GenCare

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company is a produce shipping company, called Kennedy Produce, Inc., and I’m the president. We’re a shipper of fresh fruits and vegetables to the state of Hawaii. We handle the buying, logistics, and quality control on the frontend of produce transactions for foodservice distributors, as well as some food-processing customers. We buy fruits and vegetables, truck them to our cold-storage facility, build orders based on customer requests, and then load air and ocean containers to send them to Hawaii to be distributed among a number of customers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

They’re handling our computer maintenance and management, including our server environment. I was looking for security as well, as I hear a lot about ransomware attacks and know someone that happened too. Additionally, we wanted someone accessible to our business to field calls and help fix computer issues.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We use an in-house server, but we’re in discussions about how to transition to the cloud for storage and such; there are just a few hardware issues to work out, as well as requirements around internet speed and capability. I’m in a difficult physical location that isn’t serviced well.

I consider them my managed service provider. We turn to them for new equipment (computers, laptops) or helping us decide how to proceed on those decisions. We rely on their expertise.

What is the team composition?

My primary point of contact is Jeff Baker (VP & Sales Director). He sells their services and manages their customers. We also work with their help desk, where we call-in directly. I’ve spoken to a number of their phone reps and they are very knowledgeable. Anant is one of their outside technicians, and he does service calls every quarter or six months or so to our buildings to make updates and address any concerns that we have.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

They were recommended to me by my former accountant, who was familiar with them. I’d been working with a computer resource that wasn’t as thorough with the work as they could have been, so I called General Networks. Based on that conversation and the recommendation, it seemed like a no-brainer to make the switch. I didn’t do a lot of other shopping around.

How much have you invested with them?

On a monthly basis, outside of equipment costs, we pay them $600-$700 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since July 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They respond to us quickly, and they possess remote capabilities. They fix things that slow us down and cause problems to our workflow. Produce companies operate early in the morning, and we can contact their help desk by 6 am. They also offer after-hours support — though it may be fee-based, it’s still available if the need arises.

They’re a very good partner to have. Maybe it’s only in comparison to my other resource before General Networks, but General Networks never speaks down to us. We’re not at the level of a computer operations expert, but there’s never a dumb question with General Networks. They walk us through our issues and explain what’s happening.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re good at initiating communication and following up. I get easily distracted, and they provide gentle reminders. They’re never pushy, but they remain persistent if something needs to be scheduled so no issues or delays arise.

We haven’t had failures on tasks. I have a new hard drive for our server that needs to be updated, and they purchased it and sent it to my office. Someone is coming on-site to update it because it’s a bit older, and there have been some indications that it might fail. This proactivity will make sure it doesn’t crash or cause any downtime, and it’s an affordable fix.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their level of knowledge is vast, and they’re willing to work through a problem until they solve it. If we’re struggling with something and the solution isn’t obvious right off the bat, then they’ll spend the time to work through the issue with us. For example, we had a printer issue where it wasn’t linked properly to our server, and they solved it. They talked us through what to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There aren’t a lot of areas where they’re not meeting my needs. They do a good job staying on top of costs and contracts as well, and the work has been good. We don’t have to hunt them down at all.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of software engineering. Our organization is Trusaic which used to be called First Capitol Consulting. We provide a number of workforce tax calculations including who’s qualified under the Affordable Healthcare Act. We also help employers with what they need to do to make sure they’re in compliance with that regulation. 

The other part of our business deals with taking that same workforce data, performing analysis, and figuring out if certain pay equity trends are being met within the workforce as well. We call it our pay parity product.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We deal very heavily with workforce data, cleaning it, processing it, and doing a number of calculations that are relevant to our external stakeholders. However, we don't maintain any major servers in our location. That’s why we wanted to make sure that what we are doing in the cloud meets industry standards.  

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve examined how we can clean up and optimize our cloud presence. They also check if we’re spending too much in some areas. Moreover, they also look for ways to improve our cloud deployment.

