eMazzanti Technologies

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm the House Manager, Castle Hotel and Spa.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

Over the past year we worked with Liqui-Site an eMazzanti Technologies company to make several improvements to our website.

What were your goals for this project?

Our goals for the project were to make the website more appealing and efficient for guests and to generate additional revenue.

SOLUTION

How did you select eMazzanti Technologies?

There was an existing relationship. But once I met Carl and Susan at Liqui-Site, I knew for a fact that, with our personalities and ideas, I could collaborate with them, because I had prior knowledge of web development.

Often developer teams don’t have design or hospitality experience and they may not have full knowledge of what it takes to brand a property. When you do, like the team at Liqui-Site, it makes it a lot easier to have those conversations.

Describe the project in detail.

Susan C. and I worked on a project to re-invent the hotel gift cards to offer guests more of a Castle Experience. When I first came here, they were utilizing a system where the guests just purchased a gift card for a dollar amount and you may or may not have all the guest information.

We changed the gift card program by making the gift card for an actual spa treatment, or you could purchase a tasting menu or a chef’s table experience. People loved the idea of gifting the experience and it drove revenue. Guests were willing to pay to gift the Chef Table Experience as opposed to a $50 or $100 gift card. It’s been very successful.

It makes a big difference when you can give someone an experience. I made sure to run my ideas past Susan and collaborate with her to see exactly what she thought because as an operations manager, you have to see all sides. Susan helped me create a layout.

And, when it came time to put in the data into the system, she worked to collaborate with the Liqui-Site web development team, making sure that the tedious tables for handling fees and tax were set properly on the website. Prior to this, we had no guest information.

So basically, we started from scratch. Now if someone purchases a gift card, I’ll see the purchaser, who it’s gifted to and their address, so we could have contact with them. If something happened or they lose their gift card, you can still trace it and not have an issue.

Other projects we tackled were updating the room packages page, rotating menus regularly (especially after our Michelin recognition) and adding our Discovery page of destinations to explore during a visit. Guests are planning and we are helping them with arrangements.

I created a calendar planning out the upcoming events that were coordinated with promotional pop-ups on our home page. We even started selling tickets for on-property programming from the website—driven by the pop-ups. As soon as you come to the website, the first thing you would see is our Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day event pop-ups.

For Christmas, we ran 3 maybe 4 events and everybody saw that for months ahead of time. It’s been a page-by-page rework of the website with a lot of brainstorming, always working within our goals.

What was the team composition?

Susan C. took responsibility for the success of the project, worked with me on design, and managed the team collaboration and schedule. She worked with several engineers at Liqui-Site to complete everything on schedule. Working with Susan is like girl power, and sometimes working with Susan provides me a sense of family because I know she wants what’s best for our company. And I know that, at the end of the day, whatever ideas I have to share with her, she understands the big picture.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Having a website like we do now allows guests to see the true value of the property. Often, someone may seek out a specific property for a special occasion for business or just for an escape because it’s a destination property.

Working with Liqui-Site allowed us to show that we can be all those things, but our true value is in our history and making historic moments in each family or individual who comes to our property. Liqui-Site worked with us on improving our gift card purchase and redemption process which included both online and offline changes.

As a result, gift card sales increased 45%. Since I started working with Susan and Liqui-Site about one year ago, repeat business has increased about 25% from where we were. We became very busy at times! Overall, guest expectations have soared along with an increase in guest relations.

Even during this time of COVID-19, I’m still being contacted about reservations for room packages that were there on the website, because they can see it and they were here before. Seeing that, I understand that our property is very important to people in Tarrytown or Westchester or even in New York.

A lot of guests are coming from the city, and they’re coming from Connecticut. Even our international business is up. This year was the first that we offered pre-sales tickets for New Years and other special occasions that were sold out. This means that when the day comes that we’re past COVID-19 and the Castle re-opens, the flood gates will open up.

Because if you still have that level of engagement with your guests, that means not only a job well done, but you’re also thinking where can I take this next? What else can we do that is like how we did it before? I would love to do more with Liqui-Site.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

I would look at our surveys and query’s through our property management system and then I would decide how I could make the next holiday event better. I took that to the executive committee and said this is the next step that we need to take.

Then I would get on the phone with Susan so we could say, by this date we need to do this, and this date we need to put up the pop-up. Susan would always check back in with me. We’d send emails and I would add the chef in so he could make sure the menu was correct.

The timing of Susan’s response was always perfect. It felt good to have someone else on the other end who understood where we were trying to go. I met six of the Liqui-Site team members at an eMazzanti event at the Castle, and I can tell that it’s a nurturing environment.

When you have everybody working together and uplifting each other, you’re only going to get the best from them. I can tell that Carl is a great leader for his team, he is very knowledgeable, and he holds everyone to the same standard. Their ability to execute… you can tell it starts at the top.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

My conversations with Carl and Susan, and the fact that they were protective of us. When you post or share information, sometimes there are liabilities, and they wouldn’t post things that were unclear. It’s always great to have a 2nd, 3rd or 4th eye.

