CDW Supplier Diversity Program Expands Product and Service Offerings; Enables Customers to Support Businesses Diversity Goals
Diverse supply chains foster growth among special-category businesses such as minority- and women-owned, and allow CDW customers to harness innovation and improve service quality
Las Vegas, Nev. - November 5, 2007 - CDW Corporation, a leading provider of technology products and services to business, government and education, today announced the expansion of its Supplier Diversity Program aimed at increasing procurement opportunities for direct and indirect spending with small and historically underutilized businesses. The program enables both CDW and its customers to leverage diversity partnerships to meet special-category contracting goals such as minority-, women- and veteran-owned businesses, as well as capture new technology innovation and enhanced service qualities.
Formalized and implemented in May 2007, CDW’s Supplier Diversity Program currently includes partnerships with 65 minority-owned businesses, 101 women-owned businesses and 39 veteran-owned businesses, as well as other classifications like small, disadvantaged and disabled. Partners work with either CDW Corporation to fulfill the company’s own functional requirements, or with customers to provide specific product or service offerings when applicable. Supplier diversity options are available directly through customers’ existing relationship with a CDW account manager and through CDW’s supplier diversity manager.
"CDW’s commitment to partner with qualified special-category businesses enables us to continue to provide the best customer experience while generating economic growth," says Matt Troka, vice president for product and partner management at CDW. "We look for partner relationships that complement our corporate values and support our goal to be the best technology and business solution provider to our customers."
The most recent statistics by the U.S. Small Business Administration highlight the broad impact that small, diverse businesses are making on the economy, citing that women- and minority-owned businesses account for 10.6 million businesses nationwide. By continuing to engage new businesses, CDW reflects the diversity of the technology marketplace and enables each customer to meet their unique needs and buying requirements.
To become a CDW partner, participating businesses are analyzed by the Supplier Diversity Program team to ensure offering quality and scalability. Once certified as a partner, a diverse business delivers its offerings as part of CDW’s nationwide partner program with access to CDW’s vast customer base, while leveraging CDW’s dependable reputation in the market.
"When it comes to diversity, CDW isn’t just giving lip service but is clearly ‘walking the talk,’" said Lisa J. Whaley, director strategic alliances and diversity at ASI Corporation. "CDW understands that diversity is a business imperative and a diverse supplier base can be a powerful competitive advantage. Working with CDW has helped ASI to expand our market reach while enabling CDW to stay close to their own customers, an audience that is growing more diverse every day. The partnership between CDW and ASI bridges the gap for customers who have a requirement for diversity spend and provides customers with best of breed technical solutions to solve their business problems."
CDW’s partner profile process is outlined at www.diversityatcdw.com. Suppliers are encouraged to visit the Web site and create a profile to be considered for a strategic partnership in the Supplier Diversity Program. Questions should be directed to supplierdiversity@cdw.com.
About CDW
CDW®, ranked No. 342 on the FORTUNE 500, is a leading provider of technology solutions for business, government and education. CDW is a principal source of technology products and services including top name brands such as Acer, Adobe, APC, Apple, Cisco, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, Panasonic, Quantum, Samsung, Sony, Symantec, ViewSonic and Xerox. CDW's direct model offers customers one-on-one relationships with knowledgeable account managers and access to approximately 820 on-staff engineers and advanced technology specialists who customize solutions for customers’ complex technology needs. CDW also provides same-day product shipping and post-sales technical support.
CDW was founded in 1984 and as of June 30, 2007, employed approximately 5,880 coworkers. In 2006, the company generated sales of $6.8 billion. For more information, visit CDW.com.
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