By Melanie Grano
Insight is a Fortune 500 IT company with a global portfolio, operating and inspiring technology change around the world.
Insight is not only ranked No. 7 in the list of Fortune’s “World’s Most Admired Companies” for IT services in 2021, it also won upwards of 37 awards in 2020.
With over 11,000 employees based worldwide, operating across 19 countries and boasting revenue of more than $9 billion in 2018, Insight is a company built on innovation and delivering technology solutions to clients of all sizes, enabling them to manage their IT environment for the benefit of today and tomorrow.
The Insight story began in 1988, when founders Tim Crown and Eric Crown set up their first business, Hard Drives International. Since then, business models and solutions have changed, and the company has acquired a multitude of technology organizations and service providers to expand internationally, but its focus on culture and people has remained the same.
Insight President and CEO Ken Lamneck said the company’s goal is to “make meaningful connections that positively impact the lives of the people we serve, including our clients, partners and teammates.”
This profile explores some of those connections and changes over the years and looks at how they have inspired Insight’s core offering today.
Specialties
Insight is built on its ability to provide technology solutions to global organizations of all sizes. This is managed across four key specialties:
1. Cloud and data center transformation
2. Connected workforce
3. Digital innovation
4. Supply chain optimization
Cloud and data center transformation
This is where Insight helps organizations with aligning their workloads to deliver business operations in flexible and scalable ways. Through assessments and managed support, Insight gives organizations the advice and technical guidance to solve IT challenges. This covers infrastructure, enterprise IT and innovation, data center transformation and migration to the cloud.
Connected workforce
Insight is a company built on the power of teamwork and how to use company personnel to its greatest advantage. Using this vision, Insight delivers a connected workforce service area, which focuses on connecting the workforce and providing them with the technology required to get the job done quicker and more effectively. Insight provides support in attracting and retaining high-level employees, delivering the technology required by employees and managing business transformation across every level.
Digital innovation
Digital innovation is all about making sure a business stands out, and this is one of the key strategies that Insight focuses on in its portfolio. This speciality uses creative thinking and the power of scalable transformation to give businesses a competitive edge, achieving better outcomes by optimizing business operations, engaging customers and employees and enhancing the end product for the end customer.
Supply chain optimization
Supply chain optimization focuses on the IT used to manage different business operations and how to ensure that the IT in place is supporting the business at its most valuable touchpoints. The key areas of Insight’s focus include IT spend, how to simplify processes and put in place the most efficient technology solutions and how to set the business up for future transformation.
To manage their services, Insight presents clients with a portal login, giving them access to a myInsight account, where they can manage procurement and their chosen products and services in a single location.
Target markets
Insight operates on a global scale, offering end-to-end solutions to large companies and service providers as well as the public sector.
Insight’s IT support services and technology solutions serve clients across the following areas:
• Construction technology
• Enterprise business
• Financial services
• Health care and life sciences
• Manufacturing technology
• Retail and restaurants
• Service providers
• SMEs
• Travel and tourism
Insight supports individual enterprises in adapting to a digital world, while retaining a focus on high-level security, networking and community requirements. The addition of Insight’s public sector support covers transformation for agencies, schools and health care providers.
Change is delivered by Insight through the deployment of over 4,500 technical resources, 3,500 hardware, software and cloud partners and over 600,000 products.
User opinion
Gartner Peer Reviews gives Insight with 3.8 stars out of 5 overall. Delivery and execution is the highest-rated area, earning 4 stars out of 5, with 75% of users recommending Insight as a high-quality and reputable service provider.
The top review for Insight recognizes the company’s streamlined process, high-level communication and competitive pricing among other areas.
Industry recognition and partnerships
Insight was placed in Gartner’s 2021 “Magic Quadrant for Managed Workplace Services” in North America. This accolade supports the client-focused approach of Insight’s services and showcases the organization as one committed to delivering workplace solutions to a diverse group of clients.
Other awards and industry accolades received by Insight in 2021 include:
• No. 7 ranking on Fortune’s list of the “World’s Most Admired Companies” in the IT services industry
• No. 58 ranking in Great Place to Work’s “Best Workplaces in Texas”
Insight has a strong partnership program in place for those organizations that want to join their mission to bring IT solutions to enterprises of all sizes all over the world. In the last 10 years, Insight has acquired and merged with more than nine service providers and organizations, supporting its global expansion and services for clients.
Financial position
Insight (Nasdaq: NSIT) reported net sales of $8.3 billion in 2020, increasing by 8% for the full year. Gross profit increased by 14% to $1.3 billion, thanks to an increase in earnings from operations of 13% to $271.6 million.
The increase in gross profit and the rise in gross margin by 90 basis points for the year to 15.6% reflects the continued focus on growing the higher-margin cloud and services business operations.
The company experienced a decrease in client demand and came across supply challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, cash flow from operations remained strong during 2020 at $355.6 million, with Insight focusing on the IT needs of businesses continuing to increase their reliance on remote working.
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