Spica, an independent software vendor (ISV), is a digital workplace solutions provider. Its model is to help corporate real estate occupiers, owners and managers respond to the changing needs of the workplace through connected digital technologies, ultimately benefiting the health, wellbeing and productivity of building users, as well as driving operational cost reduction.
About Spica
The Challenge
Spica’s GemEx™ products help to ensure the experience of working in a building is the best it can be by supporting employee satisfaction. Spica’s software makes life easy and enjoyable for a building’s occupants. The data collected by Spica-managed sensors and other building management information systems makes it simple to do anything from reserving a desk to seeing in real-time the car parking situation.
When you consider that 90% of a company’s costs are typically attributed to employees in terms of hiring, salaries and benefits, it’s easy to understand why Spica’s focus is on the technology that affects human capital. Increasingly, businesses recognise the link between the working environment they provide for their employees and their investment in and retention of the best people.
Spica wanted to move from a direct relationship with AWS to working with a value-added distributor. They were looking for a partner that could deliver a cost-effective, scalable and flexible model for provisioning Spica’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud-hosted GemEx™ platform for its customers. This would allow Spica to do what it does best: focus on workplace solutions for its customers.
The Solution
ArrowSphere, Arrow’s cloud delivery and management platform, was just the solution they needed. The platform delivers speed to market for Spica, as the right processes are already in place. ArrowSphere handles billing, security, provisioning, training and maintenance. Arrow’s relationships with large software vendors, such as AWS, are already set up giving Spica easy access to the vendors that matter.
Spica has peace of mind knowing that it has enterprise-grade software with proven scalability and security underpinning its technology.
The Benefits
The move to ArrowSphere also opened up opportunities for Spica to work with Arrow’s channel customers, as well as new IoT hardware vendors. ArrowSphere provided a comprehensive cloud provider catalogue and allowed Spica to manage its customers’ AWS cloud services from end-to-end, as well as help it to build an ecosystem of IoT-related opportunities to tap into.
“The less vendors we require to deliver our solutions to customers, the better,” explains Tim Streather, Spica CEO.
“We can power the hosting of our GemEx™ solutions end-to-end with ArrowSphere; and, over time, we will look to provision not just AWS, but other public cloud environments and third-party solutions to drive consumption of our workplace well-being solutions. ArrowSphere brings simplicity to the delivery process by providing the AWS Platform as a Service, which gives us the ability to offer preferable cost models in terms of multi-year contracts. But it also makes it easier to monitor spend thresholds in a secure environment.
“There is also the added benefit that we can work with other Arrow channel customers… those who may have existing IoT hardware to complement our GemEx™ product offerings, which can open new doors to driving sales and increased opportunities. We’re very much part of a wider ecosystem working closely in collaboration with Arrow.”
The Outcome
“Ultimately, ArrowSphere allows us to focus on responding to the changing needs of the workplace and delivering a personalised experience for employees. The overall solution benefits the health, wellbeing and productivity of building users, as well as driving operational efficiencies. Digital transformation in the world of property and buildings should be clearly focused on the people using them and that’s what working with an organisation like Arrow allows us to do.
“As well as being a valued customer in its use of services, such as ArrowSphere, Spica brings invaluable domain expertise to our Arrow IoT ecosystem,” said Richard Holmes business development director IoT, Arrow Electronics. “The team at Spica is a great example of this new breed of IoT organisation that Arrow finds itself working with today that crosses both the operational and information technology sectors and delivers innovative and repeatable solutions to the line of business teams who have an increasing say in how digital technologies are adopted in their organisations.”
This article was originally published on spicatech.co.uk.
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