We did have a number of things that were deployed over the years, a lot of which are missing network databases, so General Networks deploys the Barracuda software to analyze our situation. That has helped us get an eye on things. 

Based on that, they look at our virtual machines and they’re able to recommend turning some off those.  Then, they also told us to get Azure Reservations. 

What is the team composition?

I work with Jeff (VP) and he’s our main point of contact. We also work with a technical employee and that person works largely in providing recommendations. 

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I did a general search. Initially, I was looking for somebody local, but I expanded my search. I reached out to a number of companies, but General Networks stood out because they were pretty clear about what they could offer. After that, we were able to start quickly. 

They weren’t trying to sell themselves as some Fortune 500 company or anything. Additionally, they were very straightforward whereas some of the competitors just made all kinds of promises. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve probably spent between $6,000–$7,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started collaborating in September 2019, and it’s ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’ve implemented their suggestions and some of them have been so impactful that we’ve been able to save several thousands of dollars. Overall, things have worked quite well for us. The bottom line is we’ve had a positive outcome.

We’re set to end our collaboration in a month, but we’ll definitely engage with them after that. 

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t have open tickets or problem reports with them that really need to be monitored since the team essentially provides consulting and helps us in certain areas. They’ve been responsive. I don’t remember having any issues in terms of their ability to answer the phone. We’ve been pretty productive because of them. 

Furthermore, they’ve definitely managed me as a client quite well. They’re also great with follow-ups and because of that, projects have been moving forward. Admittedly, we were a little bit nebulous at the start, but the team has been able to focus things down to make things work. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been really able to tailor something to help us focus on what we’re looking for. In our case, what really jumped out has been how we could save costs in our cloud infrastructure. We also appreciate that they don’t overpromise. They just get things done. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing really comes to mind on areas General Networks could improve. They’ve been really spectacular. Honestly, I couldn’t ask for anything more. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CIO of a healthcare company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We established an Office 365 tenant that General Networks helped us design.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’re working as our managed service provider and computer support. If we ever have issues, we use them for that as well.

What is the team composition?

So far, we’ve worked with three people, including Jeff (VP of Technical Services Sales), Charles (Director of Technical Services), and Jose (Senior Solutions Consultant).

Jose and Charles are in charge of our account from the IT perspective.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I found them online. I searched for companies in the Los Angeles area, but it’s a little hard to find managed services providers unless you’re an IT person. I was looking more for Office 365, and I didn’t realize that what I really needed was a managed services company.

I think I came across them through Clutch and other areas. Based on that, I called and had a phone call with Jeff.

What drew them to me is that General Networks has been in business for 30 years. They’re also local. They had an arm of their company that they had rebranded and was dedicated to doing Compass 365 collaboration. I could get the managed services, but I could also get the Compass 365 collaboration, and I knew that they could work together.

Those things combined with the fact that they had been in business for a long time, and that they also present themselves as an employee-owned company, I was drawn to because they’re all stakeholders.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested between $15,000–$20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement with General Networks started in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their team has come through on all the terms that we negotiated in the contract. I would give them high marks. It’s pretty early, and I’m just started to roll things out, but so far, it’s been very good.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate more through phone calls and emails. They’ve been adhering to our timeline.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re friendly and responsive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

In their consulting areas. I feel like I need to know what I need and ask them to do it instead of them suggesting things. It is more like a fix-it break-it mentality, and they do a good job of that.

If I say I need something done, they will figure it out, and they will get it done, but it is less consultation in the sense that you want to have this level of security and them recommending the best practices that we need to do that we aren’t doing now.

I would like to get a little more of that, so fix-it break-it is one way to do it, and the other is consultation, and I would like a little more of a consultant and best practices recommendations and them giving me some options.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

If you know what you want going in, they will get it done for you in an efficient and friendly manner. They will meet their targets on what they agreed to do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I work as a communications manager for PACE LA, a community development corporation and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. We provide social services to the community in LA and surrounding areas. We help people find solutions to start a business, find employment, and get early childhood education, affordable housing, and energy services, including emergency utility bill payments. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

Our previous IT contractor used to help us with our servers and computers once a week. Unfortunately, our main person from the contractor passed away, and the person on our staff that was dealing with IT issues retired in the same year. 

