GenCare

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

They helped us with an Office 365 migration. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team helped us migrate to Microsoft Office 365. 

What is the team composition?

I worked with a salesperson and an engineer. 

How did you come to work with General Networks?

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

How much have you invested with them?

The cost was around $10,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

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

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We mainly used phone calls to communicate. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

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

Are there any areas they could improve?

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

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

I needed help with IT support.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

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

What is the team composition?

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

How did you come to work with General Networks?

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

How much have you invested with them?

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

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

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

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

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

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their service is very fast.

Are there any areas they could improve?

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

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

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

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

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

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

What is the team composition?

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

How did you come to work with General Networks?

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

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested around $25,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

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

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

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

What did you find most impressive about them?

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

Are there any areas they could improve?

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

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

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

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

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

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

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

What is the team composition?

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

How did you come to work with General Networks?

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

How much have you invested with them?

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

What is the status of this engagement?

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

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

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

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

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

What did you find most impressive about them?

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

Are there any areas they could improve?

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

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

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

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

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

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

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

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

What is the team composition?

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

How did you come to work with General Networks?

They were referred to us by our internet provider.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested less than $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started around December 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

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

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

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

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

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

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

What did you find most impressive about them?

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

Are there any areas they could improve?

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

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

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a network systems engineer at an educational institution.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenges were you trying to address with General Networks?

We wanted to move to the cloud.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They migrated us to the cloud, and they’re our MSP. Their team helped us troubleshoot a SharePoint issue that we ran into. We use them mostly as consultants when we have larger projects.  

What is the team composition?

I work with Jeff (VP of Technical Services Sales), but there are other people we’ve worked with along the way. 

How much have you invested in them?

We’ve spent at least half a million dollars. 

What is the status of this engagement?

My organization started working with them in 1999, and our engagement with them is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We always go back to them. We’ve looked at other vendors, but we always end up choosing General Networks again. 

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via email and phone calls. Whenever we need to contact their technicians, they’re responsive. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re flexible and accommodating. They’re not pushy. They provide the correct level of support for us. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

We haven’t had any issues with them. It would be nice if they had a stronger partnership with Microsoft and Sysco.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the systems administrator for a preference law group.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

I initially brought them in to help update our network.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built and provided our server and its software. Over the years, they’ve done two upgrades to the server, too. Anything IT related that I found unusual and couldn’t handle, General Networks takes over.

Recently, they’ve worked on cybersecurity for us as well. It started with a basic firewall and it escalated based on our needs. They’ve also made recommendations for other service providers, like website builders, too.

What is the team composition?

I work with Jeff (VP of Technical Services Sales), Johnny (Help Desk Specialist), and Lee (System Engineer).

How did you come to work with General Networks?

We found them through a referral through a friend of mine.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $60,000–$70,000 over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together 25 years ago, and our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Our relationship is great. They’ve been very informative, helpful, and compliant in fulfilling our requests. We’re very satisfied with their work. Because I have technical knowledge, I’m more explicit in explaining our needs. It helps them to serve us better. It’s been a very fruitful relationship.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate over the phone and email. We didn’t lose any efficiency over the years, doing things electronically has made us more efficient. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re knowledgeable, which is why we’ve stuck with them. They’re accurate and professional in each level of assistance. They hire people who are qualified and any newcomers are under the supervision of more senior personnel.

 I’ve dealt with other vendors that aren’t as qualified and they get stuck because of their limited knowledge. General Networks’ employees, on the other hand, are well educated and keep their certifications up to date.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I’m quite satisfied with the way they handle things. I’ve been pleased for over 25 years. They’ve always been advancing themselves in the field. I can’t speak highly enough of them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the office manager of a compliance firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

They provided all our outsourced IT for about four years.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

One of the biggest projects they took on was migrating our email to the cloud. We’d been operating on physical servers for about a decade, and our email is the lifeblood of our firm. It took a lot of planning and strategy on their end to make we didn’t miss a beat with being able to respond to client emails. 

They also handled our day-to-day IT needs and were our sole IT service provider. We turned to them when we needed to install new laptops, printers, and other devices. They ordered materials and shipped them to us, so they would be good to go when they reached our office.  

What is the team composition?

We worked with Eric (Senior System Architect) and Johnny (IT Specialist). They were both helpdesk employees but developed a strong understanding of our company. We also dealt with Jeff (VP) and Herb (Director of Technical Services).  

How did you come to work with General Networks?

One of our clients recommended them to us. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $50,000–$200,000 annually. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from around June 2016–January 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Their customer service was terrific. I always knew I could rely on their responses. Most of the time, they answered on the first ring. They were able to effectively troubleshoot problems whenever we needed them.   

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

They responded to our concerns as soon as they possibly could. Being able to get ahold of them to troubleshoot problems right away was tremendous. Our time zone difference never posed a single problem for us.  

