Curvature empowers CIOs to challenge status quo

Curvature announces its new approach for transforming the delivery of multi-vendor, global technical support services. Formerly known as Network Hardware Resale, the company has unveiled a new name to better reflect its evolution towards becoming a global provider of independent IT infrastructure services.

Since its founding in 1986, NHR is now a strategic partner to more than 10,000 customers worldwide, spanning Global 1000 enterprises, small and mid-sized businesses, telecommunications service providers, financial institutions, government, educational institutions and healthcare organisations. The company has transformed from a basic reseller of pre-owned Cisco equipment to a leading independent supplier of vendor agnostic IT infrastructure and operations services. Curvature is uniquely positioned to help CIOs regain control of how they procure, maintain and upgrade multi-vendor IT infrastructure.

According to Mike Sheldon, President and CEO of Curvature, the new name reinforces a long-standing commitment to offering customers choices and solutions that allow them to excel in meeting ever-increasing business and technology demands.

He comments, “We firmly believe that our customers need to be in charge of their own IT destiny and not feel forced to depend solely on OEMs to guide crucial lifecycle management decisions. The cornerstone of our approach has always been to allow customers to dictate their own terms when it comes to IT purchasing. We chose the name Curvature because it represents a change in direction from the norm, and our offering has long surpassed the former name Network Hardware Resale.”

Debunking the five year equipment refresh myth
Curvature’s approach to services and equipment debunks the myth that customers should upgrade their equipment every three to five years. With Curvature’s NetSure services, the company gives customers an opportunity to extract more value from IT infrastructure by extending timelines for equipment upgrades and IT refreshes.
A recent Forrester Consulting study entitled “Challenging the Status Quo on Maintenance Contracts and Refresh Cycles to Lower Costs”[i] revealed that businesses miss an opportunity for significant cost savings when they buy into accelerated refresh cycles guided by OEMs.

Key findings include:
· Up to 79 percent of those polled reported refreshing their wired networking infrastructure every five years based on industry averages guided by OEMs
· 81 percent bought maintenance from their OEM, yet cited little value; responses around the biggest challenges with their existing services were motivated by misrepresentation of cost savings, new fees and inflexible pricing schedules
· 80 percent would look to third-party maintenance options

Delivering greater value with hybrid support services
According to Forrester, the total economic impact of acquiring new network hardware, pre-owned network hardware and maintenance contracts from Curvature can yield hardware, maintenance and warranty cost savings; improve service efficiency; reduce network downtime and provide asset recovery revenue. Curvature’s NetSure customers can deploy hybrid network services to augment and/or replace OEM maintenance at up to 50-to-90 percent cost savings.

In “Challenging the Status Quo on Maintenance Contracts and Refresh Cycles”, Forrester Consulting stated “in today’s economic conditions, businesses highly prioritise expense management, placing continual pressure on departments to maintain or reduce operating budgets…. After surveying 304 IT decision makers, Forrester found that even though IT budgets are under constant scrutiny, businesses have defaulted to vendor influence, which has blinded them to the rewards of extending hardware life cycles and third-party maintenance solutions.”

Today’s announcement marks this shift in the company’s strategy towards offering customers more hybrid support services, and continuing to support clients in debunking the five year equipment refresh myth.