FIT Technologies

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a 97-year-old construction management company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. We operate in five states, have around 150 employees, and manage around 200 construction projects each year.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with FIT Technologies?

We needed IT consulting and management services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

FIT Technologies manages our network and security protocols and provides us with consulting for our hardware and software needs, either for our offices or for construction sites. As part of their services, they help a lot with the procurement of the hardware we need, and they sometimes get us discounts from the providers they work closely with. For example, they purchase Lenevo equipment using their account at a discount price, and we reimburse them. Additionally, they’re in charge of the procurement of all Microsoft products and our laptop’s operating systems.

FIT Technologies also sets up and takes down our construction sites’ networks and office spaces. In addition to that, we work with them to develop different applications using Microsoft Power Apps. Whenever we have technology-based questionnaires from third-party vendors or solicitations, they complete them.

What is the team composition?

I work with around a dozen different people from FIT Technologies, including a customer success manager (CSM), a technology lead, two supplementary technology leads who come into the picture when the main lead is on vacation, three people from the technical support team who work on-site, and 3–4 different people I’ve talked to over the phone. From them, the CSM and the technology lead are my main points of contact.

How did you come to work with FIT Technologies?

We were using a different company, but they were not good at managing our network. Our president reached out to other CEOs in our area to see who they were working with, and we found out that FIT Technologies was very well-known in northeast Ohio.

How much have you invested with them?

Including the cost of our last agreement, we’ve spent over $1 million.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2018, and our engagement is ongoing. We first signed a two-year master service agreement (MSA) from 2018 to 2021, and we’re currently on our second MSA agreement.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We monitor different items every week, including tickets, reports, and deliverables, and we’re very happy with FIT Technologies’ work. They always keep everything up and running, and we haven’t experienced any downtimes. Overall, they always exceed our expectations.

How did FIT Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

FIT Technologies performs well, and they’re very affordable for special projects. We have a ticketing system for support, and they generally close the tickets within 14 business days. Additionally, they provide us reports with our hardware inventory every month. We also have monthly meetings with their executive leadership to review our overall strategy.

Our CSM works on-site 2–3 times per week, where we have high-level discussions, planning sessions, and reviews about any issues, outstanding items, and upcoming tasks. This person handles everything, from development to execution, ensuring that the necessary parties are informed and updated. He also follows up and through every project.

We use Microsoft Teams for our meetings, and I have the phone numbers of everyone from their team, so I can send them text messages when needed. Additionally, we communicate via email and have in-person meetings as well.

What did you find most impressive about them?

FIT Technologies is very talented regarding network security. Additionally, their hardware procurement and deployment are great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if FIT Technologies understood our industry a little better. We’re in the construction industry, and they’re in IT, so it’s hard to find a middle ground between two different sectors.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Good partnerships require effort from both sides in order to make them work. Be willing to dedicate resources to your collaboration.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a VP at a healthcare company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with FIT Technologies?

We needed a managed service provider to help us with day-to-day and on-the-ground support for our clinicians and users.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

FIT regularly purchases and installs hardware for us and handles our software applications. They help us with our employee onboarding and offboarding, provide help desk support for our desktops, and handle IT projects. 

From a hardware perspective, our standard is Cisco Meraki network equipment. FIT also helps us with end-user devices such as laptops, desktops, and monitors. Although we often used Lenovo, they’ve worked with multiple brands depending on what we purchase. 

As for software, FIT manages our Office 365 tenant, including email, SharePoint, and OneDrive. The team also supports us with other software packages like eFax and Microsoft Azure. Additionally, we complete a lot of acquisitions of other businesses, and FIT helps us integrate those acquired businesses into our current standards from an IT perspective. 

What is the team composition?

In total, over 100 FIT employees have done work for us. I work with Adam (CEO), the executive team, field technicians, project managers, and client service managers; we basically work with FIT’s whole gamut of employees.

How did you come to work with FIT Technologies?

We acquired a business that was using FIT as their IT partner. As we made acquisitions during our organization's first couple of years, we wanted to select a managed service provider to be our standard as we continued to grow. We chose FIT because they showed the ability to grow with us. As we expanded our footprint, they scaled up and had the processes to continue replicating our services in more areas.

How much have you invested with them?

