Discover how your organization can leverage cutting-edge technology solutions to transform IT & enhance collaboration. Access the JTEK Data Solutions podcast.
Anthony Jimenez
Welcome back to CarahCast, the podcast from Carahsoft, the trusted government IT solutions provider. Subscribe to get the latest technology updates in the public sector. I'm Anthony Jimenez, your host from the Carahsoft production team.
On behalf of our reseller, JTEK, we would like to welcome you to today's podcast, focused on strategic partnership alliances that drive real business results. Jody Ferguson, vice president of JTEK, Jeff Wolden, co-founder at JTEK, Jim Hathaway, principal at JTEK, William Sutherland, channel director at Carahsoft, and Corey Rooney, director at Carahsoft, will discuss how your organization can leverage cutting edge technology solutions to transform IT and enhance collaboration in the industry.
Jim Hathaway
My name is Jim Hathaway, one of the three founders of JTEK Data Solutions. Before that, I met the other founders working at a large global IT manufacturer, and we built this business, started really in late 2012.
Jody Ferguson
My name is Jody Ferguson, one of the founders at JTEK, and, you know, Jim and I also met at that company, EMC. So we've not only been, you know, friends and worked together with, you know, technology, but for a while. So JTEK is for us, has kind of been, you know, together and working, you know, as much as possible to meet the goals, you know, every day.
So it's a nice, intimate family. Awesome.
William Sutherland
My name is Will Sutherland. I'm the director of the channel for Dell Technologies underneath Maryam Emdadi. I've been here about eight years.
I've been supporting JTEK all eight years. Seen you guys for the last eight years grow, and you guys have done an amazing job. So I'm happy to be here, though, and being on this podcast with you guys.
Corey Rooney
Yeah. My name's Corey Rooney. I'm the senior director of partner business development here at Carahsoft, and in my role, I support an ecosystem of over 4,000 value-added resellers and solution providers, and really happy to be here talking to JTEK.
We've been working together, and we helped them at a very, very early stage, about 13 years ago. They bring a unique customer-centric business model and tons of expertise that we're really, really excited by. They share a lot of the same philosophies that we have out here at Carahsoft and are in this business to help support the customer, mission-centric, and really add a lot of value.
And it's important to be working with partners like JTEK in this time of, you know, change in our industry, and so very fortunate to be here with you all day.
William Sutherland
Thank you. I think a big thing, too, like we were talking about call boxes, right? So when we identify from the Dell side on when we do those call boxes with certain partners such as JTEK is how you guys can take and manage our customers when we go through it.
You guys are one of the best partners of doing that, of taking one of our customers and nurturing them and making them your own, and then registering those opportunities and closing those opportunities. You guys do it better than most. And you guys can not only sell a product, but you can sell a solution and what's going to be mission-critical for our customers.
So that's a big thing that you guys, that we love for when we do those call boxes with you guys, that you guys bring from a value add.
Corey Rooney
Would you guys be able to take a minute and tell me about and tell us about how you all got started and what made you want to start JTEK and be in this business? And I'd love to hear sort of your side of and your story. Sure.
Jim Hathaway
I'll give it a first stab. Yeah. I think working in a large company, there's a lot of structure, a lot of process, a lot of internal focus.
I think that just becomes the nature of the beast in large companies. They're more bureaucratic. There's more functions that you have to tend to.
And so for me personally, I would see 14 to 15 hours a week of my schedule dedicated to internal meetings. Wow. So when I would want to travel, I was covering DOD and IC customers at the time when I would schedule trips to go visit customers, which should have been the whole point of the job.
The challenge was how many people I had to call and say, Hey, I can't have this call this week. I won't be here. I won't be available, et cetera, et cetera.
And it's to me, it was an inward focus that just wasn't productive. And so I thought I could do so much more in a smaller business, being more direct with my customers. And so I think, you know, not to speak for Jody or Jeff, but I think there was a similar frustration and we thought, let's narrow our focus on number of customers, but do more for them.
So obviously when you're working with a vendor, you've got the vendor's line card. And if you're a specialist, your specialist line card, you know, and that's it. So we thought, let's get a more relevant, meaningful, you know, line card that's, you know, to our customers and spend all of our time with them versus having internal meetings.
Jody Ferguson
Yeah. The only thing I would add to that, it was, we wanted to, we learned so much, you know, at the bigger companies where we work. And I felt like that was like our training or our reps we got and we wanted to do more.
And it wasn't even just more, not being selfish, we wanted to do more for our families and do different things and be available at different times. What Jim's talking about that 14 hours or a week was maybe reporting or maybe managing or in some places babysitting. So you kind of want to just form your own, you know, form your own company, but put your creative sides into it.
So, and that's really where the Carahsoft piece is. Because if it's not eight years or 13 years, we've been with you since pretty much day one or day two, but it's kind of cool to see how we grew together. We all started out one office.
