Video: ITsavvy Innovating the Retail Experience at Fresh Thyme Market

hey Channel insiders welcome back to channel Insider partner POV your source for untapped opportunities and unfiltered opinions in the it Channel all to help you make Better Business decisions I'm your host Katie boso my two guests today are CEO of IT solutions provider it Savvy munu Gandhi and Craig Diggs IT director of naal grocery store chain fresh time markets a customer of it Savvy today you'll hear a firsthand account from Craig about why he chooses to work with it Savvy how together they're creating a better experience for Shoppers and what Craig looks for in a technology partner welcome to both of you Craig it is so special that you are joining us today because you are really going to give us such a unique perspective into working with it Savvy who is your channel partner your it solution provider let's talk about your business freshtime markets tell us a little bit about you yeah so freshtime markets was uh incepted in 2012 we opened a bunch of stores really fast uh and grew pretty quickly we're what we like to call a traditional Farmers Market um with a meeting our customer uh where they are flare if you will um so we still have you know the traditional Coca-Cola and um um Oreos on the Shelf but then we also try to provide the opportunity for our customers to Garner you know more organic uh or more locally sourced produce as well um we've got a huge out relation to our local um producer base um and we're always looking for new sources so and then you know from a technology front uh we're really taking a step forward this year and laying New Foundation Technology for fresh time um and it's it's really kind of brought us closer to our customer and what they're looking for and I just have to say I know I talked about this off camera but as a girl from the Garden State when you described your markets as that farmers market warm inviting style I was like I got to get my keys I got to get in there right now so I think it's so exciting to hear about and it also is surprising because I think for our consumer audience listening you might not immediately connect that with high-tech and techn ology so this is where I really want to dive into talking about how you work with it Savvy and moonu right before I go to you I want to hear from Craig as the client how do you describe what your relationship is with it Savvy our relationship with it Savvy is we dove in head first that's the best way to say it um we have become fully integrated in their in their um offerings and it's been phenomenal from the word go um they truly are a partner in uh in for us in our technology um they bring to us just about everything that we've got to offer right now know and the things that they've been able to bring to us have been have allowed us to to just grow exponentially so it's been great and it's been about nine months now I believe that you've been working together and I think Craig it's it's been the entire relationship has spanned your time so far at freshtime Market so really I I feel like this speaks a lot that as soon as you came in you said this is the partner that I need to go with and and before I go any further with that and moono I really want to give you a chance to to introduce it Savvy a little bit to us would you mind giving it Savvy a background or give us a background on it Savvy and talk a little bit about yourself and your business absolutely uh and so so thank you again Katie it Savvy we're actually we're in our 20th year so this is our 20th year anniversary we're a 430 million doll Technology Solutions provider with a comprehensive value added resale business we have 500 colleagues that come to work every single day that are focused on serving our clients uh and serving each other and I have the privilege of of leading this firm uh we focus in on four solution pillars cloud and hosting Network and security collaboration and then the hybrid Workforce anywhere learning uh and we have a number of solutions that we've developed over the the years uh that help us deliver business outcomes and you know one of the reasons I love having conversations with Craig and is as we've gotten into our partnership with them and as you mentioned it's been it hasn't been that long you know we've been able to really understand you know his kind of corporate strategy what are they trying to achieve as a business how does that then translated into technology strategy that Craig is leading and then from there what you know how do we support them to deliver those business outcomes and uh we'll talk a little bit about it but we're we're so excited about what we've done thus far and really how how we've been able to bring all of our solution offerings to Bear to support uh Craig uh and the fresh time uh organization yes definitely going to dive into that story so Craig I really want you to talk about when you got to Fresh time tell me about how you hit the ground running because you really did and looking at the overview that we had discussed it was something you were excited to really get in there get your hands dirty and say we're not going to be complacent we're going to move forward quickly and tell me the story of how it came to be where you were able to partner with it Savvy to be your it solution provider yes K so when I came in the very first Monday that I was here I actually brought my team in at 8: a. sat him down in a conference room and we had the first real planning session for what we consider to be our new techn technology Division and you know I told my team look guys I know that we've got some challenges ahead of us I you know had the opportunity to kind of get a sneak peek behind the curtain before I walked in the door but you know we've got some things that we've got to get done and again I'm not expecting right out of the gate that we're going to be the gold standard team that is my expectation in the future but I you know I set the stage for let's get let's get going and let's get moving and then we had some very