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Secon Corporation is a real estate development company
known throughout Western Pennsylvania for its
innovative office designs, detailed landscaping, energy
conservation and excellent locations of its three business parks. Secon has
been a full service real estate developer, builder and manager of business
environments for over 30 years. With one corporate headquarters, Secon employs 25 full-time employees and between 25-50 additional employees seasonally.
The Challenge
Susan Vodzak, Secon’s Assistant Controller and Director of IT knew that her
company desperately needed to update its server. The server was well past its
warranty and operated very slowly due to poor configuration and old software.
In addition, Secon Corporation relied on a hosted email service, but the servers
often went down and receipt of email was often delayed, impacting productivity.
Furthermore, Vodzak had begun to worry about security due to the hosted
email service and an extreme amount of spam the service was allowing
through. Vodzak, the company’s lone IT technician, knew the company needed
to upgrade, but also realized that additional IT support service was needed to
keep the company’s systems running, secure, and up-to-date.
The Solution
Secon needed to upgrade its software, but its antiquated hardware could not
accommodate the upgrade. Secon had previously relied on VAI/Computerland
to provide IT support, so when Nortec purchased VAI/Computerland in 2005,
Secon retained Nortec and its IT maintenance and support services. Now with
an urgent need for reliable systems with increased functionality, Secon again
turned to Nortec for its upgrade implementation.
Secon’s priority was the immediate upgrade of its systems, but it needed
increased functionality as well. Secon was looking for key features like remote
accessibility, speed and security and knew it would require continual and
regular support for maintenance of the system.
Nortec began by meeting with Secon’s management and staff to discuss the
implementation plan, challenges and priorities. Nortec assessed the current
systems’ capabilities and determined the best course of action for the upgrade,
maintenance, security, and training. Eric Williams, the Nortec consultant who
worked on the project, notes that under the previous server infrastructure, file
management was disorganized and several applications were in use to accomplish
the same task. He recommended that Secon host its email in-house,
streamline its applications, upgrade from Windows Server 2003 to Window
Servers 2008 Small Business and enhance its network security.
The Benefits
Since its server upgrade, Secon Corporation has experienced none of the downtime
from the unstable system that it had in the past. “Our old system was
cumbersome and convoluted. Nortec configured the server logically and
correctly. We are very pleased,” says Vodzak. Nortec organized Secon’s information
prior to the transition and then performed most of the implementation
outside of regular work hours to minimize downtime for the Secon staff. “Nortec
has been there whenever we’ve needed them – they are very knowledgeable”
says Vodzak.
Vodzak also noted that while Secon was hesitant to host its own email due to
their limited in-house expertise, the in-house system is a success and Nortec has
been very accessible and supportive. In addition, Secon’s systems are much
more secure; the antivirus software that had been inefficiently used is now being
properly applied. “It’s a huge benefit to us. The problem with people who are
not experts is that we don’t know where we are vulnerable,” says Vodzak.
Hosting email in-house gives Secon more control and significantly reduces spam.
Secon Corporation’s employees can now work much more efficiently either in the office or remotely. Further, the upgrade eliminated down time and server
complications with Secon’s previous server, and the company now has a reliable,
stable and more efficient system that benefits all users. Secon recently hired a
part-time IT technician, but still relies on Nortec for direction on larger issues and
monthly maintenance of the system. |
