2023
Annual
Report
Trusted experts accelerating digital transformation
2023 was a transformative year for UPSTACK in many ways— as highlighted in this annual report—so much of which is a direct result of our shared dedication to driving successful business outcomes.
Dear Reader,
As I reflect on the past 12 months, I want to begin by sharing my immense gratitude for our 6,500+ customers, over 200 UPSTACKers, and numerous partners. 2023 was a transformative year for UPSTACK in many ways— as highlighted in this annual report—so much of which is a direct result of our shared dedication to driving successful business outcomes.
Amid a time of macro uncertainty in the financial markets, ongoing supply chain constraints, and changes in end user behavior, our customers turned to UPSTACK to optimize their digital infrastructure to create business opportunities and a competitive advantage.
In these moments, the rapidly growing UPSTACK team did what they do best—evolved their capabilities to tackle a myriad of challenges both big and small—while staying true to our mission and unwavering commitment to customer excellence, all with the highest of integrity. In other
words, we not only did the “right thing” but did the “thing right!”
In 2023, our team’s ability to deliver positive results is best reflected in our category-leading Customer Net Promoter Score (NPS). This demonstrates the value of our durable formula for success—a deep and broad understanding of our customers’ challenges, a healthy balance sheet enabling further investment in strengthening the capabilities and services we offer our customers, and a platform built for scale—The UPSTACK Platform.
As we peer into 2024, I remain grateful for the trust our customers have put in UPSTACK and look forward to continued success together.
Respectfully,
Christopher Trapp, Founder & CEO
The UPSTACK Platform
Power of the Platform
Strategic technology decisions are key to creating opportunities for driving business efficiency, competitive advantage, and growth. However, making these decisions involves a host of complicated variables that often take specific knowledge to successfully navigate. The UPSTACK Platform drives better strategic outcomes by combining:
Leading Technology Experts
Dedicated Customer Experience Resources
UPSTACK’s Customer Experience team provides an elevated and dedicated approach to customer success, service delivery, and customer support.
Advanced Technology Ecosystem
UPSTACK’s Operating System for digital infrastructure is a cohesive ecosystem that streamlines and optimizes the entire IT project experience and improves efficiency.
In conversation with Anders Farrugia
Anders Farrugia, VP of Product
What is the vision for the UPSTACK OS?
A: Our vision for the UPSTACK OS is to create a customer-centric platform for IT departments and FinOps. This platform will streamline everything, from technology procurement to inventory management and ongoing support. It will unify the technology lifecycle, from RFQ initiation to solution or service retirement.
Think of it as a customer-oriented experience, akin to Zillow or Redfin, but extended to normalize pricing structures, product comparisons, and promotional offerings. We aim to enhance it further by adding comprehensive capabilities for seamless service and support across all suppliers through a single experience.
How does the UPSTACK OS work?
A: At a high level, the UPSTACK OS is a set of web services that facilitate and optimize suppliers’ workflows for efficiency, accuracy, and real-time customer interactions. It includes cloud-based data and integration layers bridging customers and suppliers, all underpinned by intelligence and insights.
For customers, our focus is on enhancing the IT buying experience. For example, we will leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to simplify user interactions, provide quick answers, and streamline communications with suppliers’ sales engineers and support teams. Ultimately, we aim to facilitate integrations between the UPSTACK OS and our customers’ preferred business collaboration systems, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.
What progress was made in ‘23, and what is up next in ‘24?
Business performance
UPSTACK employees
200+
We call ourselves “UPSTACKers”
Valued customers
6,500+
From enterprise to SMBs across a range of industries
Financial stewardship
$550M
Annual technology spend under management
Successful client engagements
3,600+
Leveraging UPSTACK’s full suite of solutions expertise and services
Average savings per customer
32.41%
Difference between initial quote and final negotiated rate
Customer Net Promoter Score®
83
UPSTACK customers consistently rate their experience as “Excellent” 1
UPSTACK employees
200+
We call ourselves “UPSTACKers”
Valued customers
6,500+
From enterprise to SMBs across a range of industries
Financial stewardship
$550M+
Annual technology spend under management
Successful client engagements
3,600+
Leveraging UPSTACK’s full suite of solutions expertise and services
Average savings per Customers
32.41%
Difference between initial quote to final negotiated rate
Customer Net Promoter Score®
83
Customer experience
One elevated experience
With dedicated Customer Experience (CX) Resources, customers benefit from an elevated approach to customer success, service delivery, and customer support.
Our comprehensive approach to CX is designed to maximize the value our customers receive from partnering with UPSTACK. “As a Customer Experience company, there is nothing more important than customer satisfaction and the value we bring in our efforts on behalf of our customers,” says J.R. Vernick, EVP & Co-head of Customer Experience. “No matter what, our CX team is here to support the customer every step of the way—from providing recommendations and account management, ensuring a successful delivery of solutions, and continued customer support, UPSTACK delivers the best possible service experience.”
