IT Force

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

The first specialized store for adults was opened in Moscow in 1992 at the family consultation department on the basis of the Medical Center "Medicine and Reproduction". The uniqueness of this project was that from the mass of foreign goods, only those were selected, the therapeutic effect of which was proven.

Today, the chain of stores of intimate goods continues to develop dynamically and deservedly occupies a leading position in the Russian market of goods for adults. Social mission - to improve the sexual culture of people. According to numerous surveys, up to 30% of the population can solve sexual problems with the help of the health industry without resorting to medicine. This statistics is confirmed by 40 years of experience of specialists from Western countries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Force?

work with contextual advertising

What were your goals for this project?

increase in sales and brand awareness

SOLUTION

How did you select IT Force?

Earlier I saw positive reviews about ITForce, there are interesting cases on the company's website.

Describe the scope of their work in detail.

online store of intimate goods

What was the team composition?

project manager and specialist in setting up advertising campaigns

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

sales have grown - this is the most important thing!

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I believe that the process was effective, because we solved all the difficult moments together.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

It's a pleasure to work with this company, as we work as one team

Are there any areas for improvement?

ITForce specialists take into account all the peculiarities of the client's business, I think this is very important.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the office manager at a procurement company. We handle the procurement and make sure that procurement rules are followed.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Force?

We needed IT support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They brought all of our online operations to the cloud. That involved setting up SharePoint, handling email addresses, and more. Additionally, they look after all IT issues for our staff. They keep our monthly security up to date and assist us with any technical problem.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 6–7 tech support team members.

How did you come to work with IT Force?

When our web design partner was completing their work for us, we mentioned that we would need IT support. They recommended their team. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $60,000.

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?

Their service is above and beyond expectations. As we entered the global pandemic, we realized that we’ve never worked remotely and saw that as a potential challenge. They set up laptops for our team, and we ended up not missing an hour of service. From there, they continued to provide excellent coverage for the new remote system seamlessly.

We don’t come across many problems because they’re always able to foresee potential issues. They track problems that do come up very thoroughly. 

How did perform from a project management standpoint?

We’re able to submit issues we experience through their ticketing system. Their monthly reports detail all the problems they’ve handled and how long each took to solve. We have a record of everything, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time we experience a problem. That allows our company to learn. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Most of our staff don’t have a technical background. They’re able to communicate about IT in a way that we can all understand. That’s a result of their true knowledge and experience in the field. Additionally, they’re great at talking our staff members through problems, enabling them to correct issues as they pop up. There’s never any frustration shown on their end.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they do an excellent job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Give them as much information as early as possible.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I look after compliance and security for a company that provides market research services to businesses and consumers. We have a wide range of research and surveys that reach across audiences and industries.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Force?

At the time, we were facing server and network upgrades. We needed professional IT support to seamlessly upgrade our systems, providing more capacity, reliability, security, and business continuity. IT Force delivered on all our requirements on time, on budget and without any issues.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We wanted to improve our business continuity and disaster recovery plan.  It was therefore important for us to deploy data replication for our critical files. We engaged with IT Force to provide us with that virtualization and business continuity support.

We also needed to ensure that we could expand our capacity and continuity as a company. We interact on a day-to-day basis with IT Force who also run testing and failover on our servers.

What is the team composition?

We have an account manager, a support manager, and specialists who focus on cybersecurity. In total, their team consists of about 4–5 resources. 

How much have you invested with them?

In our first year, we spent about €26,000 (approximately $28,800 USD). After that, we adopted a monthly spend of about €13,000–€15,000 (approximately $14,400–$16,600 USD) each month. Aside from that, our spend with them is ad hoc. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started collaborating in December 2017, and our teams still work together. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our company’s information security management system is monitored by our auditors, our third-party support is also monitored for compliance. Our auditors are very happy with the work that IT Force is doing currently. 

They’re very proactive about coming up with potential solutions for problems, offering suggestions for how we can improve factors at our end. For instance, they’ve offered security such as two-factor authentication and multi factor authentication to our company as issues come up.

How did IT Force perform from a project management standpoint?