We all started off doing, to Jim's point, one or two customers. Now look at the size of the team. I just walked in and I met some folks that, yeah, I've been on cadence calls with them, but we've grown with them.
It's pretty cool. And we've learned together, right? We've all had our times where we needed to do more for the customer, we couldn't.
So we filled that void with the team together. How long did it take you all to get from zero to one? We're still going.
I mean. Well, I mean, you know, you're doing okay. So day two of starting was sequestration.
So we all handled that together, right? And we might've still had more time doing call blitz, the demand gen, the demand gen is the biggest part of this whole conversation and why we, we've been successful together. Right.
So we kind of just pivoted and you guys pivoted, we pivoted and we do a lot of things that, you know, get us to not only one, two, but yeah, it's been a, it's been a journey and it's, it's for us, it's, it's been fun because we've done it together. Absolutely.
Jim Hathaway
I think sequestration is actually a good point because that was such a shock to the system of everybody in federal it, you know, for me, that was like, you know, kind of a pivotal moment, right? Who can respond to this, deal with it, overcome it. And you know, just like I said, it was a shock.
And so for us in our first year, it was almost a good problem to have. I would never have said that then, but you realize what can occur. And so now when you look at the, you know, read the news from January 20th on, it's been more of these similar types of shocks, I think not as significant, but definitely they've had a pretty big impact on how people view our customers and how the customers are dealing with just their own lives.
Corey Rooney
Yeah. I've always, I've always looked at JTEK as lean, agile, and laser focused from not just a customer standpoint, but when, when you're working with the OEMs and the manufacturers that we represent, there seems to be this very focused mentality on, Hey, what's going to be successful for the customer. And you bring, I was doing a little bit of research on y'all.
You bring a really interesting five stage approach to, I think every customer engagement, which is advisory services or, or engagement. And I don't remember the steps perfectly, but you, you bring a laser focus to your customers that I think is refreshing when we are looking in this industry, especially this, I'd say administration has been much more focused on department of government efficiencies you know, the one gov solution. And I I've been, I've been very happy to see some of the changes that have been making because there aren't a lot of partners like you.
And I think you do things much more, I'd say creative in this business as opposed to being considered what some people are looking at as a tax. Yeah. I don't see that.
Jody Ferguson
So I think across the board and it's goes right down to the, the employees that we bring on board. The DNA is really like, if you need help, reach out. I need help.
You know, you kind of, there's more, you have more, you have a better, you know, solution or a better offering for a customer when you work together, you're stronger together. I know that's more of a cliche, but you know, we're, we've never been afraid to say, Hey, we need a little help here. Hey, what would you do in this situation?
And we do that with Dell and we do that. I mean, the history there, they've got a lot more customers than we do. They've seen a lot of the same things and challenges that we, we see, but you got to be able to, you know, not be as stuck in that box or the cubicle or you know, just that one, you know, you gotta be able to say, Hey, we need some help.
And I think everyone from JTEK, especially on the sales side, we've, we've done that with you folks and you guys have always been like, here's what we would do. Right. Yep.
And then at the end of the day, that goal and that mission you're supporting, it's even stronger because we're more confident where we might've missed something and we do all the time. Yeah. Um, but it's a little more, you got Carahsoft, you got Dell, you have JTEK and the customer.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. I think to, uh, to a point you made earlier about, uh, the training ground, right. We learned, uh, Jody, Jeff and I all came from, uh, commercial customers.
So I figure a fortune 500 where everything was about the financial sale. I mean, obviously the technical piece was, was clear and no question about that. But just as important was the financial benefit of what you're getting and for how much you're spending on that.
And so we've brought that as much as we can to the federal customer base. And I think that's, it goes to what you're saying about that laser focus on, we try to always show them data driven. Here's where you are today.
Here's what this thing will bring you, whether it's efficiencies with personnel or funding or both. That's the goal is to show them what they're getting beforehand and then afterwards prove it. This is what we said we were going to do.
Look, this is what we did. Um, and it's, you know, people will ask, well, what's your brand or how do you see yourself? And it's like, I don't know if we really have, we're not creative enough to have a brand, but uh, having, if every customer says we had a good experience with JTEK, then that's right.
William Sutherland
Yeah. And that's where I think when it comes to value out of reseller, that's where you guys are. You guys are giving that value add to that customer.
Jody Ferguson
There's a interesting, and we do have a mission statement and not a lot went into it. It's three words. People, process and technology, but that's very powerful.
And if you think about the balance of it and we always say the technology, every technology is great. It's 60% faster, 40% cheaper, just like the next version of the phone. It's very important, but there's a great balance that I think from our side that we deliver very well to the customer.
And it's a lot of people, right? A lot of face time. We've spoke with events.