They would say, hey look, maybe we can rephrase this differently. If there were disclaimers or laws or anything of that nature, they made sure we were aware. We didn’t really have any technical issues.

If there were multiple ideas and parties involved and not everybody was communicating, Susan definitely knew how to handle those situations by making sure that everybody came back together and shared all the information that they had collected.

Although Susan is not a part of our own team, she always brought things back together again. I would say, if you are looking for a company that is going to make sure you are represented well, show your best value, share a great story and assure your guests they’re going to have a memorable experience, you have to work with them. I wouldn’t choose anyone else.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I see no areas for improvement. They are part of a great team.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a parter at Flowers & O'Brien, LLC. An NYC area boutique law firm specializing in representation of privately held companies, typically with real estate interests. Our core objective is to provide our clients with sound legal advice in a timely and cost-effective manner. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

eMazzanti does everything related to technology. The company is our outside support and tech department for everything from the mundane (setting up desktops, printers, scanners and productivity apps) to assisting with eDiscovery.

When we started our business 14 years ago, the typical law office would have a receptionist to take messages, etc. Carl Mazzanti suggested that we go with VOIP technology and helped us select a phone vendor that integrated with Outlook. We eliminated the reception function in our office because voice messages were transcribable and searchable and came into our inbox.

So, we didn’t have to dedicate a person full time to that. We recaptured the incremental cost of the phone system and software within the first couple of months. So, it was a win. Carl and I trade ideas. I’ve encouraged him to focus on small law firms because they are underserved, and the legal profession has leapfrogged 10 years in terms of technology development in the past 45 days.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to take advantage of technology. Fourteen years ago, I was optimistic about how technology would be integrated into the legal practice. The smaller firms don’t have the financial resources to make that happen, so they resist. From the outset, we saw eMazzanti as a long-term partner that would help us compete more effectively with the larger firms with technology.

SOLUTION

How did you select eMazzanti Technologies?

When we started the business, we moved into a space that eMazzanti had set up. We had made the decision as partners to go as paperless as possible. So, I contacted Carl and eMazzanti became our tech support department. We have a mutual trust, so there’s synergy there.

We know their company and clients and they know our people and business. Therefore, they are able to offer new equipment, updates, and software, things that are designed to make our life easier, more efficient and more profitable.

Describe the project in detail.

Anything IT, electronic and phone related, they acquire, install, and maintain. They replace and upgrade backroom office servers, desktops, laptops, tablets, phone equipment and cell phones. They also administer our cloud data storage and maintain that pipeline.

Law firms suffer a high risk of being hacked, especially in real estate because we move a lot of funds through trust accounts. Law firms should never use Gmail or anything like that. They really need a firewall and a solid and safe tech environment, otherwise things are going to happen.

eMazzanti provides that secure environment for us. I can go to sleep without worrying about our data. We use eMazzanti’s MXInspect email security and a WatchGuard Firewall that they monitor.

They troubleshoot problems with our phones, scanner, printer (Xerox per page), everything that makes an office run in 2020 including QuickBooks and add-on software applications that are needed.

What was the team composition?

A project leader for upgrades and special projects with 1-2 engineers on-site. A team leader with several support engineers available as needed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

As we’ve grown with Carl, all our business has come from referrals. We have a specific niche in PE and real estate. We’re attorneys that have practiced in 400 to 500-person law firms, so we have the big firm ability, and with technology, we’re able to swim with the big boys. For example, we were retained to work for a client and came in at a point where there were 20 other law firms/plaintiffs.

The client had defaulted on a discovery application and in five days he was going to have the case dismissed with prejudice unless he produced 17K documents. Carl arranged an eDiscovery vendor that scanned all the docs to the cloud. On the date to hear the motion to dismiss, I walked in and handed everybody a code to the cloud to access the documents.

There was universal shock, people started scrambling to their laptops, and there was stunned silence because nobody (all from major firms) could understand how a 3 attorney firm had managed within 3 days to get 17K documents organized and put into discovery.

That’s the benefit of using somebody like eMazzanti. eDiscovery technology gave us the ability to take on a project we would have otherwise had to pass on. There are plenty of other smaller examples. We do a fair amount of financing work in the seven-figure range. The lenders heavily document those transactions and we don’t have a struggle keeping up.

We’re able to maintain the flow of paperwork and represent our clients cost effectively because of the technology. Another example: Some of our clients we’ve had for over 20 years and by taking advantage of technology, we have not had to raise our hourly rates at the same percentage as other firms, the competition. Because using technology, we’re able to work more efficiently.

It’s been a very positive relationship. It has enabled us to grow our practice in areas that we would otherwise not be able to handle. Our clients appreciate what we do to maintain efficiency and being able to deliver legal services at a consistently high level. We do a periodic review of our tech needs and environment, what’s on the horizon and where it’s going.

The legal profession is going to be changed significantly because of COVID-19 and technology will play an increasing role. Carl is loyal. His mindset is a rising tide lifts all boats, i.e. the more business everybody generates, the more income everybody makes. He has referred several clients to us over the years, customers and colleagues of his.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Management of eMazzanti’s tech staff seems very tight. Carl has trained them exceptionally well and they are knowledgeable. We’ve come to know them and have a good relationship. They’re always accessible and friendly.

