Industry
Software
Country
United Kingdom
Company Type
Enterprise
And what we've found by using Shark Finesse to build these analyse with the customer is that they are much more detailed, much more believable, and business cases get signed off quite a lot easier.
Adam Spurr
GM Enterprise Sales
ANS

About ANS

ANS are a Managed Services Provider with a team of 750+ technology specialists and business experts, who, according to their customers‘ get things done’. They make enterprise-grade technology, knowledge, and processes accessible and affordable for all companies, large or small, no matter the size of their budget.

ANS are one of the UK’s largest Microsoft Partners, offering the full Microsoft technology stack to their customers (Azure, low code, data platforms, Dynamics 365, and security). Along with Microsoft, they also partner with Cisco, VMware, NetApp, and AWS.

Before Shark / The Challenge

ANS have always had a strong go-to market strategy with their navigator process which is where they do some initial work with the customer helping them to understand what it could be like if they move their technology. In doing so one of the things that is imperative is that they build a business case and prove the value with an ROI.

Before using the Shark platform, ANS were creating business cases and ROI analyses using Excel spreadsheets. However, they found this method was haphazard, it lacked structure, and wasn’t regulated. They also wanted to find a solution that offered more professional outputs to present to their customers, whilst also complementing and contributing to their navigator methodology.

The Solution

In 2020 ANS started their journey with Shark Finesse. They wanted a complete culture shift within their company; from salespeople creating business cases in any way they wanted, to a standardised process. Therefore, they dedicated the time and resource needed to achieve their desired outcome, this included training from Shark Finesse as well as weekly discussions reviewing what they were doing well and what they could be doing better, to ensure best practice was always in place.

Shark is currently used in the sales and pre-sales function within ANS when selling the full Microsoft technology stack. ANS have a very successful go-to market strategy where they work with their customers within their navigator process across various technologies, taking their customer on a journey to understand what it would be like to adopt a new solution, what the ROI is, and what cost savings, or efficiency gains they could get. ANS have put Shark right into the middle of this process, before the customer buys anything, to prove out the solution and describe to the customer what the future is going to be like.

I would recommend it to anybody. It's been a great experience.

<div class="blockquote-author">Adam Spurr, GM Enterprise Sales at ANS.</div>

ANS invested in Shark Finesse to stand out from the competition, to be more professional in front of customers when delivering business cases, and to provide a more comprehensive view that meets the needs of the CFO.

ANS have successfully achieved these goals and so much more!

Meet the Expert

Name:
Adam Spurr
Position:
GM Enterprise Sales
Company:
ANS

What is your favourite Shark Feature?

My favourite thing about Shark is the ease in which you produce an output for a customer. But what I really like is the collaboration we've seen with customers and their Finance departments and getting the numbers right so that it's a believable ROI, that it's not something that we've done for the customer, it's something that we've done together.

What are the reasons you recommend Shark Finesse?

We work in a much more competitive environment where our customers have got much more information and are well informed on the products and services that companies like ours and others produce. And therefore, for a company like ANS, you have to differentiate yourself in that marketplace and differentiate your professionalism and output with your customers when you're delivering the ROI and those business outcomes that your customers want. So therefore, Shark has really helped us to do that.

What we do

At Shark Finesse we have developed an enterprise-grade cloud application to help businesses standardise and simplify their value engagements across the entire customer journey.

Shark, a business value engagement platform used by 1000’s of customer-facing teams globally (e.g. pre-sales, sales, value teams, and customer success) is easy to use, intuitive and usable directly with the customer to negotiate the likely business returns from investing in a solution.

By adopting the Shark approach you will fundamentally transform conversations with new and existing customers, close more business, and differentiate from the competition.