You've been to a lot of the events, uh, with us. And I think that people, we kind of brought that from the enterprise and commercial side of selling and those customers, because there do have to be in front of them. You have to be educating.
There is that five step process, but when you deliver that on the federal side or a blend of that, I think that's a little, a little warmer of experience. So that makes that journey, journey a little more rememberable. And then I, I truly feel that that's why we continue to do some of the, the same agencies and some of the same organic growth because they understand that journey and they enjoy it.
Right? Yeah.
Corey Rooney
So we've done a lot of work together trying to help you guys identify, identify more customers. Do you think that starts with a specific set of customers or your experience in supporting a specific manufacturer, which works better for you or which have you seen more success with us that we could help you all replicate more in the future?
Jim Hathaway
It's a great question. I think it'd probably be the latter. Yeah.
Um, and, and Will can probably speak to this. He's been working pretty closely with us for eight years. But what, what I think we've seen, maybe you can, you know, it's like I have my perspective, right?
Like you could be very different from yours, but is you have success within a certain account or certain customer base. You show why you're successful and it happens for a number of years, consist consistently, right? It's not a one hit wonder kind of thing.
And that opens up more opportunities. And so what I've seen is someone like will then acts as an intermediary to say, okay, because you've done so well here, I want to introduce you to these other places here that I know those counterparts within my manufacturer base, they're going to work well with you. This is what like you, your kind of work is what they're looking for.
I think this has got to equal great success. I don't know if I'm explaining that well or not, but.
William Sutherland
You are, you are. Um, so I mean, obviously we give a use case around the state department. You guys have done amazing work there and we want to replicate it across different agencies on getting you guys into certain ones that we see.
Not only you guys as a great fit, but also like, Hey, JTEK can come into these opportunities and kind of like you guys were saying was like, build a solution that's going to fit the customer. It's not just going to be a product that you guys want to sell. It's going to be something that the customer mission critical needs, right?
So I think a big thing for us is when we identify, when we identify JTEK as that reseller, you guys have done an amazing work whenever we bring you into, and you guys have done when it comes to like the tribes account and other ones like tribes is it's a tough account. Like tribes is, Hey, like you have to know somebody to know somebody to then when that opportunity, right. And it's very, it's very, it's like the IC, it's very entrusted, like, and you guys came in there and like a year ago or two years ago, and you guys have done an amazing job with getting the customer and trust you guys, and then also going in and giving them the solution that fits their needs.
So that's where we can, we'd like to replicate you guys.
Jody Ferguson
So just to piggyback some of the stuff that Jim and I saw, I think like getting out of your comfort zone. Yeah. There's so much in their portfolio.
There's so many different cybersecurity things. I think we've, what we've gravitated to is the teams, they know different places to solve and be able to solve it for our customers. So getting out of our comfort zone is a big one.
And as far as the tribes, you know, there's another side of our businesses for military sales and it's not a lot of competition there. So try to gravitate to where people don't, aren't hanging out so much. It's easy, the easy, the easy button, I should say, right.
And then provide like coverage on, and if you've been to some face-to-face meetings in the tribes, it's a different, it's a different.
William Sutherland
You guys lean into the hard, which is great, but you guys are the easy button, right? I don't look at it. Try to bring it.
Yeah. You guys are, you guys lean into the hard, but then you guys are the easy button. If that makes sense, where it's like, Hey, like this is a hard agency to get into and you guys break into it and you guys do an amazing job.
And then now it's, Hey, we bring you guys in. Now it's easy for us to bring us into the next deal. The next deal.
Corey Rooney
Yeah. I don't see you all the JTEK team as studying the exhibit 53s and going through the budget line by line. I'm saying, Hey, where's the money?
It's, Hey, where are the problems? Where are the customers that are really struggling, that need a partner in this business that can be with them, navigate the technology manufacturer ecosystem, navigate the solution set and come from an advisory and consultative perspective. I've really seen that time and time again with you all as partners.
And it's shown across, Hey, we've done almost 1500 transactions together over $300 million in sales across a really interesting technology vertical of solutions. And it's across the board. It's where the problem exists, not, Hey, where always the money has been, where everybody's chasing.
So that's something I want to say kudos to you all for. That started on day one.
Jody Ferguson
I think we've always talked about it. We had some good advisements, whether it was on the legal side or putting our contracts together, but it's always been the same thing. Jody, Jim, Jeff, don't worry about the money.
Right. And it all seems to, don't worry about the money. If you can go in there and find the right way to deliver the right solution, the money will come.
Yeah.
William Sutherland
Yeah.
Jody Ferguson
And I think like you look at the, some of the valuations of some of the newer companies, whether it's AI or one or one removed, the money's just, it's all coming. It's the idea. And it's really what problem you're solving.
And that's really what we will try to focus on. Right.
