Podcast: Have You Met? David Perkins, Level 8 Solutions

Level 8 Solutions called into the Defrag This - Have You Met? podcast studio to provide some insight into how they are implementing IT solutions in the UK.

Level 8 Solutions (L8 Solutions) is a partner and distributor of Ipswitch products in the UK formed by a group of technology enthusiasts over 14 years ago. They implement a series of IT products for clients in the UK and EMEA from security products, hardware, and network management solutions. David Perkins is a leading Sales Manager at L8 Solutions and has seen first hand the work that goes into adding new solutions to the IT stack. More specifically, David has been working with his clients to implement Ipswitch products such as MOVEit managed file transfer and WhatsUp Gold (WUG), Ipswitch's flagship network monitoring solution. 

They started out wanting to implement network management and monitoring solutions. After analyzing a series of network monitoring solutions, L8 Solutions decided to work with Ipswitch to distribute and implement WUG for clients in the UK. The rest is history.

"We quickly needed to get into bed with somebody that provided the right sort of service on network monitoring. After a sort of beauty parade, we chose WhatsUp Gold, and use WhatsUp Gold today," David explains.

David goes on to explain how they employ their product engineers to implement Ipswitch solutions in the UK. L8 Solutions has its infrastructure to make the products easy to understand.

"We like to think that through our product engineers, we can talk [IT's] language that clients need, so that we can make it easy for them to understand the Ipswitch product set."

David has many stories and unique use cases for how his clients are implementing Ipswitch solutions. The first use case he spoke to was an earlier use case from about eight years ago. A global consultancy business that has a presence in more than 150 countries around the globe to be more specific.

David tells the story, "They had only bought distributed WhatsUp Gold, and it wasn't working for them. We began to provide the services needed to get that product working."

Ultimately, the company told L8 Solutions if they can't get the product working for their client in 6 months that the client was throwing the product out. L8 then spent the next couple months training teams in the UK and set up ongoing support at L8 Solutions. 

"WUG is a living, breathing product. It's not a plug and play and forget. You've got to keep on top of it. So we provided ongoing support. And we do that to this day," David explains. 

Just recently, David's team upgraded that same company to the latest version of WhatsUp Gold. That in itself is proof that the support David's team provides has kept that customer, who almost threw the product away several years ago, as a client today. 

David has many of these stories and is proof of how Level 8 SOlutions goes above and beyond to provide excellent customer service. Customer retention is highly important to them and of course, resonates with Ipswitch as well. 

A big congratulations to Level 8 Solutions for winning the Ipswitch Partner of the Year Award for the 4th consecutive year!