Carl’s people generally have the ability to speak layman in a tech environment. Ervis is probably the best at that. And eMazzanti has a ticketing system that is quite effective. There are a few hiccups here and there, but on the whole, it’s a positive experience; it’s collaborative.

He is very accessible and will get back to you very quickly. If there is a problem that requires access to his time, he grants it. That has been one of the primary drivers of our long-term relationship that’s important to me.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They think strategically about your individual business (large or small) and how they can enhance your productivity and ultimate profitability by providing computer products (hardware and software) tailored to your needs. Their personnel are also courteous and punctual problem-solvers.

This is a 5-star operation that will be an asset to your team. Personally, we love the synergy of the story. Carl is not Bill Gates, but it’s that sort of story. There’s a good husband and wife team, also the local business angle. We make a point of going to the local coffee shop.

Even though there is a Starbucks across the street, we like to support local chamber of commerce businesses. Carl started as a corner store operation that is now servicing clients internationally.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I tell Carl what needs to be improved and he is very responsive.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

Priority Bicycles (Priority) launched as a direct-to-consumer bicycle brand for the masses. Leadership is committed to making the best bicycles in the world at an affordable price point. Our simple strategy of high-quality parts, an efficient supply chain, low overhead, and an online business model has gained national attention. Our goal was to make cycling simple by creating high quality, low maintenance bikes, and by selling them customer direct at an unmatched price. We’ve always believed that you’re not going to find a better bike for the price. Connor Swegle, Chief Marketing Officer

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

There are a lot of brands that like the idea of partnering with a bicycle company to help tell a story about health and wellness. For some, it is hotel and resorts, others are campuses, or even consumer brands looking to do a fun partnership. That part of our company’s business has organically expanded in a big way over the last few years.

To address the growth in the segment, Priority needed to talk to that audience a little differently. Our challenge was how to retain the message of high-quality, low maintenance at a great price to our different fleet customers such as hotels, resorts and others, to let them know we can do a one-off custom bike for them in a marketing partnership. We engaged Liqui-site, an eMazzanti Technologies company to develop a website to accomplish that vision.

What were your goals for this project?

We engaged Liqui-site (the digital marketing arm of eMazzanti Technologies) with the goal of creating a stand-alone and robust web destination that communicates that message while still being connected to who we are as Priority Bicycles.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

Having served as a Microsoft consultant and software company leader, Dave Weiner, CEO, valued his relationship with Carl Mazzanti at eMazzanti Technologies. Still, he talked to a few other companies to explore the development project. We didn’t want someone to work within one of a million templates you have now to band-aid the whole thing together. We preferred a developer that could work with our design and come up with a smart way to bring it to life. Carl and Dave had a relationship, and we didn’t have to explain a million things.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

Priority came to the table with some initial designs and functionality, but with over 300 fleet customers, a big question remained. How to build that in a way that works online and is scalable? For each fleet, we wanted to be able to tell that story, blast it out, and really feature it dynamically, so it couldn’t be a static site. It needed to be constantly pushing content out there.” The Liqui-site team looked at those designs, refined them, and over a 10-week period created a stand-alone site and user-friendly, WYSIWYG dashboard to enable Priority’s concepts in the web space. The Liqui-site team was able to jump in and start figuring things out, which is very important when we’re not web developers. If you have to explain how everything is going to happen from the start, it defeats the purpose. Following two rounds of discovery, design, development and training, the site was up and running and we were putting content up. Visually, it looks great, and the technology enables all the functionality we need. The tech is changing all the time, so they were able to help define that and even give us feedback, “hey if you do it this way, it’s going to work better for you.” Liqui-site developed the site in a way that for Priority, a web-based business, but not-web developers, was able to update and use every day. It’s super responsive. And, what’s great about the Liqui-site team was being able to go through and say intuitively, ‘I think you’re trying to achieve this, so let’s build it in this way,’ and coming up with solutions on the fly. It’s a media-rich site that can host hundreds of video case studies along with varied rich content. For us, to have that all in one place was a mighty task. I was extremely happy with how intuitive the technology was to use. Effectively, it’s a drag and drop solution to a media-rich website.

What was the team composition?

Susan Chait, Digital Team Lead at eMazzanti served as the primary contact for Priority. Gizer Gedik- Technical Front End Developer Lorenzo Ciambotti- Technical Front End Developer Sam Nishanth- Software Developer

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Following two months of intensive effort, the new Priority Bicycles website launched to rave reviews. Liqui-site has given us the ability to talk about a very important part of our business in a way that pushes our growth and communicates the things that we’re excited about. “Personally, to have people be impressed by the site when they see it- shows that we’re doing the right thing. That’s a great feeling for us to have as a business.” When somebody just looks at the site and says, wow, that looks awesome, then that’s the first step in creating success as a retail brand. You’ve opened the door from a credibility and a likeability standpoint. From there, you get into the brass tacks of what we make and how much things cost.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

I had a great experience working with Susan, period. She’s very responsive. I can’t stress it enough. When you go to a development company not having the expertise of writing the code, to have someone as an intermediary who communicates well to both parties what’s needed on the business end and what the development team is doing, it’s just so important. And, feeling like you’re taken care of is also important. I had a very good experience working with her and the entire Liqui-site team.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

I really appreciate Liqui-site’s ability to take leadership in the development process because they have the expertise in that space.

