Intel expands global reach of processing power.
Intel’s processors power everything from small computers to large-scale artificial intelligence applications. Though demand from cloud computing is significant, approximately 50 percent of Intel’s business across 100 countries still comes from client computing—computers that customers buy for personal and business use. For high-tech pioneers like Intel, getting the latest technology—technology that delivers the best in performance, manageability, and security into the hands of end users—is a priority. To reach business customers, Intel partners with Amazon Business, which offers over 38 million IT products from more than 90,000 sellers. Intel’s storefront on Amazon Business features business selection and prices for Intel-powered PCs, laptops, and computer accessories. The company’s 10th Generation Intel Core, the latest in its family of processors, is embedded in devices from global manufacturers such as Lenovo, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Acer, and Microsoft.
Beyond finding the right product at the right price, many organizations are slowed down by cumbersome procurement processes that hinder efficient purchasing of IT and other business supplies. While an estimated 75 percent of business-to-business tail-spend goods will be purchased online by 20221, current unmanaged tail spend represents as much as 20 percent of total procurement spending2.
To streamline the process, Amazon Business provides controls and guardrails to govern spending—tools like Approval Workflows that can be managed by an organization’s purchasing administrator, and Guided Buying to direct all purchasers to organization-recommended and -approved products. As well, purchasing managers gain visibility through advanced spend analytics and insights that make reconciliation and budget forecasting more accurate and proactive.
Vokins is quick to point out that this isn’t just an enterprise challenge. Canadian organizations, whom Vokins has been serving for more than nine years, are predominantly small businesses. Some 98 percent of businesses in the country have fewer than 100 employees, and the number rises to 99.8 percent factoring in medium-sized businesses with 100 to 499 employees3.
“Amazon Business helps us proliferate Intel technology through a very familiar shopping experience,” said Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director for Intel Canada. “The impact of Amazon Business is that it’s changing procurement as an activity. Customers have access to hundreds of thousands of suppliers, which makes procurement more efficient, and dynamic pricing and discounts drive real value for businesses.”
“The impact of Amazon Business is that it’s changing procurement as an activity. Customers have access to hundreds of thousands of suppliers, which makes procurement more efficient, and dynamic pricing and discounts drive real value for businesses.”
— Phil Vokins, Cloud Services Director, Intel Canada
These businesses generally don’t have a dedicated procurement function, and buying for work is one of many responsibilities of an office administrator or sole proprietor. They want purchasing done as quickly and efficiently as possible, without spending time managing contracts and price lists, which takes time away from growing the business.
“If you think about most businesses, by nature of what they’re doing, they want to scale,” said Vokins. “By choosing to manage purchasing on Amazon Business, they’re able to scale more effectively by de-focusing on what used to be a cumbersome activity, making this part of their work so much easier.”
Beyond the US and Canada, Intel’s products are available through the Amazon Business online store in the nine countries it currently operates in, helping to expand the reach to business customers.
“One of the things I really love about my job is the ability to do something for my customers on any given day, and indeed it’s the main question we ask ourselves at Intel,” said Vokins. “What really excites me about our partnership is that Amazon is a customer-obsessed organization and so is Intel, which makes it easy—together—to delight our customers.”
1WBR Insights 3rd Annual CPO Study, November 2017
2IDC, 2019
3Government of Canada, December 2019
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