An MSP knows exactly what a bad supplier costs, because its own clients feel it. Fingertip Solutions has bought through Highgate since 2015 and stopped benchmarking prices altogether, because the relationship predates the contract by nine years.
IT consultancy • 10 employees • Oldham, UK • Client since 2006
Working relationship between Austin Pass and Mike Hinchliffe
As a Highgate client, since 2015
Need to benchmark pricing against the market
Delivery aligned to Fingertip's own project timelines
Fingertip Solutions is an Oldham-based IT consultancy that has been supporting businesses and schools since 2005.
As an MSP delivering managed services, cloud and cybersecurity to its own clients, the company understands better than most what good IT partnership looks like, and what it costs when a supplier lets you down.
Product recommendations that suited the supplier, and time lost benchmarking prices that should have been right first time.
Suppliers prioritising their own margins over the client's actual requirements
Inconsistent advice, with products recommended for supplier benefit rather than business fit
Time spent benchmarking pricing that should have been competitive from the outset
Fingertip Solutions needed a hardware and technology supplier they could genuinely rely on, one that would listen to what they needed rather than push them toward products and promotions that suited the supplier's margins.
Previous suppliers had a habit of steering Fingertip Solutions toward their own preferred products and promotional lines rather than the right solutions for the business. What Austin needed was an account manager with genuine expertise who could provide competitive pricing without the need to constantly go out to benchmark, and who would be there when needed.
Mike Hinchliffe became Fingertip Solutions' primary point of contact at Highgate, and that relationship has been the defining factor in the partnership.
Understanding what Fingertip actually needs and sourcing it competitively, rather than leading with promotions or product ranges.
Laptops, PCs and CTO server builds sourced to specification and delivered to Fingertip's own project timelines.
Full server and storage refreshes for Fingertip's own clients, managed through Highgate's supply chain.
Inventive CTO configurations that hit the right spec at the right price when stock shortages make standard procurement impossible.
Hardware delivered on time, to Fingertip's own project timelines
Competitive pricing without the need to benchmark against the market
Server and storage refreshes delivered for Fingertip's end clients
Stock shortages navigated through inventive CTO configurations
A single, consistent account relationship spanning twenty years
For Fingertip Solutions, reliability of delivery is not a convenience, it is commercial. When hardware arrives late, technicians cannot configure on site, client projects slip, and Fingertip's own reputation suffers.
Highgate's ability to deliver when promised, and to find inventive solutions when stock shortages make standard procurement impossible, has made it an extension of Fingertip's own operation.
Austin Pass, Managing Director, has worked with Mike Hinchliffe since 2006 and brought the relationship to Highgate in 2015. Twenty years on, it remains built on the same foundation: consistent, knowledgeable account management with no need to constantly benchmark pricing.
"Highgate are consistent, reliable, and our account manager Mike Hinchliffe is like a part of our own team. He’s always available, responsive, knowledgeable and provides a price that’s competitive without us having to constantly benchmark. We’d struggle without him."
Austin Pass
Managing Director, Fingertip Solutions
Laptops, PCs and CTO server builds sourced to specification.
Supply chain, stock sourcing and competitive pricing without the benchmarking.
Network and infrastructure hardware for MSP-delivered projects.
"We would not hesitate to recommend Highgate."
– Robin Pengilley, Head of IT Services
"I couldn't do my job without the support Highgate provides."
– David Hazari, Director of IT & Operations
"A vendor you can rely on."
– Tom Luknar, IT Manager
If your supplier’s pricing needs checking every time, that is not a pricing problem, it is a trust problem. We will show you the difference.