The service went according to plan, without any issues in project management. The provided us with deadlines and costs, so we always knew where we were with them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re very professional, always doing their homework before starting engagements. The team is able to do research and assess whether or not everything is in place. They plan in advance. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. We don’t have any issues or operating problems. There are quite a few reports and vulnerability scans they perform as well.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain your goals to them clearly and thoroughly. That will clarify your expectations. They’ve been helpful in every capacity, but they can only perform up to your requirements. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the HR advisor for an organization that helps early-stage companies. We help them grow their businesses through four different support services, including preparation for investors, access to finance, incubation, and foster community and collaboration.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Force?

We hired them to help streamline our IT systems and processes since everything was a bit fragmented. They also provide ongoing, real-time support, advising us on how to future proof our systems going forward.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

IT Force supports us across our IT needs. They support us via an online ticketing portal, email service, phones, etc with all our teams IT issues Their team does monthly compliance visits to ensure everything is functioning properly and to identify any issues. If there are any red flags on our systems, they bring it to our attention and find a solution. The majority of their efforts are toward ensuring everything works together more smoothly, is streamlined and that Dublin BIC users receive a professional service.

What is the team composition?

Depending on the project’s needs, different people from IT Force help us. However, we’re primarily in contact with an account manager who acts as a  virtual CTO, and an IT engineer.

How did you come to work with IT Force?

They came to us as a referral. After doing due diligence, I found that they were rated highly and had good reviews. Also, they were clients in our incubation space almost 15 years ago, so they were familiar to us. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We first engaged with IT Force in December 2018 and our collaboration is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Based on the monthly reports they deliver, we can see significant improvement. When we first started, our IT compliance was rated 68% by IT Force, but we’re now at 75%. Our goal is to get us to over 90% now, and their team is helping us work toward it.

How did IT Force perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re excellent. Their approach to the work is very professional, proactive, and communicative. We primarily speak via email, phone, and face-to-face. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate how proactive they are. Their ability to work with a smaller company like ours is impressive, as they give us a professional service that you might expect in a larger organisation   They are very professional to work with.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

If anything, I would like more individual time with their experts as we do not have any inhouse IT expertise and if the support person who was working on an open ticket could be reachable directly rather than ringing the main line.  

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I’d recommend working with them. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the financial controller of Acumen and Trust. We specialize in delivering financial planning advice, investment and pension solutions to both individual and corporate clients.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Force?

Our company was growing and our previous provider wasn’t putting the same thought into upgrading our networks. They also weren’t as good on the customer service side as they once were. We felt, after being with them for a number of years, that we needed to speak to other companies.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They’ve been really good to deal with and have done a lot of work on our infrastructure and network updates. They’ve been helpful in getting us to a good place in terms of security and data protection.

They immediately identified the areas where our infrastructure’s security wasn’t what it should have been and put an immediate plan in place to address them. They’ve added to that plan over the last year as well. We needed that upgrade because our company was expanding and gaining more users with more devices. They also took care of the issues with cyber security and hacking.

What is the team composition?

They’ve provided us with a vCIO [Virtual CIO], who handles all project work and quarterly reviews. We have access to their help desk on a daily basis, and any staff member can contact them directly in relation to their own query. Authorized staff can contact them in relation to ordering equipment or any other project work. In that situation, IT Force will allocate a dedicated engineer.

How did you come to work with IT Force?

It was a big move for us. We had a few other quotes, but IT Force had other similarly-sized financial services companies already on their books. It was important to us that they understood what we needed. Other financial services companies who had dealt with them had also given us references, which gave us the confidence to start a relationship. There was good business due diligence carried out before we made the decision.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent around $166,935 to-date, which includes the project work and recurring monthly cost.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in June 2016. The engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We’re very happy so far. They give us a complete timeline—from start to finish—for every project. They’ve implemented the projects by deadline and worked with us when we didn’t have the time to do the work. They work around us and are very flexible.

We get statistics from IT Force in relation to network security matters. All of those metrics are communicated to us every month so that we know exactly what is going on and if there are any issues we need to address.