Corey Rooney
Yeah. Is there a good evaluation criteria you for have for who a potential customer you'd want to come in and talk to? Because I think the answer for you all is whoever has a problem, but please, I'd love to hear you and enlighten us.
Jody Ferguson
Back to the days, you know, what we, the audience we service was making sure your, your systems were online. Yeah. 24 seven.
I think that's, if you looked at and collectively looked at all our customers being up 24 seven, no matter what it is, if it's an app or whatever, their technology serving their business and making sure that they're having the lights on all the times and being secure. I think those are the two biggest things that you can, is a common denominator across all our customers. Um, the same businesses that's protesting pat, uh, protecting passports.
Yeah. I can never be offline now and it can never not help you. Yeah.
And it can never have a second. I mean, we can go into all the details that we provide there, but those are the common denominators.
Jim Hathaway
No, I think that's a great, even we have a, some commercial business and it follows the same. Yeah. Those few things, but they're kind of non-negotiable, right?
It's got to be a 24 by seven by forever set of applications and obviously security is foremost. So yeah. Great.
Yeah. A sexy answer, but it's definitely that kind of nails it, right? Yes.
There are plenty of applications where it's like, Hey, we run eight to five Monday to Friday. If that's the case, it's probably not going to be a good fit.
Corey Rooney
And how important is your success with those customers to leading to other customers? Do you see a lot of customers introducing you to other folks within their industry or other colleagues across agencies that have similar situations or they could use you as an advisory services from a sales perspective or technology solution perspective?
Jim Hathaway
I'd say a hundred percent. And it doesn't happen fast. It's like anything else.
Like if you want to build a good relationship, I mean, I don't know, maybe I don't want to say this out loud. Maybe someone got married in a day, but like typically a long, good relationships take a while to build.
Yeah.
Jim Hathaway
Right. And that's, it's, it can be painful when you're in it, but then you're thinking like, where's this going? But, um, I think a lot of relationships with new customers have come from those one-off, you know, everything is kind of like one degree of separation.
So we were talking about some marketing events we do, and it's funny, we'll get, we'll get to a, you know, a place where we're hosting a party or some kind of event. And you notice that there's everyone there is one degree of separation, you know, where, oh, we're like, Mike is only here because Sarah introduced us to Mike, you know, and Mike brought someone else with them and it's like that, the thing continues to roll. And it's maybe another analogy is like a snowball, right?
It starts very, very small, but as it gets bigger, all of a sudden, before you realize that you've got something, okay, there's, there's critical mass here. There's something I can work with.
Jody Ferguson
Yeah. That's a tricky part of being a small business is past performance. Right.
I mean, even go to show with your prime or a sub, that past performance has got to be a certain threshold from a financial side. It's got to be a certain length of time. So we've been dealing and definitely working that space.
And now where we are is we're able to take some of that past performance and promote it. Right. And then we can market that and then find some more of those customers that we're solving that problem for.
Right. But that's been an interesting, you know, mix of ways to promote it and get more business and then keep it organically growing. Right.
Corey Rooney
Yeah. I remember the days when it was a calling on calling a customer at Carahsoft who, and you know, we still get that from time to time, but I don't see your customers as the people you're talking to as JTEK, who it's you're walking into customers that either know you or have, I think, had some experience with the folks that are bringing you into those conversation as this is someone we trust. This is someone that we believe in.
This is someone that's an honest broker for us. So I think we'd love to find ways where we can help you drive more business and uncover more opportunities.
William Sutherland
Yeah. Do you guys have any good use cases? Like examples of like a customer that you guys worked with before that has called another customer and you guys seen?
Jim Hathaway
There's one that's adjacent to that. It comes to mind first because it's such a, we're dealing with it every day. But we had a customer in the Marine Corps who, active duty Marine, went from our customer site to another location where we didn't have a good way of working with them just based on contracts.
And, uh, but we stayed in touch with him socially was like a friend because we'd helped solve a problem. He appreciated it. So this guy became a friend effectively.
And when we needed a absolute unicorn engineer with all the top clearances, a past performance of that engineer that was second to none, I mean, people that you just, they're not on LinkedIn. They're not on social media. I mean, you can imagine the type of background we're looking for.
And he said, Oh yeah. Like one phone call at 10 o'clock at night. And he was like, yeah, because we were texting back and forth.
And I think he's like, Joe, you just, just call me. You know, like let's listen. So literally 10 o'clock on a Wednesday, he gave us the name of someone, hired the person two weeks later, that person then brought in two or three more people.
Those people brought out, I mean the onsite presence where we needed an engineering base. It became all because of one customer where it's, I was thinking about this a lot of times the relationships you don't realize kind of what you've got until you're asking for something. Right.
And we're usually, we're usually asking for a deal. You know, we're asking to get something done. We're not asking for, can you introduce us to another customer?
Can you introduce us to someone, an engineer that might be looking for a job, but all those are out there. So that's the, I'd say that that's one example. Another one was.