interesting conversations on those first couple of weeks where my team started to come in um and say you know hey these are the really the challenges that we've been facing over the last couple of years this previous leadership made decisions that weren't necessarily the smartest you know move towards maintaining the evolution of te of the technology and so we found also that we had a partnership with a provider that just wasn't great um over the years it had kind of Gone by the wayside and hadn't really been you know kept up um and I like in relationships with Partners especially in the IT industry almost like a marriage um it takes a lot of work and you have to consistently be there and consistently communicate and understand both sides of the fence and where you know they're coming from and where you're coming from and have those conversations and that had just broken down over time and so we were stuck with some pretty tall hurdles to get over um and so I actually had the opportunity through my experience um I had a long running relationship with one of M Moo's uh individuals Steve meter and I just made a phone call and said hey buddy you know and I I've got some challenges and this is I think you guys can help here and he actually he he was kind of funny he chuckled a little bit and he goes well I actually just moved to this new company called it saaby and it just happens that they're literally situated in your backyard and I'm going to be out there next week and we're going to sit down and talk about it and I said hey that's fine let's go you know and so he came on site and we sat down and Steve and I I think that first session was about four hours and it was one of those SI situations where every time I tried to Broach a subject of a of a hurdle that I was trying to get over he would say yeah we can do that you know yeah we can we can do that and it came to me very quickly that hey I'm brand new to this organization and I need to get my team involved and I'm I'm very team oriented anyways and so I took the opportunity to to sit down and bring in munu and melind and Steve and their entire team how and all of them um and we actually went to an offsite uh and I brought my team in we had the conversation around what was what was the possibility the potential that we had with this company and really allowed them to kind of make the decision on the direction that we wanted to move um and it was a resounding yes you know we had we had conversations after that first meeting and everybody that came in and sat down and talked with me it was just yes please you know let's let's do this let's move in this direction let's move forward and so um you know we we had a defining moment there literally the very next day after that meeting my team and I were together in a conference room of in and they it was a resounding yes let's go and so we said all right and and I told them I said you guys are telling me this and we are going to go head first and we haven't looked back since so it's been great I love that so much and for contacts for everyone watching and listening I should point out that fresh time if you haven't heard of it that's okay but they've got 70 locations and we're talking about a large operation um you mentioned that it Savvy in your backyard we know that fresh time is is centrally located their headquarters in Illinois so for example everybody uh Muno was not allowed to wear his U ofi shirt on to the podcast today he wanted to because they did win last night at the time of this taping uh but we went with the we went with the Branded sweater instead but you look great and you're still sporting their colors so yes we are we're still showing our school pride uh but moono I should point out like this is somebody who obviously came in with Great Expectations because of Steve shout out to Steve by the way for bringing these two together what did you do or what how was it important for you to lead the team when Craig called and said I I need this this and that when he reached out how did you go about establishing fresh Time Fresh time as a client and learning about Craig's needs yeah so it's a great question Katie you know one of the things that I think differentiates it sad from maybe other firms in our industry is a lot of our leadership up through and including me have spent a lot of time on the client side leading Global organizations across infrastructure Security application development and so you know we go in not wearing the solutions provider hat only we go in wearing the client hat because we've actually walked many many many miles in Craig's shoes and our other client shoes and so when Steve came to my you know me and said hey I have this fantastic relationship with Craig he's new uh at Fresh time and he's a he's a transformation agent he is not there to be a steady Eddie and just do exactly what they did the day before the year before he wants to drive massive change and help fresh time become a technology platform company that was music to our ears right uh myself uh Milan sha who's our CTO who also spent a significant amount of his career on the client side as a Hands-On individual doing the work brought him in we brought in our sales leader and then we brought in the the the subject matter experts and we like at the Craig point we had an offsite where we brought his entire team in our team and we just listened to understand what are the challenges that they faced historically and and more importantly what is the vision for the future and you know as Craig noted as you know I talked about the four solution pillars uh they just where they had the opportunities we had some great capabilities and and it just we were riffing off each other on technology platforms on technology vision and it was it was just so seamless right but the one thing I want to point out you know and again this is I think this is what separates folks like Craig from from maybe other other technology leaders is he brought his whole team in right he could have done the offsite by himself he could have