Are there any areas for improvement?

None that I can think of.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

As a woman-owned, independent personnel agency, we thrive by providing consistently excellent customer service and steady management. Jill Rowland, President and Owner

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

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

We engaged eMazzanti over 10 years ago to support and monitor our network and PCs and provide cyber security. They upgraded our server two years ago.

What were your goals for this project?

For the upgrade, we wanted to add reliable, automatic backups to replace our manual procedure. During the upgrade, we wanted to remain productive with little or no downtime and then continue with on-going worry-free operations. I wouldn’t have a business without my computers.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor?

I needed an IT company I could depend on, so I initiated a search through our local, Hudson County Chamber of Commerce to find a capable, independent IT Services company that matched our customer service mindset. We liked Bruce and Carl who came across as very knowledgeable and dependable.

Describe the project in detail.

On an on-going basis, eMazzanti proactively monitors our network and PCs for operational problems and provides cyber security and backup for our critical business data which includes candidates, clients, orders and accounting. We also pay for data storage and hourly support as needed to handle issues that arise.

The recent upgrade included new server hardware with automatic backup. It all went very smoothly. eMazzanti’s staff is patient, willing to explain to non-technical employees, tell us why something will happen and generally educate us as needed.

What was the team composition?

A project lead engineer and helper for the upgrade and on-going technical support engineers.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

eMazzanti’s highly professional monitoring and support gives me one less thing to worry about knowing that my people can always work, and my information is safe.

If the building burns down, I have the peace of mind of knowing that all my data is reliably backed up. If I have an issue, I get immediate attention when I call. Their people are patient, friendly and easy to speak with. I feel safe putting all my sensitive business data in their care.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The server upgrade went very smoothly with very little downtime. It was carefully planned out and executed in a single day. I’m very happy with the result. Any time we don’t have computers, we’re not doing business.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They keep in constant contact. I can get help immediately. That’s number 1 for me. They are personable and pleasant to deal with professionally.

Are there any areas for improvement?

Not that I can pinpoint. eMazzanti does an outstanding job and quickly corrects errors when they occur.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the chief operating officer of a worldwide cosmetics and perfumes company. Everything is produced in Florence, Italy, but we have a sister company in the US that distributes products in that market. We have 3 channels—retail, wholesale, and e-commerce—which I manage directly.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with eMazzanti?

We needed support for our US facilities since we had no in-house tech teams available and we didn't want to put one together. We decided it would be more cost effective for us to outsource that aspect of our business operations. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

eMazzanti sold us our servers, POS [point of sale] systems, and VPN [virtual private network], and they continue to maintain those aspects. They are helping us run 5 facilities, including 1 in New York (our warehouse for e-commerce and wholesale products), 2 retail sites in Miami, 1 in Maryland, and 1 in Los Angeles. eMazzanti has installed our network and configured the VPN for all of these locations, and they have provided support for the POS systems. Implementation began at the same time for all facilities. eMazzanti assigned 6 or 7 engineers, some of whom traveled from New York to Los Angeles.

Generally speaking, they’ve only supplied support for our POS and VPN firewall. After the servers were deployed, everything was centralized within our main infrastructure in Italy.

We don’t have an IT team in the US, so eMazzanti provides a toll-free number that store managers can call with POS and computer issues. We have a unique contact point for each facility. eMazzanti has a call center in New Jersey, where all the tickets for the engineers are managed. We receive both remote and on-site support and pay a monthly fee for every computer. That encompasses all their services, so we never have extra costs.

We’ve had network downtime, but it was due to our provider and not related to eMazzanti’s work. They managed the troubleshooting with the ISP [internet service provider] and offered 360-degree services.

How did you come to work with eMazzanti?

The company that installed our ERP [enterprise resource planning] system recommended eMazzanti. Other companies were involved in that implementation, but I got the chance to meet their owner, Carl, in New York, and he convinced me to start working with them.

How much have you invested with eMazzanti?

We pay a few thousand dollars per month, but I don’t have an exact figure.

What is the status of this engagement?

We first met the team in May and started working with eMazzanti in August of 2015.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

When we started the collaboration, we received positive feedback from the Italian company about eMazzanti.

The downtime incident was related to our New York provider. eMazzanti managed the issue, called the provider’s center, and did everything possible. Unfortunately, the serious network issue led to a 10-hour downtime.

eMazzanti is a good fit for smaller US companies with no IT teams. They’ve been very friendly, and I consider Carl to be a very dedicated person.

How did eMazzanti perform from a project management standpoint?

We have a ticketing system in place, and a lead engineer from eMazzanti follows our project. We can also communicate directly with Carl since the relationship we have goes beyond the work itself.

What did you find most impressive about eMazzanti?

