Overview
Kone Elevators is a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, which was established in 1910 and expanded to Australia in the 1980s. Kone provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernisation, which add value to the life cycle of any building. Datcom has had a very strong relationship with the company for 11 years and will have many more to come. The bond first began through Datcom being a valuable HP preferred partner, the account manager at the time referred Kone to get in contact with Datcom because of their efficiency and capabilities to meet client needs.
Challenge
Kone first came to Datcom needing to create a standard bill of materials for all lift shafts that had to be built within the country. This meant they needed durable and reliable commercial quantities of stock that would be delivered to them in a timely manner to keep up with their fast-turning schedule.
The standard hardware components were the easiest to compile as Kone specified exactly what was needed, including low-failure rate PC’s, monitors, UPS’ and printers. However, they also needed to source a wall-mounted rack, which posed a challenge at the time as there wasn’t a suitable one to match all the specifications that they needed. Fortunately, Datcom was able to introduce Kone to HP engineers who could work together and custom design the perfect rack they needed and continue to purchase to this day.
The Results
Kone and Datcom’s business relationship has grown so strong that their ordering processes have been integrated, with both teams working together seamlessly to complete all orders. Datcom has access to Kone’s Purchase Order portal, which is an essential component of the ordering process.
Although other challenges have been faced along the way such as certain hardware items reaching their end of life or cutting it close for meeting deadlines due to stock restraints, Datcom has been able to quickly find suitable replacements for Kone to ensure that no orders are delayed. Datcom’s proven trust, flexibility, and efficiency have been crucial to maintaining this strong bond over the years.