EVP & Co-head of Customer Experience
Better results, faster
%
Decrease in time from project start to install
Customer stories
Delivering results
ARSA Plastic Surgery Center’s communications get a makeover
The Advanced Reconstructive Surgery Alliance (ARSA) needed assistance in migrating its founding member to a modern cloud-based communications system as part of a move to a new headquarters. Engaging UPSTACK for help in deploying their new communication platform yielded several significant benefits for ARSA.
Redefining Efficiency in Real Estate, Unlocking Unprecedented Savings
Transforming Network Management with a Unified Single-Source Solution
An enterprise-level vegetable farm faced critical challenges in sourcing and managing its widespread network, spread across 78 sites in three countries. UPSTACK helped implement a single-source managed networking solution with an accelerated deployment and zero downtime.
Culture
Our people make the platform
UPSTACK has dedicated itself to empowering the world’s connected future. Of course, helping businesses of all sizes get the most out of their technology investments is a huge challenge with myriad layers of considerations. That’s why we are laser-focused on enabling one team to collaborate across one platform to provide our customers one elevated experience.
Our burgeoning company culture is the “glue” that keeps our rapidly growing organization of 200+ “UPSTACKers” united and supplies the principles that underpin our every action and customer interaction.
At UPSTACK, we believe…
…close collaboration allows us to elevate the collective value of our platform to the benefit of our customers.
…accountability is non-negotiable, ensuring we consistently deliver on our commitments to our teammates and customers.
…passion is essential for driving positive outcomes and showing value in every project.
…we must set the bar in the industry, elevating the experience for everyone at UPSTACK – customers, employees, and partners alike.
Our burgeoning company culture is the “glue” that keeps our rapidly growing organization of 200+ “UPSTACKers” united and supplies the principles that underpin our every action and customer interaction.
At UPSTACK, we believe…
…close collaboration allows us to elevate the collective value of our platform to the benefit of our customers.
…accountability is non-negotiable, ensuring we consistently deliver on our commitments to our teammates and customers.
…passion is essential for driving positive outcomes and showing value in every project.
…we must set the bar in the industry, elevating the experience for everyone at UPSTACK – customers, employees, and partners alike.
To succeed, we have to care as much or more as our customers about every outcome.
Benjamin Smoot, Chief Operating Officer
Employee Net Promoter Score
50
UPSTACKers consistently rate their holistic employee experience as “Good” 2
Expertise
Working with UPSTACK
to drive better outcomes
But no CIO, CISO, or even the whole IT team can do it alone without running the risk of making the wrong decisions, experiencing delays, and facing budget overruns all while failing to achieve the desired business outcome. Here are six reasons why turning to an expert, supplier-neutral advisor—like UPSTACK—makes sense.
By leveraging UPSTACK’s deep bench of resources, we are an extension of our client’s IT team. We’re enabling our clients to be laser-focused on carrying out the strategic vision of their company’s growth initiatives, impacting their end customer experience, and delivering efficiencies and positive results to their company’s bottom line.
Partner & Managing Director
Voices
When it comes to successful digital transformations, specialized knowledge makes all the difference. At UPSTACK, we regularly ask difficult questions and explore important niche-related topics on our blog to increase customer knowledge and drive industry progress. Enjoy a sampling of our most-read posts from 2023.
Cybersecurity
SMB cybersecurity: Good, better, best strategies
Cloud computing
Bare Metal vs. Hyperscalers: Cost-Effective Workloads
Not so long ago, large public cloud solutions were heralded as the shiny new tools set to revolutionize business efficiency, flexibility, and innovation. However, it didn’t take long for most organizations to discover that the cost of operating in the cloud often surpassed their on-premises expenditure.
IT management
Attack of the Zombies…in your IT department
Just because you don’t believe in zombies, it doesn’t mean they aren’t a serious problem – in your IT department, that is! Many enterprise IT departments have many unused devices, servers, circuits, and software licenses, or “zombies” that eat away at the time, management resources, and budgets.
Outlook
2024 Technology Trends Report
At UPSTACK, we see the landscape of technology changing rapidly, presenting challenges for IT decision leaders. It can be difficult for them to step back to see the bigger picture with so many demands on their time and attention.
With a group of technology experts who bring over 500 years of combined experience in helping enterprises make better, faster, and more successful decisions, we wondered how we could scale our experience to help more organizations and deliver deeper value.
Our goal for The 2024 Technology Trends Report is to provide technology decision-makers like yourself with information gleaned from our expertise, market intelligence, and experience. Our report will help you find a clear view of what’s on the horizon and identify trends that have the greatest effect on your business.
1 Source: Retently.com. 2023 NPS scale: 70-100 (“Excellent.”), 30-70 (“Good”) Technology & Services industry NPS benchmark: 64 Net Promoter, NPS, and Net Promoter Score are trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld.
2 Note: According to Culture Amp 2023 Study, the UPSTACK eNPS is more than 2x the average NPS measured. Even more interesting is IT & Services made up the second largest portion of the ~5K organizations that participated in the study.