We were left with the task of finding a suitable IT contractor that could help us with our servers and Microsoft accounts, as well as set up our email and make sure we were connected to the internet without any hassle. We hired General Networks then.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks provides IT services for us. We previously used Novell and our own servers for our emails. Whenever our internet went down, our emails went down as well. That was a big issue because we had some outages due to old hardware and instruments. General Networks has worked on fixing that.

At the same time, we wanted to make sure that migrating to Office 365 was part of the plan to change our IT contractors, and they did that. They’ve also worked on our network since our systems were so old. They’ve been able to complete these tasks. 

Now, we’re in the final stages of making sure our emails are secured. 

What is the team composition?

Usually, we work with Eric (Technical Support) whenever I have a question or two over the phone. For business-type visits, I work with Jose (Senior Solutions Consultant). I've also worked with a few other people, including Jeff (Sales Director & VP) and Cort (Former Senior Account Manager). 

How did you come to work with General Networks?

Our company found them through word of mouth. We received three bids from different companies around our area. General Networks set up our first hardware and server in the beginning before my time in the company, so they were definitely on our list. In the end, we decided to go rejoin General Networks, and Cort gave us a quote. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $800,000–$900,000 so far. Our monthly bill on top of the retainer services is around $400–$800 per month. We spent quite a bit in the beginning because we had a lot of issues with our internet and equipment. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in June 2015, and the collaboration is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The general experience is good. We’re happy with their services because we've been able to upgrade our Internet. We’ve also migrated all of our emails to Microsoft 365.

In terms of overall quality, it's excellent. They keep us updated, and if something’s wrong with the firewall or server, they let us know immediately and come in the next morning to make sure everything's ok. They also do site visits every six months to make sure everything’s up to date and running. 

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We're definitely in good hands with the whole General Networks team. I appreciate working with Eric. Whenever I have a question and I call in, I ask for him because he knows our systems pretty well by now. Sometimes, they might be busy with other clients, so I either leave a message for Eric or somebody from the team calls me back within the hour.

Issues are mostly handled through support tickets. Whenever we do a technical call, we split up a ticket and get information. We also request monthly reports so we can have our accountant allocate the cost to different departments. They've done a great job of sending those reports. We go ahead and make sure that they're correct. This process works well and serves us as a good system for now. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I'm happy with their staff. Eric and Jeff have been great to work with. I know that if they can't answer my questions or there's an issue, they'll move it up to the next rung of the ladder and somehow figure it out. The other staff that I've worked with so far have been great, too, and that’s awesome. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

My only issue is that when I call, they’ll call me back through a receptionist or a call center, which figures out the urgency of the issue. For me, speaking to someone directly is better than receiving a voicemail so that I can let them know what the issue is. They can then figure out whether or not they should call back immediately. 

They usually call within the hour, and I’m still happy about that since I know most of them are working from home.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive assistant for an escrow company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We needed help with computer support. We were unsatisfied with the support we were receiving from our current provider, which was lacking in response time.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks is our managed service provider. When they first came on, they helped us move away from a physical server to the cloud on Azure. They helped us decide which speeds and sizes of cloud equipment we needed to match our current settings. Additionally, they helped us migrate our main applications and managed our storage options. They also recommend equipment for us as needed.

What is the team composition?

I work with Lee (System Engineer), Eric (General Manager), Jose (Field Engineer), Charles (Director of Technical Services), and Johnny (Help Desk Engineer).

How did you come to work with General Networks?