I want to add one thing. Oh sure.
Jody Ferguson
Do you know that, you know how that all started? Cause we're, you know, there was the backup team at EMC before the Dell relationship. They're like, there's like a 17 and then this is, I don't know how the number was, maybe 17 or $24,000 networker renewal.
So we're like, well, you know what? Let's go down and meet the customer. We'll take two meetings down at Quantico and sure enough, we went down there and met them and that led to another discussion, that larger discussion of at the time it was a V block.
We sold in there off this, this backup networker. And then he introduced us to his folks and we do a lab day and they all come in and this gentleman, Major Beard is his name and Major Beard is who he's talking about. But that was because Dell worked with us and trusted us to go in and say, Hey, just go in.
And I think what we did was they wanted, they had an Oracle application and they wanted us to set up the rest of the backup infrastructure, which we did. And then we just renewed the licensing the other day, but that's how it started. Dell trusted us.
We got in front of the Marine Corps, the MCRIC, which is a recruiting command. They trusted us and then they trusted us to take it one step further to provide a full data center solution. And this gentleman moved down to another spot and trusted us to put his friend at the fort.
That's a good kind of entryway we usually do business with Dell.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. That's 10 plus years. Yeah.
Right. It's another example that was in DOJ, we had a software build, it's kind of like taking two COTS softwares and building the software to make them talk together. And there were a number of changes along the way that were not part of the contract.
It was, Hey, sorry, can you make this tweak and make that tweak? And they were painful to the delivery team at the time and painful to the software development team at the time. But we never complained to the customer.
We didn't ask for changes of scope or anything like that. It was just, we'll eat it and move forward. Let's just get a good win.
And now that customer advocates for us everywhere. And it's funny, I had another vendor call me and say, Hey, what did you do? They love you there.
You know, I want to work with you because that customer loves you. Like what? And I was like, wow.
It's just, it's funny because you don't see the other side.
William Sutherland
The right thing.
Jim Hathaway
You do the right thing.
William Sutherland
It's not just customers, but it's also vendors to come in and you're saying, I heard this, you did this. We've been trying to work here. And you guys have done a decent job.
Jim Hathaway
Right. He mentioned your name. Yeah.
So what can we do together? So it's kind of crazy. Cause you know, I didn't, at the time you just think like, Oh well, it's easier for us to do the right thing than it is to fight and say, well, you owe us 50 extra hours here and 10 hours there.
It's not worth the time and effort. And again, going back to what's our brand. We want them to say they were always, you know, doing their thing for us that mattered because ultimately I know that it makes their life harder.
Right. They have to go fight with their legal team and their funding. Everybody else.
It's like you there to make their life easier, not harder, right? Get like improve mission outcome. Not let them focus.
If I'm having them focus on legal and funding that are not focusing on the mission. So, yeah. Some examples.
William Sutherland
Those are great. Leaning into the heart. Yeah.
I mean, that's what I feel like this.
Jody Ferguson
Yeah. What you guys are all about. That's good themes.
But yeah, definitely try to, you know, the, a lot of the issues are in challenges. I don't want to say issues, challenges you're solving the technology side. It's just, it's sometimes it's not one way to deliver it, but it's the human way.
Right. Just, Hey, we could help you with this. Right.
You know, don't, you don't have to fill out this document yet. We'll, we'll help you with this. You know, it's not capped at hours.
If it takes to the middle of the night takes, you know what it does, we'll do it. That's great. Yeah.
What else do we want to talk about? What's important to you all? I mean, we've had so many great milestones met and not, this is definitely not a JTEK brag session, but what is it should be?
I mean, we're here. We're great. We're beautiful.
I mean, all these things. I mean, it's all been the people that have made us who we are and you guys embracing our people. You know, we've all had those challenges.
Salesperson. It's only there for eight or nine months, just getting started. And, and you've guys embraced all our new, our new folks and bold folks.
But Dell recently, I think it was the beginning of May entered in a, not a lot of folks get an opportunity, but they offered us a letter supply where we can work with your team and the Dell team, which is a very small community. Yeah. So that was a big milestone.
Uh, over that time period, we got, um, uh, an opportunity to be part of the partner round table, which is only a handful. We're talking handful. Sure.
Five, six, seven or eight, nine, 10 folks are at the table. Those are great things that, you know, you can put on the wall and look at, but for Jim, Jeff and I, that gave us some validations. We're moving in the right direction.
It's fantastic. There's a lot of days where, and, and, you know, we all come from the sports world and you have six bad days and one good day. There's, there's weeks where you just, just can't see the light, but you just keep, keep moving forward.
You know, when we first started, I always, Hey, it's like building a tree house. You bring any shingle today. Jeff brought in a two by four.
I brought the nails, but you're constantly still evolving like that. So that those two things made us very proud because that Dell, Carahsoft, validated that. Right.
