The Background
RadiantBlue is a specialized provider of information technology development, consulting, and program support services for the U.S. Defense and Intelligence Communities. Radiant Blue has offices in Chantilly, VA, Colorado Springs, CO, and Melbourne Beach, FL.
In 2012, the firm announced that it ranked number 354 on Technology Fast 500™, Deloitte’s ranking of 500 of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. This was the third year in a row that Radiant Blue has made the Technology Fast 500™ list.
The Challenge
A rapidly expanding company, Radiant Blue was quickly outgrowing its technology. And its recent acquisition of another company added a layer of complexity to an aging infrastructure who was due for a refresh. Robert Clark, Director of Information Technology for Radiant Blue says, “Between our rapid growth and acquisitions, our phone and data systems were lagging. Our company grew, but our technology couldn’t keep up.”
Lack of system scalability was causing costs to skyrocket and users were experiencing several outages. Clark knew his firm needed to upgrade to a solution that was scalable and expandable for his firm’s growth and future acquisitions. As a service provider, Clark would also need a solution that his contractors and any additional new company acquisitions could use that would be acceptable to his customers.
The Solution
Clark began looking for provider and to bring services in?house. “We’re a Microsoft shop, and we wanted to keep services under one platform,” says Clark. Clark and his IT department had been considering Lync for IM, and during a consultation with Deb Wiker, Director of Strategic Accounts at Nortec, began to consider the Lync voice component as its enterprise solution as well. “We’d been contemplating a premise based system, but all were expensive and would require additional support,” says Clark. Since Lync is an enterprise?ready product, this would satisfy Clark’s requirement that
solutions all be one platform. Additionally, since Lync was designed to integrate with his existing Microsoft solution stack, Clark could be assured it would integrate with minimal complications. Consequently, if any other future mergers and acquisitions occurred, the integration would not strain his internal IT Team and likely save the company additional expenses. Lync is expected to ultimately well?position Radiant Blue for continued growth.
Since Nortec Communications is Microsoft’s premier Solutions partner in the Mid?Atlantic, Clark brought in Nortec to architect and support their implementation. Nortec was selected since the implementation needed to take place in a timeframe of less than a few months. “We thought we’d have months, but due to unexpected circumstances, we had to build, level test, and then go livewith an insane schedule ,” says Clark. “All in all, it went very smoothly.”
Benefits
As a result of the upgrade, RadiantBlue’s Monthly Recurring Charges went down significantly. The company estimates that it will see huge financial and efficiency savings in about a year – and after that, pure cost savings. Clark says that the system is amazingly manageable with a small IT staff: “Adding and tracking users is really simple.” Lync’s IM component has been very helpful in keeping employees connected as well. With its single?platform solution and cost savings, Radiant Blue is no longer bound by its fragmented technology and escalating costs, but is poised for continued
growth.