CDW Corporation (CDW) provides information technology (IT) solutions to 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-premises and cloud capabilities across hybrid infrastructure, digital experience and security.
The company is vendor, technology and consumption model unbi...
CDW Corporation (CDW) provides information technology (IT) solutions to 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-premises and cloud capabilities across hybrid infrastructure, digital experience and security.
The company is 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 specialists and engineers. The company is a leading sales channel partner for many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), software publishers, cloud providers (collectively, vendor partners) and wholesale distributors, 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 approximately 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 includes 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 includes 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 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 highly skilled specialists and engineers. The company’s market segmentation allows the company 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.
Corporate segment primarily serves the U.S. private sector business customers with more than 250 employees.
Small Business segment primarily serves the U.S. private sector business customers with up to 250 employees.
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 the company’s 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.
Partners
The company offers more than 100,000 products and services from more than 1,000 vendor partners, including well-established companies such as Adobe, APC, Apple, Amazon Web Services, Broadcom Inc., Cisco, Dell Technologies, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc., IBM, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, NetApp, Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks, Pure Storage and Samsung, as well as from emerging technology companies. 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 Broadcom Inc., Cisco, Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, NetApp, Nutanix, Palo Alto Networks and Samsung which reflects the extensive product and solution knowledge and capabilities that it brings to its customers. 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.
Product Procurement
The company may purchase all or only some of the products its vendor partners offer for resale to its customers or for inclusion in the solutions it offers. Each vendor partner agreement provides for specific terms and conditions, which may include one or more of the following: product return privileges, price protection policies, purchase discounts and vendor incentive programs, such as purchase or sales rebates and cooperative advertising reimbursements. The company also purchase software from major software publishers and cloud providers for resale to its customers or for inclusion in the solutions it offers. The company’s agreements allow it to resell cloud-based solutions, software or other licensed products to the end-user customer.
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, business outcomes and missions rather than discrete product and services categories. The company’s hardware category includes notebooks/mobile devices (including tablets), network communications (netcomm products), collaboration hardware, data storage and servers, desktop computers and other hardware. The company’s software category includes cloud solutions, software assurance, application suites, security, virtualization, collaboration and productivity applications, operating systems and network management. The company’s services include advisory and design, software development, implementation, managed services and warranties.
IT is important to both critical business operations and to drive greater growth and productivity. To help its customers accomplish this, the company has to build a robust portfolio of solutions across hybrid infrastructure, digital experience, security, digital velocity and services that it provides in on-premises, hybrid or cloud-based environments.
The company provides customers with technology solutions and services on the public cloud, which reside off-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 options. The company’s migration, integration and managed services help its customers simplify cloud adoption and management, across the entire IT lifecycle. 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-premises, hybrid and cloud capabilities:
Hybrid Infrastructure: The company assess 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-premises 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 enables its customers with artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that empower their end users and drive efficiency in business-critical functions. 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 assess its customers’ security needs and provide them with tools and services to help effectively manage risk, increase business continuity and operational efficiency, and improve their end user experience. The company is a security solutions integrator that combines its expertise in advisory, 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, identity and access management, next-generation firewall, security service edge, security information and event management, exposure and threat management, governance, risk and compliance, data security and governance, cloud infrastructure entitlement management, virtual private network services, network access control and physical security. Security consulting engagements include security maturity assessments, policy and procedure gap analysis, security roadmaps and health checks.
Digital Velocity: The company delivers advanced digital transformation solutions that enable organizations to modernize their IT infrastructure, applications and operations. Leveraging expertise in cloud-native deployment, DevOps, artificial intelligence and automation, the company helps customers improve business outcomes through scalable and secure technology implementations. The company enables specific customer business needs through customer software engineering engagements, providing custom application development, modernization and integration services, as well as talent orchestration solutions that give its customers access to technical resources that supplement their workforce for project-based engagements and periods of peak demand.
For each of the solutions areas above, the company provides services that help organizations plan, design, configure, 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 highly skilled specialists and engineers have expertise in integrated cloud, collaboration, data center, mobility and security business technology, from the physical to the application layer. It leverages best-in-class partner technology platforms to seamlessly architect and manage disparate IT platforms into integrated business technology solutions.
Acquisitions
On November 27, 2024, the company completed its acquisition of Mission Cloud Services, Inc. (Mission). Mission is a cloud professional services, managed services and consulting provider.
Marketing
The company markets the CDW brand to the 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 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.
Information Technology Systems
The company maintains customized IT and unified communication systems that enhance its ability to provide prompt, efficient and expert service to its customers. In addition, these systems enable centralized management of key functions, including purchasing, inventory management, billing and collection of accounts receivable, sales, distribution and financial accounting and reporting. The company’s systems provide it with thorough and detailed information regarding key aspects of the company’s business. These capabilities help the company to continuously enhance productivity, ship customer orders quickly and efficiently, respond appropriately to industry changes and provide high quality customer service. The company’s websites and software tools, which provide electronic order processing and advanced features, such as order tracking, reporting and asset management, make it easy for customers to transact business with the company and ultimately strengthen its customer relationships. The company is in the process of implementing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, along with other system transformation initiatives, that will enable the company to streamline processes and enhance visibility in its key business processes. The significant system transformation initiatives, including ERP, are anticipated to be released in 2025 with incremental system transformation releases continuing in 2026.
History
CDW Corporation was founded in 1984. The company was incorporated in 2002.