These are much larger organizations. They've been around a lot longer. I serviced the governor a lot longer than us.
And the other thing was, is we're building an inside sales program. That's now on a year of transitioning, but we have some great milestones. As Matt, we just added two more folks in March and the amount of things they've done with you folks and the amount of things that, that, that they've done from outreach appointments, the amount of dials, those are the things that you call the blocking and tackling of the business.
But that kind of gives you those other two things. Letters apply the GSA, the things that we're doing with you and the validations there.
Corey Rooney
So yeah, a lot of the little things are adding to the big things. Well, you mentioned the GSA and federal contract vehicles, and we're fortunate to have built up a pretty robust, I'd say portfolio of vehicles. You all have been a terrific partner in embracing that model and working collaboratively with us and understanding, hey, let's work together on this.
Let's accelerate this process as opposed to trying to overcomplicate it for the manufacturer. And I think that that's led to a lot of your success. So I just want to point that out that I think it's been a keystone to our partnership and your ability to help scale into this market.
Thank you for that. 100% of course. You're an interesting story from starting from scratch and really coming in.
And we're one of, I think, if not the first partner where we looked at and said, hey, I think we could help these folks accelerate because they brought a mentality of, hey, we're leading with solutions. We're focusing on the customer. We need help from the back office.
And we went through that early on, and we understand we're not in this business without partners. We're not in this business without small partners. And there are, I'm not going to say a lot, but there are a lot of partners in this business that might not be adding nearly as much value as you.
And if we can help a partner like JTEK accelerate, it was an easy sort of light bulb for us to say, how do we help these folks get their story and help get technology solutions in front of customers faster without having to worry about all the challenges of being a small business? So we're very happy.
Jody Ferguson
I mean, just banking. Our first thing, Craig was like, oh, I can help you with that, and got us introduced to Zenith and all these things. They're little things, but they mean a lot.
And take a lot of time.
Corey Rooney
So talk about a couple of use cases that you've been successful with from a customer standpoint that other customers and other vendors need to know about that represents your success in this industry. Any that come to mind?
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. So I think one that sort of jumps out is with State Department. And what makes it unique is kind of going back to our roots of financial wins and working with the customer to understand.
And actually, even thinking about today, you mentioned government efficiency. Everyone needs to show that they're not overbuying, that they're getting a good price for what they're using. And at the same time, Dell, as a manufacturer, brought a program to market called Apex, where effectively you're able to buy like they're buying cloud services, but they have on-premises solutions.
So for this customer, let's say they needed 500 terabytes of storage, but they're only going to use 150 today. That's all they get charged for, is they get charged that amount of usage on a per-month basis over a period of time in the contract. And so for them, they get everything they need up front.
They're only paying for what they use on a monthly basis, which is really a win for everyone. And for us, it's a new way of buying. We were able to take this contract to their – they have an organization that does all IT contracts for all the different bureaus.
And so it's approved by them. So now we can actually do this across the board with all the bureaus. But for us, it started with inside consular affairs.
And again, just a win for everyone, a win for the manufacturer because this is a program they rolled out. Carahsoft was instrumental in helping us negotiate this because this was a financial instrument that we were unfamiliar with. And so you guys had brought some leadership and expertise there.
And again, the customer, they're able to show that they weren't doing large capital expenditures anymore. Everything was brought down to smaller operating expenses.
William Sutherland
And explaining that, like consumption models, it's kind of tough for the customer, right? They don't understand it. They maybe were burned before from a consumption model.
But you guys went in there, and you guys did a great job of explaining it, having the customer trust you guys on it. It's a complex sale, and you guys did an amazing job with delivering that to the customer and, again, saving the customer.
Jody Ferguson
Yeah, I think for them, it came closer to the easier button because of the budget strengths and the financial, how the money flows in and out. And then they've recently, in the last probably year or last 15 months, have said, hey, listen, we have a bunch of Cisco gear, or we have other things that we need in the environment. And since it was so easy, I don't know if the word was easy, since it was so much easier for us to do it this way, do you mind just adding them to the counter?
Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Which started as something just, that was all Dell, and now they need some network equipment or they have some old network equipment that they would like to put in so it makes it easier for their budgeting, for the financial flow of how they pay for it.
Of course.
Corey Rooney
Then we can do that. Has that led to additional opportunities in other use cases, or is that something that you find?
Jim Hathaway
Yeah, I'd say additional manufacturers within that customer, and what we're doing is we're taking that use case to other customers to say, this is what they did, and here's how it looked before, here's how they were doing things before, here's how they're doing it now. And every federal customer has experience using cloud-based contracts. So for them, it's okay.
They have to get their head around the fact that it is on-premises, but they don't own it. It's just effectively rental, right? You're paying for what you use, and that's it.
