Fulcrum IT Partners’ acquisition last month of AI solution provider pioneer Razor sets the stage for the $1 billion solution provider behemoth with 12 partner companies to be a leader in “pragmatic actionable AI,” said Fulcrum IT Partners US and Canada President Kyle Lanzinger.
Razor, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom has about 50 data scientists, is driving data-driven business outcome AI-as-a-service solutions in vertical industries including manufacturing, retail and healthcare, said Lanzinger.
“We are not just selling AI for AI’s sake,” said Lanzinger. “We are solving problems using AI as a core engine and adding other horizontal adjacent technologies that further the problem-solving in our different vertical markets.”
Fulcrum IT Partners is building out an ecosystem of data-driven, business outcome-focused companies that create real solutions “built on the back of industry data and knowledge from our companies like Advizex (a Fulcrum IT Partners company), which has (retail) vertical industry expertise (from Advizex President and COO Kurt Schneiders- former CIO of Dick’s Sporting Goods and L Brands),” said Lanzinger.
Fulcrum sees Razor as the foundation for a suite of AI solution platforms focused on driving revenue gains for customers in highly specialized vertical industries including manufacturing, retail logistics and healthcare. “AI is a rocket booster to the data-driven, business outcome-based solutions (that we are building) as (Advizex CEO) C.R. (Howdyshell) would say,” said Lanzinger.
Among the Fulcrum IT Partners companies are Nimbitech, a bespoke apps provider that leverages AI-powered low code tools from the Microsoft Power Platform; PayiQ, a maker of cloud enabled payment processing platform; Reyt, a consulting company focused on building mobile and web applications in the sports, healthcare and wellbeing markets, and
“We have vertical expertise starting with manufacturing on the AI side and also with retail, healthcare and all the other wonderful verticals where we have experts who understand what the real business challenges are and what data is available,” said Lanzinger. “When we talk about AI, we are talking about data driven technology and applications. We are not just talking about some fluffy thing that everyone puts on their marketing materials.”
How important was the acquisition of Razor- a hot AI solution provider- that has recently been added to the Fulcrum IT Partners’ arsenal?
Razor came on and it’s a huge AI offering in our business. They have about 50 technical people – data scientists and data analysts. The real power of what they do is not just the people, but the way they have verticalized their offerings in AI to actually be applicable to industry problems. It is not a horizontal technology looking for a problem. It is a vertical solution with horitzontal technology which is really fascinating.
That’s what leads us to what we are able to do today with Razor – not just with their existing customers – but with our overall $1 billion platform. We are now actioning AI. We are not just talking about it. We are actioning it. We are creating real solutions backed and built on the back of industry data and knowledge from our companies like Advizex which has (retail) vertical industry expertise (from Advizex President and COO Kurt Schnieders- former CIO of Dick’s Sporting Goods and L Brands).
We have vertical expertise starting with manufacturing on the AI side and also with retail, healthcare and all the other wonderful verticals where we have experts who understand what the real business challenges are and what data is available.
When we talk about AI we are talking about data-driven technology and applications. We are not just talking about some fluffy thing that everyone puts on their marketing materials.
AI is a rocket booster to the data driven, business outcome-based solutions (that we are building and selling) as (Advizex CEO) C.R. (Howdyshell) would say.
We are not just selling AI for AI’s sake. We are solving problems using AI as a core engine and adding other horizontal adjacent technologies that further the problem solving in our different vertical markets.
What do you see with regard to Fulcrum IT Partners’ ability to lead in the AI solutions market?
I think we can lead in pragmatic, actionable AI. This is going to be massively, massively impactful.
Razor is an AI solutions and services platform. They have something called the Manufacturing Informatics platform, which brings together heterogenous data in manufacturing environments and applies a suite of AI and machine learning technologies on the back of it to solve problems. It identifies opportunities for both reducing costs and increasing revenue and it is all powered by Microsoft.
What stood out as you made the move to acquire Razor?
If you want to talk about what Razor did to interest us and impress us, it is that they are pragmatic about their AI business which is very, very hard to find in this industry and incredibly rare.
They go into a manufacturing facility and say- ‘I have done this, this and this for customers just like you. I have got a thing called the Manufacturing Informatics platform where I can actually bring together heterogenous data. I have proven the ROI a bunch of times with other customers.’
They don’t try to come into a facility and boil the ocean. They go after one or two high proof of value type of solutions. They take a bite of the apple. They don’t eat the whole thing at once to prove their value. As they do that and hit that low-hanging fruit they continue to expand on what they can do.
The beauty of this is as their customers get more value over time they learn more and more and are able to bring those learnings to other manufacturing customers. The pragmatic approach, the software platform and the partnership with Microsoft was really impressive.
The other really interesting piece to it is that the Manufacturing Informatics platform is actually quite easily adaptable to our other strong focused verticals like retail and healthcare. We intend to roll out Informatics platforms for retail and healthcare in 2024.
What is the secret sauce of Fulcrum IT Partners?
It is the people.
This is a people industry. That is why private equity has a harder time with it. You can’t put it in a financial model very easily. These are people.
So what does that mean? What are your customers’ real problems? What is the CIO of a retail chain concerned about? They are concerned about their job. They are concerned about cybersecurity – not cybersecurity products. They don’t care what XDR is. They don’t care what SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation and Response). They care about if they are going to be attacked and if they are attacked are they going to served incredibly quickly and financially covered. Our leaders see that side of the world. They are there to solve real problems. They care about their customers. They are not just going golfing and selling a bunch of product or laptops. They are there to solve real problems and make a better experience for the end user.