CDW Stock

CDW Corporation is a leading multi-brand provider of information technology (IT) solutions to small, medium and large business, government, education and healthcare customers in the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.) and Canada.

The company's broad array of offerings ranges from discrete hardware and software products to integrated IT solutions and services that include on-premise and cloud capabilities across hybrid infrastructure, digital experience and security.

The company is a vendor, technology and consumption model unbiased, offering a broad selection of products and multi-branded IT solutions. The company's solutions are delivered in physical, virtual and cloud-based environments through approximately 10,900 customer-facing coworkers, including sellers, highly-skilled technology specialists and advanced service delivery engineers. The company is a leading sales channel partner for many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), software publishers and cloud providers (collectively, vendor partners), whose products it sells or includes in the solutions it offers. The company provides its vendor partners with a cost-effective way to reach customers and deliver a consistent brand experience through its established end-market coverage, technical expertise and extensive customer access.

The company simplifies the complexities of technology solutions across design, selection, procurement, integration and management for its customers. The company's multi-brand offering approach across its vendor partners enables it to provide the solutions and services that best address each customer's specific requirements to enable their desired business outcomes.

The company has capabilities to provide integrated IT solutions in more than 150 countries for customers with primary locations in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada, which are large and growing markets. These are highly fragmented markets served by thousands of IT resellers and solutions providers.

Value Proposition

The company is positioned in the middle of the IT ecosystem where it procures products from OEMs, software publishers, cloud providers and wholesale distributors and provide added value to its customers by helping them navigate through complex options and implement the best solution for their business. The company provides unique value to both its vendor partners and its customers.

The company's value proposition to its customers include broad selection of products and multi-branded IT solutions; value-added services with integration capabilities; highly-skilled specialists and engineers; and solutions across IT lifecycle.

The company's value proposition to its vendor partners include access to over 250,000 customers; large and established customer channels; strong distribution and implementation capabilities; and customer relationships driving insight into technology roadmaps.

Customers

The company provides integrated IT solutions to over 250,000 small, medium and large business, government, education and healthcare customers throughout the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.

The company serves its customers through sales teams focused on customer end-markets that are supported by technical specialists and highly-skilled service delivery engineers. The company's market segmentation allows it to customize its offerings and to provide enhanced expertise in designing and implementing IT solutions that meet its customer's specific needs.

Segments

The company operates through three segments: Corporate, Small Business and Public.

The company's Corporate segment primarily serves the U.S. private sector business customers.

The company's Small Business segment primarily serves the U.S. private sector business customers.

The company's Public segment consists of government agencies and education and healthcare institutions in the U.S.

The company also has two other operating segments: CDW UK and CDW Canada, each of which do not meet the reportable segment quantitative thresholds and, accordingly, are included in an all other category (Other).

In its the U.S. business, which represents approximately 90% of its Net sales, the company has five dedicated customer channels: corporate, small business, government, education and healthcare.

The company has centralized logistics and headquarters functions that provide services to the segments. The logistics function includes purchasing, distribution and fulfillment services to support the Corporate, Small Business and Public segments.

Partners

The company provides more than 100,000 products and services from more than 1,000 vendor partners, including well-established companies, such as Adobe, APC, Apple, Cisco, Dell EMC, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, NetApp, Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Pure Storage, Samsung and VMware, as well as from emerging technology companies to expand its portfolio. This broad portfolio of vendor partners and technologies enables the company to offer customers significant options and meet customer demand for the products and solutions that best meet their needs. The company's value proposition to vendor partners enables it to evolve its offering as new technologies emerge and new companies seek it as a channel partner.

The company has received the highest level of certification from major vendor partners, such as Cisco, Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Microsoft, NetApp, Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Samsung and VMware which reflects the extensive product and solution knowledge and capabilities that it brings to its customers' IT challenges. These certifications also provide the company with access to favorable pricing, tools and resources, including vendor incentive programs, which it uses to provide additional value to its customers. The company's vendor partners also regularly recognize it with top awards and select it to develop and grow new customer solutions.

Offerings

The company's offerings range from discrete hardware and software products and services to complex integrated solutions including one or more of these elements. The company's customers increasingly view technology purchases as integrated solutions vital to their strategies and missions rather than discrete product and services categories. The company's hardware category includes notebooks/mobile devices (including tablets), network communications (netcomm products), desktop computers, collaboration, data storage and servers and other hardware. The company's software category includes cloud solutions, software assurance, application suites, security, virtualization, operating systems and network management. The company's services include advisory and design, software development, implementation, managed services and warranties.

The company provides customers with cloud solutions and services through public cloud solutions, which reside off customer premises on a public (shared) infrastructure, private cloud solutions, which reside on customer premises, and hybrid cloud solutions that deliver the benefits of both public and private solutions. The company's migration, integration and managed services help its customers simplify cloud adoption, as well as the ongoing management of cloud solutions, across the entire IT lifecycle. Service delivery engineers work with its customers to design cloud solutions meeting their organizational, technology and financial objectives.

The company offers a broad portfolio of integrated solutions that include the following on-premise, hybrid and cloud capabilities:

Services: The company helps organizations design, orchestrate and manage technology for their unique needs. The company's offerings demonstrate its expertise in the most critical technology areas for its customers. The company's service delivery engineers have expertise which include integrated cloud, collaboration, data center, mobility and security business technology, from the physical to the application layer. The company leverages best-in-class partner technology platforms to seamlessly architect and manage disparate IT platforms into integrated business technology solutions.

Hybrid Infrastructure: The company assesses its customers application infrastructure need, design flexible, resilient and efficient solutions and manage the solution throughout its lifecycle. The company's broad portfolio of hardware and software products, encompassing both on and off-premise solutions, enables it to provide well-integrated solutions, including converged and hyper-converged infrastructure, physical and virtualized servers, software defined automation and orchestration solutions, hybrid storage, energy-efficient power and cooling, and data center networking.

Digital Experience: The company builds end-to-end solutions that deliver access to applications that improve its customers' productivity regardless of device or location. The company connects its customers' physical devices, including laptops, desktops, IP Phones, mobile devices and print systems. The company utilizes collaboration solutions to unite applications via the integration of products that facilitate the use of multiple enterprise communication methods including email, persistent chat, social media, voice and video. The company also hosts cloud-based collaboration solutions. The company's solutions provide the tools that allow its customers' employees to share knowledge, ideas and information among each other and with clients and partners effectively, securely and quickly.

Security: The company assesses its customers' security needs and provide them with tools and services to help effectively manage risk. The company is a security solutions integrator that combines its expertise in design, solution architecture and implementation services. The company's customer solutions can take the form of hardware, software or Software as a Service across a multitude of categories, such as: endpoint security, email security, web security, intrusion prevention, authentication, firewall, virtual private network services and network access control. Security consulting engagements include security assessment, policy and procedure gap analysis, security roadmaps and health checks.

Marketing

The company markets the CDW brand to U.S., the U.K. and Canadian audiences through various channels, including mass media, digital, print, social media and other emerging channels. The company targets current and prospective customers through integrated marketing programs, including email, display ads, paid search, social media, events and sponsorships. These programs are supported by integrated communication efforts targeting technology decision-makers, influencers and the general public using a combination of expert technology articles, videos, case studies, media interviews and speaking events.

As a result of its relationships with vendor partners, a significant portion of the company's advertising and marketing expenses is reimbursed through cooperative advertising programs. These programs are at the discretion of its vendor partners and are typically tied to sales or other commitments to be met by it within a specified period.

History

CDW Corporation was founded in 1984. The company was incorporated in 2007.