And once they understand that, it seems to go much faster. They see that they're not on the bleeding edge. This has been done.
Right, exactly. Nobody wants to be the pioneer.
Jody Ferguson
I think from a case study or use study or from learning from other customers, as we talk about taking this solution to other customers, we have a pretty successful commercial enterprise business. Customers like Penske Auto, Warner Brothers here locally. Not that they're ahead, but they've tried things in the market that some of our federal government agencies have been able to do because of how their budget flows.
So we have one customer that went all in on kind of a public cloud and then brought everything back to a Dell EMC solution. But we've learned from that, right? So to be able to take that lessons learned or all that data, say, Mr. Customer, we've seen this work in this situation. We've seen it not work. We could talk to them. You were at an event with them.
But we've learned a lot from ... There are two different types of animals, the federal market and then your traditional commercial company or enterprise company or law firm. The way they buy is completely different.
How they buy is completely different. When they buy is different. But then they solve it with some of the same solutions.
It's just a different way of doing it. So we've kind of taken that commercial model and applied it to the federal model or at least showed them an opportunity to do things differently.
Corey Rooney
Looking a year or two out, what does success look like to JTAC? Where do you all envision yourself from a growth perspective, from a customer perspective? What does shoot the moon look like for you all?
I'd be curious to hear what you have to say.
Jim Hathaway
So I think one thing that's really hard in a small business is you try something once, it fails, you don't want to do it again. Right? But in the bigger scheme of things, one failure, like say you're playing blackjack, so what?
Right. You keep going and going and going. You go, oh, actually the process works, but you might fail three or four times in a row before you win five times in a row.
So what I'd like to think is that over the time we've tightened up on what we know works, even if there is failure, that's inevitable. Right? So because we've tightened up on what we know works, when we get more opportunities from someone like Will saying, hey, I want you to work with this team and this account, we're successful more often than we're not.
Right? So what we see is just kind of an exponential growth in the amount of times we try something, the success rate gets better because we know how to do our job better. I don't know if that's not a super concise answer for you, but...
Corey Rooney
No, it's great. A Hall of Fame hitter is missing six out of ten, isn't getting on base, more than six out of ten times. Right.
So the fact that you all are willing to continually try things despite the fact knowing this might not work for this specific customer, but we want to go tell this story, I think is what separates you from some of the partners that are a little bit more, I'd say, risk averse and, hey, we're only going to focus on a very small set of customers or a very small set of solutions and really lean into what we know where you all take swings. You all take a lot of swings, and it's been refreshing to see that in a partner as lean and as agile as you.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. And I would say to add on what Jody had mentioned earlier about that Marine Corps customer, it started off with, say, a $20,000 opportunity, but then it grew to millions just based on building that relationship, going back to the whole idea of the snowball or the relationship that's got to start small and then grow. So when Will introduces us to people and says, hey, this is something I think you guys would be good at, we trust Will's judgment, and we say, okay, hey, it only led to a $50,000 deal this year, but okay, that's a net new logo.
Yeah. Getting that new customer is hard, super hard to come by.
Mm-hmm.
Jim Hathaway
Right? I mean, everything is challenging. So when you're able to see even a small win, we've got to celebrate that and say, okay, great, next year it's going to be $150,000.
Next year it's going to be $500,000, right? And we know that that will happen.
Corey Rooney
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jim Hathaway
Where maybe a company that is just starting this year says, $50,000, we can't live off that. Let's move on. So just something that we've learned.
So when you say success, maybe it's a few new customers. Yeah. And we're seeing that ramp up.
William Sutherland
Yeah. A few new logos, too. Yeah.
And that's one thing that when it comes to JTEK and introduce you not just to customers, and for Dell, it's like introduce you to the big logos, right? And even the small emerging ones that we're bringing on, too. Yeah.
Hey, we have a valid reseller that knows the solutions, knows how to go in and get not only the customer entrustment, but also the vendor entrustment as well. Yeah. Yeah.
Corey Rooney
I don't look at you all as looking at it as a customer, as a logo. I look at you guys as having a customer as a, hey, a client that you'll want to work with or do your best to try and support for the life of your relationship. So that's how I see you guys in this market.
Jim Hathaway
I mean, ultimately, people want to work with people they like. Yeah. And the people they trust.
Yeah. So that's ultimately what we're always trying to earn.
Jody Ferguson
Yeah. I think the people thing, you look at the next year or two, I think my thoughts don't change. Two of the sales people have been on almost seven years.
They're here another two years. You're doing something right.
Corey Rooney
Yeah.
Jody Ferguson
And it's part of growing this insight team. I started it last March as two, and now we're at almost three to four. And if they're here in two years, you're doing something right.
Yeah. They wouldn't want to pick up their gym bag and go somewhere else. So it's a very checks and balances.
But for me, it's 100% success is around the people. Got it. And they stick around.