We found them through a word-of-mouth recommendation. When we met General Networks, we were in the process of vetting multiple computer support companies. When we were approached by Jeff (VP of Technical Services Sales), we offered him the chance to fill our needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay around $2,000 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2020, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They do a great job. We’re very satisfied. Their knowledge and expertise are on hand when we need them. I’d give the engagement a nine out of ten, only because we’ve been with them for less than a year so far.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve been great. We were ahead of schedule on the Azure migration and they made sure I understood all the applications that were part of the migration. We communicate via email and support calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their expertise stands out. Every problem I’ve had, they’ve found someone to help me with it or solved it themselves. Their turnaround time is also very quick. Whenever I have an urgent issue, they make sure it’s resolved quickly. I’m grateful for that.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Sometimes when I call, I get their voicemail. I call multiple times until I get someone on the phone. If it doesn’t get resolved within ten minutes, I call a manager on their cell phone directly. Even though their response time is great, getting to them is sometimes difficult because they only have 1–2 support desk operators at a time. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT Supervisor for Kings County Superior Court. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

They helped us with an Office 365 migration. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team helped us migrate to Microsoft Office 365. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with a salesperson and an engineer. 

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I believe they were one of many companies recommended to us by Microsoft.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was around $10,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked on this project in January 2016; it took about one week to complete.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Everything went really smoothly and they successfully migrated our platform. We haven’t run into any hiccups since the project. 

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly used phone calls to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

There weren’t very many errors in their work. They should keep going like they’re going. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I can think of; our engagement went well. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a holding company with a few startups underneath it in different industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

I needed help with IT support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks provides all of my IT needs for the teams that I have. They set up all the Microsoft 365 accounts for my companies and add new ones as my team grows. The team also does anti-virus services and offer general IT support desk needs. Additionally, they work very closely with my web developer.

What is the team composition?

We work with Jeff (VP of Technical Services Sales) and 3–4 other help desk technicians.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I looked at three companies in total and I found them via Google search. When I met with Jeff, he was very prompt and reliable. Just because of that engagement, I chose to go with General Networks.

How much have you invested with them?

Their price is very reasonable. We spend a couple of hundred dollars per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our metrics are the time to solution and the actual solution. When I have new people start and I need new emails setup, I send a help desk ticket and it’s usually done within an hour. It’s pretty fast.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email and their ticketing system. Sometimes we have a phone meeting where I explain what I’m looking for.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their service is very fast.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the property manager for Steward Realty Management Company. We're a small property management office with a traditional server workstation hardware system. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We need General Networks for our IT infrastructure and network. They provided us with a system and a network, as well as hardware, and software. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They keep me up to date on whatever updates are required on the system. We’ve had 2–3 different server systems that we've upgraded to over the years with General Networks. We now have Barracuda Cloud for security. 

We call General Networks when we need them. We put them on Moat, and they play around and fix the problem when I can't. When we’re ready to upgrade our system, I give Jeff (VP & Sales Director) a call. We set up a time, have a meeting, and decide what we're going to do. Then, we go forward. 

What is the team composition?

I work directly only with Jeff and a couple of people in the support staff. I call them when I have a problem and require their involvement. 

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I inherited General Networks when I started working at our company, which originally found and contacted them. They were already involved in the company when I got hired.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in January 1999, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I'm very happy with them. I've found their support to be helpful.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

It's been great. We don’t have a complicated operation. From their end, they come in, find out what we need, who needs what, and then they put things together in the hardware. They come over and do whatever transferring, loading, and customization they have to do. They're very efficient about it. We communicate mainly via phone.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I've always found their support to be valuable and helpful, and that's the most important thing to me. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t. I honestly can't think of one. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

The more customers know ahead of time, the less time General Networks will spend strategizing and more time developing what they need. They're able to sit down and discuss what the customers’ needs are and what they could offer to get them from point A to point B. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a graphics company that predominantly works with entertainment companies. We create digital and print artwork. I’m the operations manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We were hosting our own email and as the company grew it became more and more difficult.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks facilitated our move to Microsoft 365 from Kerio. They set up everyone’s email accounts in one day. They continue to offer support email for our email accounts.

What is the team composition?

