A Simplified Computer Network Reduces IT Headaches!
ASG, Inc. provides high quality functional outsourcing and specialty staffing services to CROs, Pharmaceutical, Biotech and Medical Device companies involved in clinical trials and other market approval processes to help them deliver their products on time and on budget. Strategically organized to meet the demands of the marketplace, ASG provides flexible solutions that satisfy client needs through its highly experienced recruiting and dedicated functional support teams located throughout the world.
ASG had a Lotus Notes/Domino system installed and were encountering massive incompatibilities. Clients were receiving scrambled e-mails from ASG, including such problems as varying formats and up to 12 empty paragraph returns between each line of e-mail text. The ASG corporate e-mail signature and logo were being stripped out by Lotus Notes and added as an attachment. However, clients were reluctant to open the attachment, for fear of viruses, and so in many cases, e-mail from ASG was not being opened by its clients at all.
Lotus Notes workarounds to these problems were complicated and frequently failed. ASG needed a more dependable server and software that would allow them to communicate with clients that use a variety of e-mail applications, without encountering incompatibilities.
The company was also looking for better remote connections outside its office. The IT manager at ASG was maintaining nine servers. He was beset with constant questions from staff such as, “Did my e-mail go through?” Lost connections were causing him to have to reboot servers every night to preclude problems the next day, and he found he had time for little else.
Hidden communication costs were causing problems. ASG owns sister companies located down the hall in the same building, and the CEOs of these companies were reduced to walking down the hall to talk to each other, because they could not rely on their e-mail systems to communicate effectively. This irksome situation drained away the valuable time of these busy CEOs.
The ASG system was all but broken. The confidence of clients as well as the user community in the company had noticeably flagged.
The Headache is Over
Eric Hobbs, president of Technology Associates, a full service technology solutions and support firm that specializes in providing network design, implementation, management and support to small to medium-sized businesses was hired to develop a cost effective solution for this situation.
Technology Associates developed a resolution for ASG that included implementation of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 and migration from Lotus Notes/Domino to Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0., including Microsoft Outlook/Exchange for email and calendar functions, to integrate the firm’s communications.
Technology Associates planned the migration down to the smallest detail to minimize the impact on ASG’s daily business operations. Hobbs told ASG, “Let’s not upset the apple cart any more than we have to.” During the integration of a new IBM E-Series server and the installation of the aforementioned Microsoft software, Hobbs and his staff managed to minimize lost work time and consolidated the core operations of the organization down to one dependable server.
Subsequently, ASG was delighted when the switch to Microsoft products closed down ASG’s San Francisco office for only a single Friday afternoon. “Otherwise, we kept on doing business,” said Larry MacAnallen, Vice President, Operations and Marketing of ASG.
Improved Business Productivity
Having no more scrambled e-mails has improved business productivity at ASG and has proved to be a huge morale booster as well. The staff agrees that Outlook is more user friendly and is more compatible with client e-mail systems than Lotus Notes. Since the company logo is now embedded into e-mails, suspect messages unopened by clients are a thing of the past, and ASG’s two-way communication with clients is far more consistent and successful.
The sister company CEOs now communicate regularly via e-mail — no more walking down the hall to take 15 or 20 minutes to accomplish the same goal as a quick email.
Simplification of the Network
The IT manager at ASG went from the nightmarish scenario of managing nine servers — which needed nightly rebooting — to maintaining a single server. The only time he has had to reboot that server was when the building lost power during a scheduled maintenance outage.
Using Sharepoint allowed tasks that previously took considerable time to be simplified and streamlined. For instance, ASG has a custom-built Web page that is complicated to update. Using the old system tools, it took the IT manager 20 minutes to change just one file. Now he can update files in a fraction of that time, and he recently changed one-third of the information on the site in just 45 minutes.
Today ASG is assured of a secure, integrated, dependable and flexible technology platform to meet its every business challenge. With Technology Associates’ emphasis on proactive network management, attention to detail and proper planning, network problems are addressed before they can occur. Real-time online project tracking ensures that ASG stays informed and its projects stay on track.
Cost Savings Benefits
In terms of software and hardware costs, one server now does the same job that nine servers did before, and does it much better. “The spam filter for Exchange cost less than $400 and works nicely, while there were not many choices in the way of filters for Lotus Notes,” said MacAnallen.
As a result of improved employee productivity, ASG has realized substantial cost savings in terms of labor. Employees now can spend time on more productive tasks, responding to client requests in a timely manner. The IT manager especially has been able to spend his time on more worthwhile tasks, instead of tracking down lost e-mails and constantly rebooting servers.
ASG’s extensive database contains pre-screened clinical professionals with whom they routinely work, and prompt communication with these professionals is essential to maintain relationships. The new system enables ASG to quickly build initial teams for its clients and rescale when necessary, as projects progress, delivering the cost effective results ASG clients expect.
“We needed a system that would allow us to grow,” MacAnallen said, “and Technology Associates has provided exactly what was needed. They focused on implementing only what was required to achieve ASG’s specific business objectives. By doing it this way, ASG now has a scalable technology infrastructure made-to-order for us.”
About Atlantic Search Group, Inc.
A customer since March of 2007, Atlantic Search Group, Inc. is a global provider of outsourcing and specialty staffing services. ASG works with companies involved with clinical trials and other market approval processes to help them deliver their products on time and on budget.
See http://www.asg-inc.com for more information.
For more information, please contact Technology Associates at 919-459-0100 or info@technologyassociates.net