They are good at following-up with customers through their standardized system. Everything around our POS systems and firewalls is done the same way. If we face a unique situation, however, eMazzanti’s team may run into difficulty since their engineers are trained only in certain systems. Adopting eMazzanti’s solutions will work well, though.

Are there any areas eMazzanti could improve?

They could bring in engineers with higher skills. The current resources excel in the technology they know, but, when facing a new problem, they’re not the ideal choice. Regarding our project, we could implement a continuous process of optimizing systems. Computers can become slow over time, so we would like eMazzanti to monitor performance to see if something can be improved.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior vice-president and CIO, and the director of business operations at an insurance company based out of Italy. We have a very small presence here in the United States. We’ve started to really try to build up our brand here doing travel insurance, identity theft, and GC&C unit, which does corporate and commercial risks. We offer insurance in the US, through multi-national companies with exposure throughout the world. We insure their exposures outside of the US. We have been in the United States since the 1950s. We did most of our business through MGA’s, and now we take a different approach by bringing everything in-house, so we’ve built up an underwriting team here.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eMazzanti Technologies?

We’re still small, but we’re hoping to grow. We decided to really bring our systems up-to-date, reconfigure and restructure our entire internal infrastructure. So, we contacted Microsoft, as we were looking to go to an Office 365 platform, and they directed us to eMazzanti. We’ve been a customer of theirs since.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The first work was the Microsoft exchange project. We were very pleased with the results of the migration to Office 365, so we decided to pursue additional projects with them. The next one was a complete restructuring of our infrastructure, which included replacing all the wiring and switches. This went over the course of a couple years, and they converted our entire environment from physical servers to a virtualized environment. From there, the next logical step was to implement Microsoft Azure site recovery for a business continuity disaster recovery solution.

Everything we did with them really set us up to be able to take the next step in the progression of what we were looking to accomplish. It’s all been for our facility in New York City. It was a combination of on-site and off-site work. When something critical comes up, we have one particular individual who has been with us since the very beginning. He steps in and takes care of everything. He’s fantastic, and we’re very pleased with him. He’s not the only one that could do it, but that gives a personal feel to it. Everyone we’ve worked with at eMazzanti has done a great job. We have absolutely no complaints.

How did you come to work with eMazzanti Technologies?

We didn’t want to manage an on-site Microsoft exchange implementation anymore. Given our size, it really didn’t make sense for us. We felt that going through Office 365 was the best solution for us. To do that, we decided to get some help from outside. We contacted Microsoft, who in turn directed us to eMazzanti and a few other companies.

We met with three companies in total, and then decided to go with eMazzanti. We met with the actual owner of the company, Carl, who also invited us to visit their office and see their operation. That gave us a certain level of comfort. Given that we are small, we felt comfortable going with them. Carl’s presentation and demeanor made us comfortable with them. They’re experienced, they’ve received awards from Microsoft over the years, and they have a relationship with Microsoft. We liked everything they had to offer.

How much have you invested with eMazzanti Technologies?

It changes from year to year with the different projects we take on. It’s now going to change again as they become more involved with our cyber-security program. I don’t have the figures right now, but I can get them for you later.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we started working together in 2012 or 2013, and the relationship is ongoing. They’re now an integral part of our environment. They manage the solution we implemented for our firewalls. They monitor traffic and let us know if there’s any irregular activity. We signed up for their e-care packages, so they monitor the traffic and the health of our servers. We’re now in the process of implementing New York State’s new mandates around cyber-security. We’re working with eMazzanti to ensure we’re in compliance. They’re a big part of what we’re doing and what we will be doing going forward.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

They made a very smooth transition from an on-site exchange over to a cloud-based Office 365 implementation. They still manage a lot of aspects for that. We completely switched over to a virtual environment on a Windows server, and we partnered with Microsoft for a case study through eMazzanti, to do the Azure site recovery.

Every year we do a full test of our business continuity disaster recovery plan successfully. Our exposure has been minimal to outside threats. Anytime there was some kind of incident, they knew about it immediately. They had a course of action to remedy it right away, and implemented it successfully every time. There haven’t been many, but they’ve been on top of it and very responsive.

Before eMazzanti, we used a couple service providers for different aspects. Although they weren’t bad, they weren’t anywhere near as responsive and professional as eMazzanti has been. Also, what you get with eMazzanti is truly an interactive relationship. I understand some of it is Carl doing sales, but it’s also informing me of what’s out there and what’s going on. I’ve got a lot of other things to worry about, so it’s nice to know that somebody is actually staying on top of it. They know what we have and if it’s something that could be an exposure on our part.

How did eMazzanti Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

Carl schedules regular calls from time to time with an agenda, along with any material of which we should be aware. He presents the available options, and if we decide to pursue them, he’ll prioritize and make recommendations. That’s not what we’re paying them to do, but it’s part of what you get from eMazzanti. You’re never in a position where the technology they implemented becomes obsolete due to developments in the industry, and you have no idea. They’re very proactive. They let you know what’s going on and what’s on the horizon.

What did you find most impressive about eMazzanti Technologies?