How did IT Force perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve been pretty pleased with project management given that it was one of the reasons we switched vendors. They have a very good help desk support team who are very prompt in dealing with all of our queries. The help desk can connect to the PCs here so that they can get onto the user’s device and troubleshoot remotely.

They’ve given us the best advice, and not just in terms of the work, but in getting things done within our budget as well. They are very proactive in getting the best outcome for our company.

We generally have telephone conference calls when we need to discuss work.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Tickets are assigned to an individual person at the help desk who will then liaise with the person who raises the ticket. There is a continuous communication flow between the two so that there is no need to get back to the help desk and explain everything that has happened. Everything is logged on their system.

We also like that they simplify technical terminology so that all users can understand it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They have been a huge improvement compared to the previous provider. We may have a few issues with project work, but it’s never anything major. We’ve been very happy so far and there is nothing really of concern.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They undertook a full assessment of all of our IT infrastructure network and devices before we agreed to anything or implemented updates. Get the critical stuff done first and then gradually implement the other areas. It takes time to get to where you want to be.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the managing director of a small e-commerce business that sells vouchers. We have about 30 employees based in Dublin.

The business sells online vouchers to consumers for hospitality breaks, hotels, dining, home delivery goods, and various local events. We’ve been in business for over 18 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Force?

We used to manage our internal IT infrastructure but realized that the administration was too heavy and an overhead on our business. We have internal developers who specialize in our website software, but they’re also tasked with the regular IT tasks (e.g., fixing staff PCs and problems with email). This was taking away from their ability to deliver more effectively for our website.

We had a third party outsourcing company at the time who operated a more break fix model which was no longer servicing our needs and we felt we wanted to make sure we had the right partner to help us achieve all of the new challenge in our company.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We haven’t gone too deep into projects with them yet because they just recently took over. They’ve come in, taken control, and given us visibility into what is happening to the projects to date. They listened to our requirements and worries, as well as things we wanted to improve upon, and then broke them into various projects that they will implement over the next few months.

The first project was to provide us with backup for the domain controllers and moved them into the cloud, which they did without causing any disruption to the business.

They’re currently replacing our firewalls and we’re transitioning to a managed service security environment where they will take care of our firewalls both physically and virtually.

How did you come to work with IT Force?

John [Management Director, IT Force] cold emailed us just when we were thinking of a future change. After reading through their website, I made contact directly with John and met him. We had a very straightforward conversation where I gave him a brief description of our challenges. His response was very frank, and he said he could take care of the challenges to allow us to take care of our business. He also offered a very simple, user-based pricing structure.

We did put out a tender that brought in three other vendors. We went through a scoring process and settled upon IT Force because they scored better in most categories than others. Their business structure was more proactive in terms of future planning rather than reactively maintaining broken stuff. The fact that they were thinking about our business was refreshing. Knowing that John, as our virtual CIO, would worry as much about our business as we would was also refreshing. He didn’t have a sales target because he was focused on delivering solutions that suited our business which we found refreshing.

We met with their network and help desk people and found them to be extremely knowledgeable, confident, and sensible in creating project plans. They made it clear to us that they would follow a very strict schedule and control plan that was catered to our business.

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent about €20,000 ($24,854 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in September of 2017, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

I know we’ve seen improvements in the overall score that we’re benchmarking ourselves on. The network guardian review of our IT services’ health was at about 60 on a 100-point scale when we started, but it’s now at about 75. We’ve seen incremental improvements as a result of working with IT Force.

The first project was quite an achievement because it proved that we could trust what they set out to do. They fully documented everything, described it to us, took action, and then reported to us at every stage. We found that process quite refreshing.

One of the biggest challenges in our company is the buy-in from the top for the value of the IT investment we put in (i.e., office infrastructure, equipment, email accessibility). People only realize the value of these services when something goes wrong. IT Force very quickly got buy-in from our CEO because of the services and support they gave him, which exceeded expectations.

How did IT Force perform from a project management standpoint?

The initial handover process was the first test. The cooperation from the previous outsourced partner wasn’t very forthcoming or as fluid as it should’ve been. Certain things were not made clear to IT Force as they progressed through the exchange, and the third party compromised the continuity of certain external systems.

