Modern Workplace & Devices

Kramp

Sometimes professional partnerships go beyond the expected and create value for the involved parts to an extend where the relationship gets personal and trusted. This is in fact the case with our long-running partnership with Dutch-based company, Kramp. Some may ask why a large, global wholesaler ends up choosing a considerably smaller IT supplier – from Denmark. The answer lies within the realm of trust, loyalty, and high-level skills on both sides of the table.

Written May 2023

Prior to working with Kramp, we had the pleasure of working with a Danish company, Grene, who works in production of agricultural machinery and equipment. This is indeed also the case with Kramp, with them being the market leader in this exact field. Story short, Kramp acquired Grene in 2013, and after some years, a new consolidated IT strategy and infrastructure was rolled out in the entire Kramp organization. This let us to reach out to Kramp in order to offer them our expertise.

“Nothing was impossible”

Not exactly a standard phrase when it comes to working on IT projects. But when we asked Ruben van der Graaf, IT Support Manager at Kramp, this was actually a decisive parameter in the early stages of our partnership: “When we were about to manage things at Grene, we did some tenders with a line of suppliers on handling all our hardware. And obviously edgemo, previously working with Grene, was in the run-up”, says Ruben van der Graaf, adding, “On everything we asked them, they said “yes”, nothing was impossible! Our enthusiasm was aroused, and at the same time it made us thoughtful, because it sounded almost too good to be true".

This is not real…

“Back in March 2018, our relationship started to evolve. We could have chosen a dozen of other suppliers, but edgemo’s consistency and their apparent technical level kept us interested, so we took a meeting. We flew to Denmark and told them what we needed”, Ruben says and outlines the initial tasks at the time: “We were looking at all our IT operations, basically. We wanted to automate all heavy, manual tasks from our first line support, to be more efficient. And when edgemo got onboard as our partner we did in fact end up freeing up large amounts of resources. A concentrated process of uplifting”, says Ruben van der Graaf, adding, ”However, when we left the first meeting we thought: This is not real – the price is too low. So, we had to take a second meeting”, Ruben remembers.

Automation is king

Eventually, our collaboration evolved into a very strong partnership around our Supply-Chain Service, PC2go, shipping fully ready-to-use and subscribed devices to end users around the world. “Our company is constantly growing”, states Ruben. “Therefore, we are very much into simplification, so when we order so many laptops, as is the case with us, then a fully installed laptop can actually make a difference”, he says. “We want to give our employees freedom within our framework. That's why we worked with edgemo to set up a standard line for which all our laptops are spec'ed and subscribed. And this service has really been a hit for us. It has been very beneficial for us to implement PC2go, especially since they go all over the world”. Ruben then moves on to talk about the recent years of shortage crisis in the IT industry. “When thing got insecure due to the pandemic, chip shortage and international instability, the buffer stock options in PC2go got really important. Thanks in part to edgemo's help, this had only a minimal impact on Kramp. edgemo came to us proactively and this helped us through this period”.

The fastest client, ever

Ruben’s close contact in edgemo is Business Relationship Manager, Claus Fogh Sørensen, and the process of working with Kramp has indeed made an impact on our side as well.

“I have to say from the beginning, that they are very competent! Ruben and his team are very professional. They can just bring things in that are usually within the reach of specialized suppliers”
Claus says and continues: “They are the fastest customer we have ever onboarded on a service like this. Just a pleasure to work with. And when you add to that the character of our relationship, which is really, really good – it makes it all unique”.

HP on the table!

In edgemo we have a long-running partnership with HP, and they play an important role in getting services like PC2go running. The same goes for Kramp who also sees the trinity of edgemo, HP and themselves as a valuable constellation: “When Claus back in the days brought up HP we did not hesitate. If you want to get HP on the table – then let us bring them in. And a good thing we did! They play a crucial role to us. They follow our ideas and understands our growth and business – HP is absolutely our strongest supplier”.

All about transparency

In business, money fuels most things - but not everything. When it comes to large financial transactions, trust and loyalty are most important. “Money is not the most important thing – but it does of cause matter. But again, edgemo stands out, since they are all about transparency”, says Ruben. “They let us see everything with regards to pricing. This is the price, they say, and we get full insight, which is not something to expect normally”.

A lot different

This brings us back to the essence of this story - the value of good relationships. And Ruben is very conscious and precise about this: “What is very important to us at Kramp are the people – the people make the company. That is why edgemo is much more than a supplier for us – and they are very different from other companies”, he says. “The difference between edgemo and others is that they really are a partner! They don’t feel like a supplier to us – because of our relationship with Claus and Team Delta. It feels like they are a part of my team”, concludes Ruben van der Graaf.