There are times when I just need to bounce something off Carl. It may not even be something they do, but he may know someone who does, or he may have suggestions or ideas. They actually tell us about services they use, and a lot of them are free. They help us get up-to-speed on it, so we can use it ourselves, without charging us for it. It’s not one of their core offerings, but they’re more than happy to share it with me.

Yesterday, we had a meeting to discuss the New York State Insurance Department’s cyber-security requirements. He introduced me to a new member of his team who’s responsible for digital marketing. They spent a little time on my website with some suggestions, all for free. Sure, they told me about services they’re offering, but they spent a significant amount of time just going over things I could do on my own to shore up the website and improve it. It didn’t cost me anything. They’re very good that way. It’s a professional relationship with a personal touch. It’s nice.

Are there any areas eMazzanti Technologies could improve?

Carl’s a salesman, so he’s always looking to do a sales pitch, which I understand. That’s good, because he may be pushing something we don’t need, but then he brings something up that I wasn’t thinking about and we end up needing it. That’s not really a bad thing. It’s part of what eMazzanti does. In addition to selling, he’s always educating. He’s actually educating his customers in the process. When Carl tells you about an offering, he gives you a history on why it’s become a service, why it’s something we should consider, and some examples of how other companies have been exposed or burned by not addressing it. So, he really puts you in a position where you can make an informed decision.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a private label company, privately owned. We design, manufacture, and deliver to the vendor, not the end-user, various ladies footwear. It could be daywear, nightwear, slippers. We also do accessories, handbags. We’ve been in business for 30-31 years. We are in a really big growth period at the moment. I’m the director of operations, but in reality I do many different things and have many hats here.

Because we are a privately owned company, there are around 30 or 35 of us here in New York and another 40 or so at our office in China. I oversee the IT, I train new personnel, and I’m responsible for EDI. We’re not a big EDI house, but we’re beginning to move toward EDI with two big customers, so it’s a big change for us. I also work with enhancing a software package we use called Footwork.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eMazzanti Technologies?

We had a consultant that worked with us, but because he was related to someone who was here, he basically came in at 5 o’clock, and then we would stay in until midnight or so. Besides that, if we had an issue, he wasn't always able to solve it. We had to wait for the day he was coming here. We outgrew him and it was becoming frustrating, because we also increased the use of the Macs here, and he did not have a background in Mac.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

eMazzanti totally redid the hardware setups we had in order to increase performance. We were in a situation where we were growing, and we invested in equipment but we didn't totally utilize it. And then when eMazzanti came on board, they took some of the equipment we had and utilized it, and then reconfigured the rest of it so that we would have a better performance level, applicable performance level, and fewer issues.

We replaced a lot of the equipment over two years, because they were nearing the end of their lives. He made sure that we had warranties on everything, so that if something did happen, instead of having a big outlay of cash, you already had a warranty on it, so it was covered. He just made life easier around here, because we never know when someone new is hired. The person just comes to my desk, and we have to drop what we are doing to set them up.

We redid all of the hardware in an organized fashion, and that was part of their original proposal. We also have a person come on site once a week, once every other week, depending on what my need is, like if I have new employees or new hardware, or we want to enhance how we’re doing something, which we’ve had a lot lately. So they provide on-site help, but they also have something called Ecare that they loaded onto each of these PCs. I believe they also were loaded onto the servers where they dial in a lot and fix things, which makes it easier, because if someone sends me an email, “I have an issue,” I just forward it to the guys at eMazzanti. I get a ticket in 35 seconds, and within the hour, somebody’s either dialed in or I follow up with a phone call, and I get someone working on an issue. Whereas before, I had to wait three or four days. It’s almost instant gratification now.

If someone is coming on site, I have an agenda ready, and I know what we need to accomplish. We follow the agenda, so we capitalize on our time. I just don't have somebody walk in here and say, “Oh, what is it you think you want me to do today?” We make sure that we’re organized about that, and that seems to work well—for them and for us. The other good thing about working with a company like eMazzanti is if A doesn't know the answer, B or C may have that answer for you. You're not just using one source of information. Everybody has a skill set. Somebody may be better with Macs, or the other guy may be better with PCs, and the other guy may be better with the exchange. Everyone has a talent, so you're in a pool of talent, whereas before we had a single option talent, so that’s a very good selling point for them.

How did you come to work with eMazzanti Technologies?

We met Carl after he was recommended to us. He used to work in the building, and he seemed to be a better fit for us, because he had other personnel that he would assign to us, depending on what our need was.

In contrast, our original consultant was, “I do everything. I have a couple of people that work for me, but I do everything.” In reality, sometimes he had to train himself how to do something, so I was paying someone to learn how to do something, and I should just pay him to either install it or fix it. We weren’t getting the return on our dollar that we wanted, where with eMazzanti, you do get your return on your dollar.

We don't have any in-house IT people, where before we had a young man plus the consultant. So if you add those two salaries together and health insurance and disability, you might as well have somebody else that you're not responsible for, and then have them take care of your needs as you need them to.

How much have you invested with eMazzanti Technologies?