However, IT Force took control pretty quickly, which made for a seamless transition. They offered a virtual CIO, network guardian, and help desk which gave us confidence that there was always someone we could reach via phone, text message, or email. They were online and available 24/7, which was really critical to our business. They certainly didn’t let us down during that critical phase.

On day-to-day support, we interact with the help-desk via email or telephone. We’ve given all of our staff the details so they can interact independently. We have very little interaction with them due to this robust IT model, and we don’t really have significant help desk support requirements, which is positive.

What did you find impressive about them?

The structure and approach they have to maintaining their clients’ businesses are good and different to others. They don’t oversell themselves, and we’re able to speak frankly with them. We never get the sense that they’re just trying to get money from us. They really want to do the best job that they can for their clients.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There is nothing I would suggest at this time. I’m quite happy with them at the moment.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure to meet with the virtual CIO often because they’re key to learning how IT will serve a business. Clients should talk to their staff and make sure they are happy with IT Force’s support.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the IT manager for an automation company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Force?

We’re a medium sized company. We didn’t want our internal IT departments to take care of all our IT support. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Initially, they were involved in design and work on the virtual architecture. They moved us from physical servers to a virtualized platform. 

Following that, we established a yearly contract where they do our day to day support. They provide do remote support for laptops, servers, or the network, and if necessary, change the site to fix whatever issues come up. 

We also use them for consultancy on some of our projects where we need more IT expertise than we have internally. 

What is the team composition? 

John [CIO, IT Force] is our account manager. He is our point of contact through a daily call where if we have an open ticket that we need to escalate. If I have any sales issues, go to Joe [Senior Account Manager, IT Force]. 

How did you come to work with IT Force?

We’ve had 4 service providers since 2003, when we started the business. We went out to the market so it was a competitive tender. IT Force was good cost wise and they provided us with our SLA [service level agreement] for full support services.

How much have you invested with them?

Average of 2,000–2,500 euros [$2,450–$3,070] a month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in 2010 and the work is ongoing. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Every year, we go through a very detailed internal review. I don’t see any reason why they won’t be working with us going forward. We have no issues with them. Price-wise, they’re competitive in the market. 

How did IT Force perform from a project management standpoint?

They were really good. Once you’re clear with them on what your scope and requirements are, they never miss a date. There are never any issues with deadlines. I’ve been happy with their support, especially on project work. 

They have a good structure and communicate well. We use Skype and they also have a portal where we log tickets and track issues. If we have an issue that needs their attention, we write it directly on the portal so it gets assigned to their lower level engineers. They cover all the issues that escalate up. That’s all very transparent about who’s gone onto the portal. Any questions going back and forth are logged to the portal. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

I use them with clients as well as for our team. They’re very scalable for being with small clients to large scale clients. They have the infrastructure that allows them to scale in different ways. A lot of IT support companies have big infrastructure and can only deal with big lines. IT Force has that mechanism but can also tailor it down to the needs of a small project and a small company like ourselves. We’ve never found a skillset that they haven’t been able to provide. They’re very impressive.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If we go to them for a hardware scope, for example, a new server, it’s very hard to get them to specify the server unless you give them a lot of other information. That’s not very user friendly in terms of asking them to do a project for one of our end clients. We tell them we need a server to run multiple VMs [virtual machines] and they would want to charge us for the design time to give us a price for the hardware. However, with other vendors out there, we tell them what we need and they give us the specification on the basis that we’re going to buy the hardware off them. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure your team uses their portal so your team can weigh in and log it all that way. If you do that, it goes straight away through their normal SOPs [standard operating procedures] and you will receive better service. 

However, sometimes the team could be on site and don’t want to bother logging into the portal to log the call. That’s the only occasion where their support falls down. As soon as you go through the portal again, we get the excellent service we expect. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a small European patent trademark and design prosecution practice with an international reach. Most of our work is conducted online, and we depend heavily on technology to communicate. IT is an integral part of our toolkit here, and I make sure everyone has what they need in terms of support to do their jobs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with IT Force?

