The Background
ATRIUM Environmental Health and Safety Services provides practical solutions for a broad spectrum of environmental, health and safety issues. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, the firm’s staff includes industrial hygienists, safety professionals, and environmental health and safety specialists. Clients include industrial businesses, commercial property owners, construction and engineering companies, academic institutions, municipal governments, public utilities, and government agencies.
The Challenge
ATRIUM’s IT infrastructure was at a crossroads. ATRIUM’s server, purchased in 2005 and running Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with MS Exchange 2003, was at capacity and crashing nearly every other day. In addition, users who needed to work remotely had to do so by going through the crashing server. Users would frequently get timed out on email because the servers were so slow. Simple tasks such a file sharing required emailing the file from the home office or placing the file on a flash drive. Business Manager Rose Rogers knew the company needed to upgrade the server – or put the companyat risk of losing valuable data. “Our servers kept crashing and users really could not efficiently work remotely. It was time to make a change,” says Rogers.
The Solution
With no in-house IT department, Rogers and Project Coordinator Carly Johnson knew they would need outside expertise for the implementation. “We have a colleague at another firm who uses Nortec to supplement their IT department. We’d heard great things about Nortec, so we contacted them about potential solutions,” says Johnson. Nortec provided a few different scenarios and budgets that would accomplish ATRIUM’s goals. Since the firm was still running Office 2003 among other outdated software, Atrium ultimately decided to upgrade to Office 365 which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online as well as the latest MS Office Suite (Office 2013). As a result of this upgrade their remote access limitations and issues were alleviated. SharePoint Online allows ATRIUM remote workers to access important documents from their PCs and mobile devices from wherever – and whenever – they choose. In addition, ATRIUM opted for the Windows Intune desktop management suite, which provides many capabilities such remote assistance, malware and antivirus software, windows updates management, and asset management. With a very aggressive timeline, Nortec and ATRIUM began moving 9 years worth of data off the crashing servers, some of the data being archived and more recent data being migrated to SharePoint Online. Nortec also worked to train administrators and users on the new software and infrastructure. ATRIUM also requested desktop support, so users can request assistance and Nortec can push updates at any time using Windows Intune.
Benefits
O ffice 365 has allowed ATRIUM to dispose of its crashing server and provide a fail safe for its data. With Windows Intune, ATRIUM is able to upload and publish software packages, con gure and deploy management and security policies, and hardware and software computer inventory without on-premises infrastructure. ATRIUM’s learning curve was a large one, and the rm’s users are still working to get up to speed. “If we have an issue, Nortec is easy to get a hold of and very responsive, but we are still learning. We know it’s a little too early to realize all of the bene ts, but we do know things will be night and day from where we were.”