So far, we’ve spent more than $10 million, including hardware and licensing that we purchase through FIT.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together around June 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The fact that we trust FIT with a budget in the millions is very telling — we drive a lot of business through them. They’ve grown from supporting 10 locations to supporting upwards of 400 locations for us, which is significant. They also have customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores of over 80% on average, which we monitor as part of our ticket process.

How did FIT Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve used various project management tools depending on the project, such as Trello. For example, now we’re using Power BI dashboards generated from their ticketing system, which allows us to manage projects.

As for communication, we use email, phone, and I usually talk with someone from FIT through Microsoft Teams meetings every day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I’m impressed by FIT’s trustworthiness in aligning with our company objectives. They always follow our leadership team’s strategy instead of doing what they want at a local level when nobody’s watching. I always feel confident that we’re on the same page about the projects we’re trying to execute. Our company has a lot of acquisitions, so there’s constant change and rapid growth. FIT’s ability to continually grow and help improve processes also distinguishes them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We’re constantly adding new locations, so we’re always hiring new people. FIT does a really good job of hiring and training new resources. However, they could try to get ahead a little bit more, expanding their centralized team so that they can help support our field teams in different locations. Additionally, they should always continue to work on the communication between the control teams and the field teams.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to think about your process to talk to the correct people from FIT. Make sure you have the right resources empowered to make certain decisions so everything can happen efficiently. Also, understand your boundaries, budget restrictions, and your decision-making authority for the people who will interact with FIT. That way, FIT will have clear guidance on being efficient and developing their own process to work with you as a client.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Evangelization at St. Basil the Great Catholic Church in Brecksville, OH. We are a Catholic parish with thousands of parishioners who attend weekly. We have a staff of about 20-25 people who work in our offices. I am the staff liaison to FIT Technologies, our IT provider.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire FIT Technologies?

We hired FIT for managed IT services. When we were deciding whether to use them just on a break-fix basis or to have an ongoing relationship with help desks, on-site technician visits, and advice on strategy for IT expansion, we went all-in with the ongoing relationship.

Over the past 3 years, we converted to a MS O365 environment, brought in a fast fiber connection, connected all our buildings to one network, implemented VoIP, added about 10 access points to various buildings, and now have their equipment throughout our campus that they can all monitor and analyze remotely.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

They worked a lot with non-profits and schools, offered us non-profit pricing in pretty much every area, had a large team to help us in all kinds of different areas, and came highly recommended from 2 people who had used them in their other businesses.

Describe the project in detail and walk through their service package.

Most of our equipment and services had been hodgepodge and basically duct-taped together. They helped us upgrade, get on O365, get everything backed up in the cloud, get firewalled, and get faster internet. We pay monthly for our multi-year contract. They have onsite technicians, but also people who can configure or fix many things remotely for us. But it's nice to have both.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We have worked with 12-15 resources from FIT's team. We work mostly with our Client Services Manager from FIT and with the field technicians who come out weekly to check-in, resolve issues, and implement new technologies or devices. We also work with their Infrastructure Support Engineers who solve problems remotely for us.

Some of their Application Support Specialists have also helped us resolve issues. FIT's Chief Technology Officer introduced us to some technologies we had not yet embraced in the early stages of our relationship, such as VOIP, which we have now adopted with FIT's help.

In some of our larger strategy and vision-casting meetings, FIT's Chief Strategy Officer has sat in and provided some of the big picture of the trends and directions he sees companies going with technology.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our data is all backed up in real-time, we have more storage, faster internet, our phones and emails and storage are all integrated in MS environment. We got rid of our landlines that were 25+ years old and obsolete.

VoIP offers many features we never had. We've also been able to automate some processes using Microsoft PowerAutomate which is a big help for follow-up with our parishioners.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Their ticketing system works well and we can submit tickets through email or phone. Their system also has automated follow-ups to make sure issues are resolved, which lets us confirm the resolution with 1-click and provide a rating for service quality.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They work a lot with schools and other non-profits, so we knew they were familiar with the space. As a religious non-profit, we also find they are very respectful of our parish and beliefs. All of their technicians are very kind and, in general, quite joyful.

They don't treat themselves like machine repairmen, but they know the names of everyone in our office and when on-site they walk up and down the halls, peek their heads in offices and ask if there are any issues anyone needs help with.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

Not really. I know that working with young tech people there can sometimes be turnover in your employee base, which I understand, but we've had a few people from FIT we really liked who moved on or moved elsewhere in their company. Luckily so far, they've been replaced with other people we now like, but we are all about relationships here.