We invested over $100,000 for the first year. It’s a lot because it’s hardware-software, but it’s really not when you think I was paying someone else almost that same amount of money and I was still in the Dark Ages. You have to look at what you get for your money. We were paying both an employee and an outside service. So really, the first year was less than what I was putting out before we hired eMazzanti. This year has been more expensive, because we’ve grown, we’re buying equipment, and we did two more upgrades and changes.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we’ve been working together for two years come June 2017. We had to learn how to work together.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The other thing that was nice about eMazzanti is that their personnel were all easy to work with. I have a lot of young people here, and their personnel are of a similar age, so they can relate to each other. It’s a nice relationship. I’m an old person, so it’s really nice for them because they understand a lot more about their personal lives with equipment in homes and this and that. They’re a good match for us.

How did eMazzanti Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

We pretty much just use email and my personal, home, and office phones to communicate, and that’s enough, because I get a notification on my phone if anything happens. eMazzanti monitors all of this equipment 24/7. If we need to come in and do something, they would meet me here. So far though, we’ve never had to do that. They were able to fix things offline when things did happen.

What did you find most impressive about eMazzanti Technologies?

I think how they came here and won us over was unique, because you have to understand: The person that was working here before was a relative, and he had a leg up on them. To get people like the CFO and the president of our company, who already have a 10-year relationship with this other person, to accept these new people and to begin depending on them and eventually say how glad they are that we actually made the change, I think that speaks a lot of Carl and his personnel. They didn't come in here bad-mouthing anybody. They came in here to do a job, and their performance proved that whatever they did helped us, the change of equipment, the staffing, etc.

There are things they do that I really don't understand. I’m not really an IT person, I just monitor them. But they have improved the functionality here. If there are issues with our staff using the laptops overseas, they’ll call eMazzanti and work with them, because they have a 24/7 staff. We’ve had issues where someone took a laptop and didn't know what they were doing, and they had to dial in and help them during the night, and they were able to do that. I think that’s a positive thing. The fact that they came in here as an underdog and won people over says a lot for them.

Are there any areas eMazzanti Technologies could improve?

If you want someone to work the way you need them to work for you, you have to speak up. They’re going to try to do things that may be advantageous to you, and they believe they’re advantageous to you, but if you see it’s not working that way, then you need to push back on it. I mean, they wanted to train more than one person to work in there, and it just wasn't working for us.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Litzky Public Relations was founded by Michele Litzky. The company specializes in consumer products, and we found our niche in speaking to young moms. We are now in our 30th year of business with 25 full-time employees. Our anchor client is Hasbro, and Michele has been in business with them for close to 30 years. From that, we’ve developed other accounts that are not necessarily 100% within the toy industry because as an agency of record of Hasbro, anything that has to do with toys is pretty much a conflict. But, we deal with other companies that target the same type of markets—for example, a company called Kamik that does children’s footwear. Next year, we are going to be working on the Alvin & the Chipmunks 60th anniversary.

I’m the director of business operations. I deal with people like eMazzanti, our accounting issues, and the physical plant. I don’t really get involved in the day-to-day PR stuff.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

From just Michele as a little one-woman operation up to our current configuration, eMazzanti has been with us every step of the way. The first thing I managed with eMazzanti was our office relocation about 12–13 years ago. When our company expanded, we needed to move from the original office space to the second office space. We were hiring more people as the business was growing, and hosting our own email was a big thing at that time. It was one of the first things before we went into servers, email clients, and things like that. When we made our second move into our current space, we decided to have our own server, racks, and backups in-house. Since I got involved with eMazzanti, we’ve been constantly modernizing the system. As the business has grown, so has our computer network.

They are constantly providing training whenever we upgrade anything. When other vendors come for our staff training, they are there as well. We always make sure we have floor support for the day that any new system comes in. Last year, we updated our proprietary database system, which is managed by a consultant. While eMazzanti doesn’t handle it directly, they were the ones who found the consultant, dealt with the consultant, and oversaw the installation.

How did you come to work with eMazzanti Technologies?

That’s a question I can’t answer. While I’ve been around Litzky PR for 14 years now, they were in place before I was, so they have been working with us for a very long time. I would say the business being in Hoboken and them being in Hoboken had a lot to do with it—so, it was a proximity thing as well. Back then, neither of us was very big. I think Michele had three or four employees at the time when she hired them. I’m glad that we are five blocks away from them. We know that they have companies across the country and internationally, but those other clients don’t get the benefits that we do.

I’ll be honest—we went out and did our due diligence on another company over the past few years. We even let Carl Mazzanti know about it as we were going through it. The other company came in a little bit cheaper. But it’s not all about money—it wasn’t just a financial decision—and all the other factors weighed in their favor. That’s where the value part comes in, even though they were a little more expensive. Ultimately, we decided to stay with them because of the additional benefits, attention, and service that we get.

How much have you invested with eMazzanti Technologies?

Last year, we spent a total of $276,000 on our normal agreement, the database change over, the hardware that we purchased, and the server upgrade. That amount includes both covered time through our maintenance agreement and additional consulting time. That server upgrade is a “once in five years” thing, so I don’t expect to spend that much this calendar year. We’ll probably spend between $160,000 and $175,000. We’ve probably paid millions of dollars for their services from the time when I first got them involved. Spending $276,000 last year alone—that’s a lot. But we thought that was worth it.

