Good for Growth, Regulations and the Budget

Situation:

Founded in 1985, an Atlanta wealth management firm needed a new IT vendor. In early 2007 the two principals were concerned about their recurring IT issues that were not getting resolved and were starting to impact the organization’s productivity. Their primary business application, Portfolio Center, was also several versions behind and needed to be upgraded but their core infrastructure could not handle the upgrade. It was clear to them that the needs of their firm had outgrown the abilities of their IT provider.

Solution:

Network 1 was hired and immediately created a project plan and budget and began to implement in 3 phases:

1. Stabilize the environment
2. Improve the core infrastructure to provide an easy migration path to the newest version of portfolio center
3. Add redundancy to the network for further stabilization and future growth

In addition, Network 1 implemented an automated, continuous data recovery plan that significantly improved their data backup solution while meeting all of the regulatory requirements of their industry. Then, in 2009, the firm moved to a fixed fee service plan which provides unlimited IT support, maintenance and troubleshooting for a fixed monthly fee.

Results:

“Our network is stable and the plan for the future, including contingencies, is in place. When we do have an occasional IT issue it’s handled quickly and professionally,” states a partner. “In addition, moving to a service plan with fixed monthly fees has had a nice positive effect on our cash flow, budgeting and planning processes.”