I call their support line and the contact changes all the time. The initial team was just a handful of contact. We contact Jeff (Sales Representative) if something is really troublesome.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

They were referred to us by Microsoft. I was looking for an email host that wouldn’t require much help from us.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $5,000–$10,000 so far. It’s very affordable.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2016, and our work is ongoing with support.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They made a really smooth transition from the initial setup to migration. It’s been nice to take that responsibility off my plate and put it on theirs. The email is much more stable than when we were managing it ourselves. They’ve been really valuable.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via phone and email. If it’s something we can’t do ourselves, we reach out to them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve been very flexible. They work with another IT vendor we have to make sure our needs are taken care of. Even though it’s an odd setup, they’ve been really good about accommodating us. They leave me feeling confident.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We only ran into one issue that took a little while to figure out. Other than that, they’ve been rapid at getting things back to where they need to be. I really don’t have any complaints.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the owner and CEO of Coast Motor Werk. We specialize in BMW Mini Cooper service and repair with two locations.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We were having some connectivity issues between the two locations that we’re both promoting to a local server. We brought them on to be our managed IT provider.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks provides us with IT support. They got us up and running and handled all general maintenance. Once, we had a ransomware issue that they had to resolve. Because we have two locations, they need to share the same database. Currently, the provider of the software is the limitation when it comes to getting us on the cloud, General Networks has proposed a couple of options as far as getting us on the cloud. The main hurdle is getting the shop’s management software company to get on board properly.

They’ve addressed issues with both hardware and software. We had an older server we eventually had to repair. It went down a couple of times over the years. General Networks resolves those hardware issues remotely, working through software and connectivity issues.

What is the team composition?

We work with Charles (Director of Technical Services) and Jeff (VP of Technical Services Sales).

How did you come to work with General Networks?

They were referred to us by our internet provider.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around December 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Prior to working with General Networks, we had frequent outages and they’d take hours, potentially days, to resolve. Since working with Jeff, the outages have been far less and certainly more on the hardware side than the software side. They’re always very quick to respond and very professional. General Networks resolves those issues very quickly when we identify them, often within minutes. Their tech support is very efficient. We get an immediate response. Sometimes, the problem is resolved before I even know it is. Everything has been extremely smooth.

My only criticism is that there are different weightings that need to be applied to different types and sizes of businesses. Obviously, we depend on computers but we’re a small company that doesn’t depend heavily on them. The level of professionalism is placated on the presumption that we fall into the mold of other businesses that General Networks works with.

Obviously, the importance of these computers is every bit as important to us as computers are to other companies. I treat clients differently depending upon their needs and reactions to their problems. With IT, I feel that I call General Networks in a panic because we’re down and can’t write service which means we can’t do our job. I think the weight of my level of panic versus another business of theirs needs to be taken into consideration a bit more. By this, I mean there needs to be a little less of a placating nature that this is the set way they do things.

We want to feel that they’re stopping whatever they’re doing at that very moment we call and are jumping onto our issue. We want to feel that we’re super important. Giving menu-driven responses and not acknowledging the customer isn’t very genuine from the standpoint of the person who’s on the other line. There’s always room for improvement, and I think all companies can work on that better.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

I have a delegated team member who has the best computer experience. They work with General Networks. I haven’t heard any complaints from this team member. Occasionally, I’ll hear that responses weren’t as fast as they’d hope which is what I’d expect if we haven’t talked to General Networks for three months because everything is fine and then all of a sudden, we’re in panic mode.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s a combination of their timeliness and professionalism. Their technical prowess is excellent. They’ve always been extremely quick to fix the problem from a technical standpoint. Their competency from the understanding of what their job is is very high. They fix the problem every time, on time, for the right price. I feel like I’m getting a good value for the services they provide.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It goes back to what I shared about empathy in responding. General Networks is extremely good at their job. When I send an email or text saying our servers went down today, they go right to work but there’s no response until the problem is fixed.

I usually have to follow up and ask if they saw my email or text. They then express that the problem is fixed. It would be nice to get a message telling us they received our text or email and are working on it as fast as they can. The communication aspect is the only thing that’s lacking and could be improved.