We had a very long and happy relationship with our previous IT suppliers, but we outgrew them. They didn’t have the skills and capacity to accomodate our business’ growth, so we needed to find new resources.

We are very reliant on out IT, and all of the pieces in our toolkit need to work in synchronization. Our broadband connection, network connectivity, remote dialing, online filing from international locations, and client expectation management all have complications which can go badly if not handled properly.

Sometimes, the diagnosis of a problem can be quite tricky, and in the past, this meant dealing with a number of different suppliers. This was very time consuming, and it was difficult to keep it from becoming a bottleneck if I happened to be busy.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They did a thorough audit of where were were at, and were really dedicated to tackling the licensing issues properly. Our previous IT vendor tried to do things right, but they weren’t as organized in regards to licensing paperwork. IT Force worked proactively and diligently to get everything into one place, acquire licenses, and make sure everything was current. Their approach is much more organized and focused, and we now have a really clear idea of what licences we have, what’s going to expire, and if something needs to be bought.

They also assist with planning, budgeting, and maintaining everything. We’re working towards ISO [International Standards Organization] accreditation, and we have GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] coming in next summer. It’s important for us, as a legal firm, to be best practice. IT Force has helped tremendously in arranging everything and making it easily accessible.

In terms of hardware, we’ve catalogued all software, assets, PCs, laptops, servers, SANs [storage array networks], firewalls, and we know how it all works together. I’m not an expert in IT, so having everything be so organized and clear has been really great in terms of prepping for the ISO.

What is the team composition?

Mark [SME Technical Solutions Manager, IT Force] has been very important to us in trying to resolve any performance issues we have on our network. He makes sure everything is running optimally. We have another team member who comes in and goes through every switch to make sure everything is running properly.

We were very fortunate to have Mark, Conor [Service Delivery Manager, IT Force], John [Managing Director, IT Force], and another team member. They’ve made our business their business, and when we handed everything from the old suppliers, they were on site every week. They’ve been producing reports for us via email to follow up on things.

How did you come to work with IT Force?

I was looking for the right face for our company. I didn’t want to be the smallest client of a large IT company, which is what led me away from some companies in Ireland. IT Force had the capacity to care about us individually. I met with a salesperson from IT Force a couple of years ago, and he carried himself particularly well. When I started looking for another vendor, I had had such a good experience with IT Force that I wanted to scope them out a bit more.

I retrieved pricing from different companies, along with explanations of services. Others were more competitive with their pricing, but they couldn’t offer the more dedicated response times. We wanted our directors to be able to pick up the phone and receive quick service if an issue arose. IT Force also provided a level of strategic management that larger companies didn’t, and it was all forward planning. IT Force is almost like having an outsourced IT manager.

My director felt they were the best choice, so we gave them a trial month where we had them run alongside our previous vendor. They weren’t allowed to interfere, but they were allowed to give advice, which all turned out to be good. The recommendations they gave us were implemented, and turned out nicely. Our trial period with them was very successful.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay a fixed, monthly fee of $2,500. It’s an ongoing, rolling contract regardless of the number of calls.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2017, and the relationship is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

IT Force was very good at helping us apply patches without letting our business suffer. Everything was scheduled at an hour to ensure users had prior notice of downtimes, and it all worked nicely. They brought us back to an efficient speed, and it has improved things. The issues with slowness don’t seem to be quite as problematic as they used to be.

They are relatively new to us, but we’re already seeing significant differences. In our strategic meetings, I’ve received more from IT Force in three months than my previous supplier in 13 years. I’m hoping we’ll see a reduction in the number of IT support queries, and I can already see signs of things heading in that direction.

At the moment, they’re still acquainting themselves with our individual quirks. We have Bespoke software here, and they’re just taking over handling all those queries as well. They’ve been doing a great job. They’re putting all these processes in our runbook, which is much more clear and understandable. Anyone in the NOC [network operations center] will be able to pick it up and perform some straightforward, easily-corrected fixes. It’ll enable out staff to correct issues themselves and teach people what they’re doing wrong.

