new customer without ever meeting in person, he might have looked at you funny.

But now, amid the global coronavirus pandemic, Pittman can proudly say his Blue Bell, Pa.-based solution provider business is a veteran of virtual sales.

Anexinet secured a new customer—a national energy company—without an in-person visit, then collaborated virtually with 19 people at the customer to carry out the complex process of prototyping a new mobile and web app.

“We have now moved into the next stage to start designing that,” Pittman said. “And we’ve been able to do all that without ever having to set foot at the customer’s location.”

That was a first for Anexinet, which used collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom and the Miro virtual whiteboard to deliver its “Kickstart” process for digital transformation projects as an online experience. Typically, such projects mean flying four staff members to the customer site for long workdays and numerous nights of hotel stays over the course of three weeks. The virtual model, though, “eliminates a lot of coordination that’s not really a value-add to the process,” Pittman said.

“We’ve revamped our approach with our customers,” Pittman said, calling the virtually delivered project a major success that Anexinet is now replicating with two other customers. “Frankly, [the stakeholders] at our first customer were raving fans.”

Read the whole article at CRN.com »