We had weekly calls and status updates to determine what tasks needed to be done by each team to move forward. They always met any deadlines we set together. Most communication happened over email or phone.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were always available, and we always felt like our requests were priorities. Their team did their best to solve problems as soon as possible. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would’ve helped us if they had a presence on the east coast.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a nonprofit organization helping out low-income families with child care services. I’m the network administrator overseeing the day-to-day network operations of the agency. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

Our organization has been working with General Networks for 22 years. We hired them for their IT solutions services. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks helps us out with many projects. They’ve provided many IT solutions for our agency, such as Microsoft Exchange deployment. We’ve used them twice for Microsoft Exchange 2010 and 2013 servers, and we're planning to use them again for the Microsoft Exchange 2019 server deployment.

They also help us out with our annual security assessment, helping us do a penthouse penetration testing, and providing recommendations on what to remediate in terms of security concerns. Our most recent project with them was related to remote desktop environment requirements. 

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked directly with five people from General Networks. The first person was an executive account representative, but he’s already retired. The second one was a network engineer, but he was switched to a different account. I’m no longer working with them. 

Jeff (VP & Sales Director) is my current account manager, and he replaced the one that was retired. I also worked with a Citrix solutions expert, but he’s no longer with the company. I’ve also worked with three other engineers, including a network engineer and security engineer, and two sales representatives. 

How did you come to work with General Networks?

Our agency has already been using General Networks for five years before I joined the company. They’re one of a few companies that were locally available in the Los Angeles area — they're headquartered in Glendale, and we’re in Los Angeles.  They’ve also had many outstanding projects. Those are the reasons why we’ve maintained a working relationship with them for more than 20 years. 

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested more than $1 million. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in April 2000, when they helped us out with our first local area network deployment, and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

My quality metrics are based on how much rework is needed after they finish a task. For instance, if they install any deployment provision and it works without crashing, then I’d describe that as 100% satisfactory work. With General Networks, we don’t usually have to do any rework. Their deployments are always a one-time deal, and they do everything correctly. 

Their services have been solid. We can use the network well until the next upgrade and refresh. Something might get broken, but it’s usually because of our users and not the team’s work. Just last week, we finished a project with them and all of the results have been very positive. They deployed a solid solution, and they've been very supportive. 

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management is very good — it's also 100% satisfactory. We have constant communication. We have project discovery meetings and follow-up meetings, followed by the actual project kickoff date.

The team sticks with their schedule. If they say they’re available to do the work on a certain date, they’ll kick off the project on that date and never later. Usually, they get the project done earlier than the estimated completion date.

Working with them for many years, I receive a white glove treatment. I call and email them directly, and they respond almost right away. When there are issues or emergency situations, they're reachable within a few hours. They're very reliable. 

 What did you find most impressive about them?

We have the privilege to work directly with the director of IT consulting — their best engineer is working for us. He has a very solid knowledge of the technology we need. That's what sets them apart. I've experienced working with other consulting firms, and I’ve had to go through the process. We’d have a kickoff meeting, and then we get assigned the next available engineer.

With General Networks, we've got to work with people that already know our environment, so we don't have to start from scratch and explain how everything works. 

Another thing that sets General Networks apart is trust. They know our network and environment, so we don't have to worry about security. If they need to work, we open the door and give them the office. We don't need to look over their shoulder to ask what they’re doing because they’ve done so many projects for us in the past without any incident. We trust them to do whatever they need to do. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

The only area we’d like them to improve on is technology. They specialize in and deal with Microsoft Exchange servers. If we’d like them to work on another technology, they’d have no engineer with sufficient knowledge of that tech.

For example, as much as we love to work with General Networks on all projects, they’re not able to provide us engineers with knowledge and expertise on VMWare or server virtualization. As a result, I’d like to see them expand to other technology besides Microsoft. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the operations manager of J’s Maintenace, a janitorial company based in Glendale, California. We are family-owned and operated and have been in business for 51 years.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

They helped us salvage our information and data after a server error

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After our servers were compromised, General Networks helped save and migrate our data and emails. They also introduced us to cloud-based servers, helping us get onto SharePoint. Their team also helped roll out our new Outlook email system. General Networks also helped trained our team and provided guidance on cybersecurity matters

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Jeff (VP of Technical Services Sales) for any tech support matters. 

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I was looking for someone who could quickly fix the issue but also had the necessary knowledge. I reached out to another client of General Networks who spoke very highly of them. It just felt like a natural fit, so it worked out very well. Less than 24 hours after contacting them, they came into our offices to hear about what happened.

How much have you invested with them?

We have invested between $10,000–$15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement began in October 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us through a very difficult situation. General Networks ensured our unfortunate circumstances did not derail our business and helped us set up a firewall. 

The moment we realize we have a problem we reach out to their team and everything is resolved within a matter of hours. I also appreciate the transparency and guidance they provide for tech support. 

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

Our teams communicate via email. They immediately open a ticket when I contact them and usually get back to me within the hour. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

General Networks works with a sense of urgency but never loses sight of the details. They follow through and then follow up with us. They always put things in terms that we can understand, which we really appreciate.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I sometimes wish we had a physical server, but I don’t believe they offer that service.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust them. Let them know what the issue is and trust that they’re going to find the best way to fix whatever the problem is.