Well-known among education, local and central governments,emergency services and corporate organizations in the United Kingdom,Compusys PLClc is a systems integrator based in Aylesbury, a suburb of London. Its clients include the Association of Chief Police Officers of England, Walesand Northern Ireland; Thames Valley Police National Framework Agreement; British Educational Communications and Technology Agency; and LondonUniversities Purchasing Consortium Iinter-Regional Desktop Agreement, aswell as a number of university purchasing groups.

"We are just starting toattack the commercialcustomer space withAMD Opteron™ processor-based servers," says Sam Kazerounian, managingdirector at Compusys. 

Customers in these segments have a unique set of requirements, including a clear-cut technology roadmap and slow technology turns, which were not well-supported by available products. So Compusys began considering what it could do to more effectively serve the needs of such customers.

The most important concerns of commercial market customers include product stability and a clear view into how their chosen hardware platforms will evolve. "in the commercial market, customers don't want to change platforms every few months," says graham dark, northern european oem sales manager at AMD.

Power consumption is another key concern in the european marketplace, where utility costs are rising quickly. "Lower power is very important, since utility costs in the uk have risen dramatically over last few years," says Sam Kazerounian, managing director at compusys. "customers are very aware that electric bills are increasingly worse and are keen to find solutions." Conse quently, some customers are evaluating computer products based on how much they cost to run.

Searching For Solutions 

Until recently, most of the desktop computers compusys sold to its commercial market customers were not based on amd technology. However, as it searched for solutions that aligned more closely with the needs of its commercial customers, Compusys was drawn to the technological benefits offered by amd's processors.

"When i saw the products, was excited about amd," kazerounian says, because the products' power consumption is low and their performance is excellent. However, Compusys knew that superior technology alone wasn't enough. "We explained to AMD that we needed stability of products and drivers, and that if they did that, we could push their solutions," he adds.

In 2006, Compusys aligned itself with AMD due to AMD validated solutions (avs), which was designed to help solu tion providers lower their total it costs by minimizing the number of platform con figurations, thereby reducing testing and qualification times, while also simplifying ongoing management. (For more information about avs, see "channeling commitment" on page 26.)

"AVS is fantastic news for us because our customer base wants continuity and consistency of product," says Kazerounian

Compusys became the first, and pri mary, solution provider partner to offer AVS in the United Kingdom "When we launched avs, we needed technology partners that could take that program into the customer base it was aimed at — the commercial markets," recalls amd's dark. "Compusys was ideal, and its sales team was easy to work with."

AMD saw avs as a potential inroad with commercial market clients. "We learned that predictable stability is some thing this sector requires, and we were missing out on it previously," says dark.

AMD realized there was a lot of business that it could capture with avs. The AVS initiative allows AMD to work with solu tion providers, such as compusys, selling to small-to-medium business, government and educational markets. "the avs plat forms offer the reliability, quality, stability amd realized there was a lot of business that it could capture with avs. the avs initiative allows to work with solution providers, such as compusys, selling to small-to-medium business, government and educational markets. "the avs plat forms offer the reliability, quality, stability.

In a complementary program called NVIDIA the Business Platform, NVIDIA, a programmable graphics processor manu facturer, conducts additional board validation and testing, ensures a controlled bill of material from a validated components list, offers system builder certification, and provides for a single-driver solution.

The AVS initiative provides support for amd athlon ™ 64 processors, AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors, and AMD Turion ™ 64 and AMD Turion 64 X2 mobile technology. "commercial customers require solutions with a golden image and a roadmap to transition," says compusys' Kazerounian. " AMD was very clever in making it a 15-month roadmap."

AMD and NVIDIA do extensive validation and testing on both hardware and software components of the system. In addition, any required changes are tested for disk image stability, and changes that affect image stability are subject to an advanced change notification.

Getting the Word Out 

After compusys discovered amd products and avs, it wanted to spread the word to its customers. to support compusys, amd created a brochure about the offering, conducted a mass mailing and hosted a seminar. "We invited end users from the commercial market and presented on avs and our product roadmaps," says AMD's Dark NVIDIA also presented at the event.

Compusys requested that AMD provide desktop systems to allow customers to perform hands-on evaluations of the prod ucts. "We encouraged customers to test the power and the thermal usability on the products," says compusys' Kazerounian. "We know that the best campaign to drive technology forward is to get the technology right in front of the customer."

AMD provided 100 systems for the program, and Compusys placed them with existing customers, according to kazerounian. "nearly 100 percent of those customers came back with posi tive feedback, even though they hadn't considered AMD in the past," he says. "When they tried the systems, they real ized that the systems run cool and that power consumption is very low."

Future Growth

By all counts, avs has been successful. "We've converted almost 50 customers purely based on AMD ranging from police, fire and rescue to education," says Kazerounian.

AVS has also been a success for amd, allowing it to achieve brand recogni tion in the commercial market space in the united kingdom. "the program has opened up doors for our products and for our service side," says dark.

Compusys has moved more of its business to the amd platform and intends to adjust its offerings to include additional AMD products. It will continue working closely with amd on marketing and sales efforts. AMD also hopes to extend the reach of its processors into customers' data centers and server rooms.

"We are just starting to attack the commercial customer space withamd opteron™ processor-based servers," says Kazerounian.

That's great news for the ongoing relationship between Compusys and amd — and for the success of Compusys customers.