The approach is made in a way to reduce support queries in the future, and to enable our own staff to try to become less reliant on third party vendors. We had a number of people who had provided third party support to us for these applications, and IT Force is now managing this as well. Indicators are positive, but it’s still too early to tell from a statistical standpoint.

How did IT Force perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a major outage in our building here, and also had a power problem with an electric fault within the building, which brought down our servers. When the power was restored, the Hyper-V clusters wouldn’t come back up the way they should’ve due to a physical problem in the SAN [storage area network]. IT Force brought out engineers, and they were on site within minutes. They physically came into our office and remained here to keep the staff informed throughout the process while they contacted Dell support. They had physical boards dispatched to us to help remedy the issue that same day. It was all really exceptional, and very different than what we were used to. They gave us more than we asked for.

They produced a very clear report afterwards which detailed the root cause analysis and explained what we needed to do to address this as part of our solution. They had just started, and hadn’t yet had a chance to address their own recommendations by the time this happened. It was great to see how they responded, as well as how they dealt with IT problems and the staff. They kept people informed and told them what was happening the whole day. They provided workarounds where they could make sure the most important functions remained, despite difficulties.

Their performance has given us great confidence in their capacity to cope with a crisis. They provide comprehensive services in terms of support. Time can be a major factor for us, and we have clients who are less organized. Having IT Force available all hours of the day and night is really important to us. Their support has also allowed me to do other things, and has also allowed our staff to access support when they need it. They’ve been of significant benefit to us.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What they were willing to prove to us during the month trial period was impressive. We were a bit skeptical as to whether a managed service could add this much more value. They were willing to step outside of their own comfort zones to accommodate and prove to us that they were going to meet expectations. They also had the courage and conviction to tell us when they couldn’t do something. Their approach helped set realistic expectations on both sides, and we exactly what type of partnership we were getting into.

We have a virtual CIO who talks to us about our site and makes recommendations to drive gradual improvement. They can be quite stubborn if we make suggestions which aren’t practiced, and they don’t like to make poor service calls. I like that they support me in my role of convincing the directors that the quick fix isn’t always the right one. They are dedicated to making the right decision as much as is humanly possible.

Their guidance and capacity to give advice is great, and I see the difference from the previous vendor. They’re lovely people, and their motives are in the right place. It give us a better future as a company to have this level of forward planning.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard to tell yet, because we’re still getting out system set up according to their rules and specifications. We can log our tickets with their NOC [network operations center] or their support. IT Force’s communication is more unified and consistent than our old provider, which we appreciate.

IT Force doesn’t recognize our directors in their NOC yet, so they may not be getting priority treatment. It’s an interesting observation, but it’s not a weakness. It’s simply a statement of their procedural nature. Therefore, they don’t give preferential treatment for any one employee over another.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They have a different service offering than an average IT firm. It takes a bit to set up and establish the way things need to work with them, but it’s worth the time and effort. The time that we’ve spent with their team is paying off in terms of what we’ve set up in regards to procedures. In time, they will get used to who our directors are, as well as the rest of us. Things will eventually fall into place. By having a well-written procedures book, it’ll give everyone a better overall standard.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Heavey RF provides and supports mobile data collection solutions for the supply chain industry. I am the Technical Director.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire IT Force?

IT Force upgraded our virtual servers and replicated them on the Azure cloud. They also provide managed IT services to our business.

What were your goals for this project?

Our aim was simply to upgrade our older servers and replicate them in real time to the Azure cloud.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

We originally found IT Force through word of mouth and returned to them for later projects due to our positive experience.

Describe the project in detail.

We started the process by outlining our requirements and asking IT Force to recommend a suitable specification and design. Once a decision had been made, we allowed their team to plan implementation timelines and targets.

What was the team composition?

IT Force provided all the work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The project was delivered on time and as promised, with all its boxes checked. I have no major headaches to report.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

IT Force carried out all the work.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

IT Force are an exceptional team of professionals with the right mix of knowledge and character to provide complex solutions. They are a highly trustworthy organization. It is obvious that they take pride in what they do.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None to report.