Patrick Rhodes and Associates

Business Need:Patrick Rhodes and Associates is a Tax and Accounting firm that also performs Financial Audits. Their specialized approach is personalized for each client in an efficient, results-oriented manner.  Their business relies heavily upon over 12 different accounting, tax, and auditing application suites.

Technical Environment:
Three servers running Microsoft® Windows operating systems. One server running Microsoft® Exchange 2007 and Microsoft® SharePoint. One Microsoft® Windows 2003 Terminal Server for employees who work remotely. And one Microsoft® Windows 2003 application server, sharing 12 different applications.
25 Workstations and laptops in several departments all with different line of business applications.

WatchGuard firewall and Cisco managed switching environment for internal infrastructure and client systems.

Pains for the Client:

1. Application updates:
a. Keeping 12 different network applications patched and updated, had become an administrative nightmare.

b. Because of the numerous applications running on the same server, a single server outage would bring operations to near halt

2. Excessive billing from existing IT consulting company.
a. Current IT consulting company spent much of time putting out fires
b. IT technician billing excessive hours working on learning equipment that they were not qualified for
c. Calls to IT consultant dropped in an effort to save money
d. Computer updates and other proactive efforts were degraded

3. Sparse systems documentation and no written processes.
a. A few incomplete files described some parts, most information was out of date.
b. All methodologies for systems work was carried in the mind of the current staff.
c. No best practices systems were implemented.

4. Monitoring or Alerting
a. Server monitoring by IT consulting company costing $500 per month. No remediation was included in the monitoring.
b. Desktop monitoring was completely non-existent. The only way the office manager knew about a problem was from the end-user requesting assistance.

5. Asset Management Problems:
a. Several outdated spreadsheets with different lists attempting to carry information about every asset.

6. No comprehensive Vendor Management No documented method to contact vendors and no documentation of contracts was easily available.

Solutions Provided:

Automated application updates through use of remote management tools, reducing weekly application update times from 5 hours to 1 hour.

Virtualization of Application server to allow snapshot and point in time recoveries in case of a foul update.

Able to improve efficiency and satisfaction through automating installation and configuration of complex workstation and operating system.

Offered fixed monthly unlimited contract saving client approximately $40,000 per year with efficiency created by state of the art robotic remediation.

Implemented the CCNS monitoring and alerting tools which have comprehensive abilities.

Expertise of a team of highly qualified systems engineers who receive regular training on the latest and most advance technology.

CCNS provided a proven asset management system with automation in data collection and sophisticated reporting capabilities.

CCNS took over, documented and managed the vendor relationships

CCNS processes began to be utilized for all systems work.

CCNS took over patch management of all systems and utilized sophisticated automation tools to do this more efficiently and consistently.

CCNS took over the management/monitoring of servers which allowed them to reduce that expense as it was included in the agreement.

CCNS virtualized servers, improving uptime, power consumption, and disaster recovery capabilities.

CCNS utilized an advanced ticketing system for accountability, scheduling, project management, and service delivery reporting.

CCNS surveyed the customer twice a month for customer satisfaction levels.

CCNS held strategy meetings with executive staff to expertly inform their information systems strategy. CCNS was able to analyze the current systems and improve efficiencies, to reduce amount of onsite time required and save Patrick Rhodes and Associates $40,000 annually through with fixed monthly payments. So essentially, the customer received a huge improvement in service, coverage, expertise, monitoring, documentation and vendor management.