They are around. You're taking care of them. They're growing the teams.
You're enabling them. Right. As much as we can enable and get them in front of net new logos and to Jim's point, that's the recipe.
They just come and just repeat it. Yeah.
William Sutherland
I love it. In the last eight years, how much have you guys grown in scale with JTAC?
Jody Ferguson
I mean, from revenue, it's at least 20% every year, right?
Jim Hathaway
Roughly.
Jody Ferguson
Roughly.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. I mean, I'd say that's the compound annual growth.
Jody Ferguson
Yeah. From services, that's been probably the most explosive part of our business. And that's everything from the cyber range engineers that are working at the fort now, which validates a lot of the things that we're doing with our recruiting.
Ben is the hardest part of the business. Recruiting. I'll look at him.
The people.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. Absolutely.
Jody Ferguson
And we've always, in the beginning, in the first couple of years, we didn't do as much interviewing as we should because we find out so much more. Whether it's the customer or who they're working with or what's worked. So we spend a lot of time interviewing.
I mean, I do a lot more for the cyber and the folks that will end up on that contract. But the salespeople and the amount of time that you spend with, you know, he's like, it's almost like poker, Jody. We take three cards in.
That piece is the most difficult part of it.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. You got to keep improving your hand.
Jody Ferguson
Yeah. Always be recruiting. But I find that that's the hardest part of the business.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah.
Jody Ferguson
And if we get good at that.
Jim Hathaway
The rest takes care of itself.
Jody Ferguson
Right. We'll find the technology and we'll find the customers.
Corey Rooney
Are there any technology trends that you all are seeing that are more on the bleeding edge side or where you think are, hey, the next virtualization, the next cloud computing, the next AI ML. Is there anything that your customers are starting to express interest in where you're trying to stay ahead of the curve or that you're seeing that you're getting excited about it? I'm very curious to hear.
You all are very deep with your customers. You're very close to your customers. I'd be curious if there's anything on the horizon that you're getting excited about.
Jim Hathaway
You know what? I wish I had a better answer for you. For the new things, the new hot technology on the federal side, they're mostly looking to us.
Well, it's just outside. Yeah. And so then a lot of times we're asking our commercial partners or commercial customers, what are you seeing?
Because they're so much faster to try, fail, move on. Right. Than federal.
Just even because they can get access to things, access to money, access to lab space, build it, either their successor's failure and move on to the next one. Whereas the government, think about that time of money to get money, to apply for the money, you got the people to set aside people for that. So I'd say no, there's a lot.
I think if anything, the hype right now, especially on AI, is much greater than the results that we've seen. Yeah. And so it's good in a way because it gets people excited about looking forward to the next thing, but we haven't seen the results yet that the hype justifies.
Yeah.
Jody Ferguson
I think across any technology or any way it works or what problem it solves is just easy to use. Yeah. It's easier.
I mean, not that people want the easy way out, or they do, but just so much more going on. There's so much more music. There's so many more solutions.
I mean, I think we met with some folks where there's 2,700 cybersecurity products or offerings, and that's a lot for a customer to digest. I remember when they just would look at seven different companies and pick a firewall and a storage provider. There was five or six of them.
And then the public cloud came, and that was a different form of buying it. So it's really having that just ease of use. It's going to be a little easier than the last version that we have.
You still understand the iOS, the operating system. It still solves the same problem, but it's- Do more with less.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah. Yeah. Do it more effectively.
Jody Ferguson
And we're all being pushed that way with different financial packages with different, if it's DoD or Intel or civilian. No one's coming to you and saying, you won't believe this, but I got 60% more than last year to solve the same problem.
Corey Rooney
Yeah, right.
Jody Ferguson
There's 60 more percent problems and a little less to solve it with.
Corey Rooney
So what I'm hearing is that the customers that you're finding a lot of success with are the ones that are still struggling with all of the solutions that industry has brought out that are the data center, the infrastructure, moving towards a cloud computing environment, moving away from a cloud computing environment back to private cloud. Those are still challenges that customers are experiencing that you're capable to help them with.
Jim Hathaway
100%. Yeah.
Corey Rooney
Those journeys are every day.
Jim Hathaway
Yeah.
Corey Rooney
Well, great.
Jim Hathaway
Thank you guys for your time.
Corey Rooney
Yeah, this has been fantastic.
Jim Hathaway
Appreciate having us.
Corey Rooney
We really appreciate your partnership and wish you all the best and our peer continually help you grow. Thank you very much. Yeah.
Anthony Jimenez
Thanks for listening. And thank you to our guests from JTEK Data Solutions. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe to CarahCast and be sure to listen to our other discussions.
If you'd like more information on how JTEK and Dell Technologies can assist your organization, please visit www.Carahsoft.com or email us at delltechnologies@Carahsoft.com. Thanks again for listening and have a great day.