What is the status of this engagement?

I first worked with them about 12–13 years ago. They’ve been around a long time. Instead of having just a customer-vendor relationship, we definitely consider them more as partners. That comes from Michele more than anything else. While we are a C corporation, we’re still very much a local business. Obviously, we deal online with Israeli and Canadian companies so we’re global as well, but we definitely try to keep that small-town feel, which I think they do as well. That’s one of the things that makes us simpatico. It’s a relationship that works.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We really don’t keep track of business metrics like downtime, bugs identified by users, and how long it takes to get those resolved. We’ve always been a fee-based company and over-serviced the hell out of our clients. They have clients who's business is answering phones and filling orders—when their system goes down, it can cost them thousands of dollars an hour. We don’t run into that kind of situation. However, I can’t remember experiencing a lot of downtime. We know that there are upgrades happening where we’re going to be down for a few hours here and there, but we never had any extended problems that I could say cost us money because we were down.

Since they are a preferred partner of Microsoft, we’ve had a tremendous opportunity to do beta testing for Microsoft. For example, we were one of the beta site tests for Microsoft Windows 10 when it came out last year. In addition to getting the latest technology, we get some very good opportunities to get Microsoft products. When we were working on Windows 10, we got four new laptops to run the Windows 10 on. Once the new version came out, those laptops were all updated with the final version that went out after the beta testing, and we got to keep the four laptops. That’s one of the side benefits we get from dealing with eMazzanti. We have taken advantage of that opportunity over a number of years for the different types of upgrades that Microsoft has done.

Being so close by, they’re Johnny-on-the-spot if there is an incident. In the past, we had incidents where we needed them to work onsite or send a technician over. Think of Hurricane Sandy and how flooded Hoboken got. Luckily, our office didn’t get flooded, but there was no power for a week. We were able to set up remotely with service, and they really helped us through that process.

Just last weekend, right before a big event that we were having, I get a phone call from them that says, “We just got notification of a power loss, and the servers went down. Is there somebody in the office? Is there something going on?” I said, “You know what? I have no clue. I am sitting here at home.” They have keys to our office, so they had someone over to the office and found out that it was nothing. It turned out only to be bad weather and the Internet provider’s connection on the other end. They were able to enter and determine exactly what the problem was, and get us back up and running. This happened the night before one of our big yearly client events that are held off property. If we don’t have our network up with people out in the field with the ability to link back to our server, we are dead in the water. It turned out to be nothing, but I know that if it had been something, we would have been okay by the morning. I had no worries that we would be able to pull off our functions flawlessly. It’s a confidence factor; it’s not just the physical things that they do. I mentally know that we are covered because if something happens, they usually know about it before me. That’s a good thing.

How did eMazzanti Technologies perform from a project management standpoint?

I am a 60-, going on 61-, year-old guy who is not a computer whiz by any stretch of the imagination, but I am able to manage our system of six different servers in our rack. They are able to communicate the issues with me in regular, user-friendly English. It may take a little while, but I always understand it before we make our decisions. I appreciate that. Having worked with them as long as I have, my experience, time and time again, has been that they know what they’re doing.

What did you find most impressive about eMazzanti Technologies?

Something extra they bring to the table is the ability to educate their clients along the way. I personally haven’t worked with other providers of this nature before eMazzanti. My background is in hotel sales and marketing. If we had IT issues, I dealt with our area of director of IT in any of my hotels. Other than that, I have never been involved in the directing of an IT department or provider. However, eMazzanti’s team was able to train me, a non-technical person, in such a way that I now feel pretty comfortable with our system. If they call me up and say “TS 3 went down,” I know what the hell they are talking about. They helped me grow with them. I understand a lot more now than I did 10 years ago when I basically understood nothing. Now, I got to the point that I am comfortable with having backup servers in my house.

Are there any areas eMazzanti Technologies could improve?

We have very different cultures. Our office is one guy and 24 women, and they are primarily all young, high energy, communications majors. A lot of the guys that they deal with on a daily basis are, pardon my French, tech nerds. They don’t always speak the same language. I do get a sense of frustration sometimes with my staff when these guys are trying to explain to them, but they don’t care about that. They don’t want to know the “why” and “where,” which sometimes these guys try to do. Just fix it, get it done, get it right, and we’ll be fine. I want to learn about it so that I know for the future; the girls don’t. They’re on their computers 8–10 hours a day. If it isn’t working, they’re not productive and they know it. I also understand that things happen that isn’t necessarily eMazzanti’s fault, but they get blamed for a lot.

They’ve come to learn when it’s a good time to do things for us, even some of the lower level technicians. The communication has improved greatly between their techs and our office manager, to whom we’ve directed it now. If they need to schedule something where our systems are going to be down for an hour, they’ll try to do it at night. People still work from home at night, so if the system is down, they need to know about it. Communication, scheduling, and timing are much more effective now than it had been. Sometimes it would just go down, and we wouldn’t know about it, but now we do.