had myself and Milland and the team he wanted his team to be a part of this journey to listen learn engage provide their feedback and and so when we finished that meeting we had built relationships up and down the organization and so when when Craig was able to then kind of follow up he was able to get the Buy in that he needed because ultimately it's going to be you know our folks and his folks that are doing all of the hard work right in the data center in the stores at corporate it was a stroke of Genius for him to do that uh and it's I think what enabled us to really accelerate the progress that we've made because as as you noted earlier we they've only been a client of ours for nine months and yet they've bought like our solution stack right and we're here to support them uh through that entire journey and so uh that was that was the engagement model and I think you know we love that that that there's nothing better for a partner than when a client comes in and truly shares the The Good the Bad the Ugly the vision and then we can help jointly create the art of the possible and when you do that you know amazing things can happen let's get in some into some examples of creating those amazing things Craig can you tell me an example or two of how it Savvy is helping or has helped fresh time adopt new technology to improve business operations and just generally push the limit to take you to the next level yeah absolutely Katie so one of the first things that comes to mind is our relationship with junipur the manufacturer um they through it savy we are literally in the process of uplifting our entire network stack um from our sd1 solution to all of our switches and routers access points everything um and through that we're opening up the pipelines on what's possible through our business um and you know to Moo's point they they didn't just come to us and say this is the solution that we have for you they came to us with s options and really kind of went through and listened to us as a as a customer and and found out what we were trying to do and found out where our Hench points were and some of the things that we were trying to get through and we had conversations with several different manufacturers to the point you know where we were able to make an educated decision on the direction that we needed to go and I'm so happy that we were able to to partner with juniper they've been a fantastic partner through all of this as well um but there again it Savvy brought a level of expertise because they've been in the field and they they've understood our side of the fence that they were able to say hey we know that you know the the one thing that we would like to bring may not be the greatest option but here's a few more and you know it turns out that what they wanted to bring was the greatest option and it was phenomenal um they did the same thing with our server infrastructure um CET HP culet Packard Enterprises um has small shop yeah they small shop um they've got a new solution called Green Lake and um again listen to what our needs were and the vision that we had for the infrastructure that we wanted to establish and came to us again with a couple of different options and we were able to make an educating decision on the direction that we wanted to move and we able to partner with that manufacturer to to Garner new equipment for you know for our business and it's been phenomenal so far far that actually begs the question for me Craig I know obviously with what you do you have your ear to the ground you know about the latest technology but there is a ton out there and there's the the the devil really is in the details was it really comforting to you to have someone like it Savvy and their team on board to advise you as they gave you these options and how did that help you be more confident in making that decision yes absolutely so anybody that sits in my seat knows that it's difficult weigh that budget and that employee cost to the amount of knowledge that you really have to have on your team in order to be functional and we can't know everything it's it's just a scenario where it's impossible there's too it's too vast of an industry and so as a customer you have to be able to trust your partner and trust that business Advocate to say hey we've been there or we've got a person on our team that has that knowledge and understanding and we've listened to your business case and we know exactly where you're at and we feel like this may be the direction that you need to move the great thing that it Savvy does on this on the side of that is not only do they bring the knowledge and the expertise and the the the backing for it but they also bring a vast opportunity for options and they say hey guys we get it you know we know that the troubles that you're having and we've been down this pipeline again this you know we're going to bring you guys a couple of different options we're going to educate you on you know to the to the best of our ability and then we're going to make a choice together and we're going to move forward that's the great thing about it is again I can't know everything but I know that I've got a partner in my back pocket who can probably find out a solution that we need we're not done yet come back on Tuesday for part two of my interview with it Savvy and fresh time Market thanks to Craig and moono for their time today and thank you for watching or listening you could check out all episodes of Channel Insider partner POV on our website Channel insider.com or watch on YouTube @ Channel inssider newws and Trends you can also listen to all episodes in podcast format on your preferred podcast listening platform don't forget to like subscribe and follow wherever possible so you never miss an episode we put out a new video and podcast every week you can also connect with us on LinkedIn or Twitter or email me if you'd like to be on the show at partner poov Channel insider.com once again I'm Katie boso and I'll see you next time

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