GenCare

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We're a private insurance company called Topa Insurance. I'm the network engineer.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

Microsoft was sunsetting its Exchange 2010 system, and we needed a team to migrate our email servers to Office 365.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They worked with one of our sister companies to facilitate the migration. They logged into our existing server and set up all the necessary scripts. Then, they monitored the process through to its completion.

What is the team composition?

We have a team of three, which includes a project manager, an engineer, and one other team member.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I searched the internet for companies that do migrations like this. They were local, and I got quotes from one other company. They provided the lower bid, so we decided to hire them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $2,000-$4,000 for the migration.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together in November of 2018 and wrapped up the whole project within about a month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They sent us status reports every other day during the migration. They set up a program called SkyKick to transfer our existing mailboxes over to Office 365, and the entire process took a couple of weeks. We always knew where we were in the process and what percentage of the transfer was complete at any given point.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

They were excellent project managers, and the whole team was always very responsive. They were thorough, and they followed up and answered questions right away. We have a good relationship with them and hope to use them again for other projects.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listen to small details. The team always went the extra mile to make sure we understood what was happening, and they made sure everything was completed properly.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can always expand to take on bigger projects.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I highly recommend them; they’re a very good vendor. They have a niche for certain areas in IT, and they’ll offer you an excellent quote.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the vice president of a real estate firm.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

I wasn't happy with my previous IT provider, so I engaged General Networks to initially help us on a cloud migration project, upgrading one of our servers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

In addition to migrating one of our servers to the cloud, General Networks provides ongoing IT and help desk support services. We generally work with them on a project by project basis, calling their tech support as needed.

What is the team composition?

I have one main point of contact, and we generally just call in when we need IT assistance.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

We weren't happy with our original IT provider, so we started looking around and came across General Networks.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spend up to $10,000 over the last two and a half years.

What is the status of this engagement?

I believe we've been working with them since 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

General Networks has been great to work with. They have a great team of tech experts that are very accessible to us. They're always able to resolve our issues very quickly.

The upgrades they've made have had a big impact on our business, improving our ability to organize and access files quickly in our document-intensive business.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very responsive and good about documenting everything. We're able to call in and get someone working on our projects quickly whenever we need their support.

What did you find most impressive about them?

General Networks' responsiveness and accessibility sets them apart; we've had a harder time getting prompt support from other providers.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be clear about what your needs and goals are, and be willing to collaborate with them as needed to make sure they have access to everything they need in order to meet those needs.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and an ongoing principal of PPC Network Solutions. As an infrastructure contractor, we provide cabling systems for phone, data, and security systems.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We had limited space and an unreliable power supply, so outsourcing our networking activity was our best option for uninterrupted service.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

After they acquired a space and data center to host our network infrastructure, General Networks transferred all of our equipment to its new location. Since the migration, they have been providing ongoing support for our internal network system. In addition to assisting us through the virtual help desk, they maintain our equipment and update our warranties, licenses, and data security software. We also buy and lease some of our gear from General Networks.

What is the team composition?

We have three points of contact who oversee different aspects of our account. The helpdesk contact reviews service requests, while the sales contact keeps us updated on warranties and renewals. We also have access to an admin contact who assists with high-level technical issues.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

Of the three IT support companies that we reached out to, General Networks was the most impressive. They’re highly intelligent, they offer cost-effective service plans, and their location is near our office.

How much have you invested with them?

To date, we have spent approximately $100,000 for service and equipment.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our partnership began in 2013.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

General Networks provides a level of support and expertise that we’ve never had within our organization. We can now run our business with confidence that our IT network is functional and secure. When issues occur, their team is there with an immediate resolution. In addition to maintaining a reliable network system, their services have reduced the costs that we were spending on in-house technicians.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

We don’t have a streamlined communication process; anyone on our team can contact General Networks’ helpdesk at any time for any reason. Despite the lack of structure, their team manages our service requests well. Their response time is quick, and they document every interaction for our records.

What did you find most impressive about them?

General Networks has all of the resources that we need to run our business efficiently, and they’re highly responsive. We couldn’t have asked for a better partner.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although we believe that there’s always room for improvement, we haven’t experienced any red flags that would warrant immediate changes.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the assistant controller at Mesa Verde Country Club. I’m in charge of the IT department and purchasing a majority of the items for the club. Our club has a golf course, tennis courts, full dining services, and shops.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We wanted to create a help desk-like atmosphere that would alleviate all day-to-day IT-related calls.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks created a ticketing system for call- and email-based communication. The team then provides updates once the issue has been resolved.

The help desk is part of a larger, ongoing partnership for managed IT services. As part of a remodel, they’ve assisted me by relocating our data connections, correlating with my internet provider, and connecting me with the right people to get different jobs done. They’ve helped me pull and cut old cables. We recently rolled out a whole new AP and Wi-Fi system internally and externally.

We also do periodic testing. About a month and a half ago, they tried to attack my system from the outside to see which areas were vulnerable. I receive monthly reports and can verify our internal workflows.

What is the team composition?

Charles (Account Manager, General Networks) is my main point of contact.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

Our general manager found them through a hospitality networking affiliation. I really liked that they are local and can come here when needed. We appreciate their past experience with other local country clubs. As a result, the team was familiar with our budgeting needs.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $3,500 a month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working with them in October 2015 and the partnership is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

General Networks is instrumental to this project’s success. They’ve kept the system up to date and connect us to the right resources to ensure its functionality. 

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

Charles is absolutely wonderful and knows my network inside and out. We have him out a couple times as needed. If I don’t have someone here, I can easily call Johnny, Erik (Solutions Manager, General Networks), Jason (Field Engineer, General Networks). They’re very hands-on.  

We speak the same language; it’s so easy to communicate with them. I try to do little IT things in the office, but if it’s something big, I can call the help desk or refer my employees to them. They have no problem communicating with my staff and keeping me in the loop.  

What did you find most impressive about them?

The staff all own a piece of the company, which shows me that they all care about their policies, practices, and how they do business.  Everyone wants to do a good job because they want their business to grow. Their ownership model benefits me as a customer because they all take pride in their company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I look forward to them expanding and onboarding additional qualified resources.  

Any advice for potential customers?

Communicate needs in a straightforward manner, which will allow General Networks to come forward with the best course of action. I think wonders of the company and have complete confidence in the team. I’d refer them to anyone that needs their services.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the managing attorney at Hahn Law. We are a full service business law firm located in Southern California.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We needed a new managed services provider due to our unhappiness with out previous vendor.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

General Networks constantly evaluate our technology and update it when needed. They are our resource if we have any issues or our network crashes, and they helped us migrate all of our documents to the cloud.

What is the team composition?

We usually work with a project manager, but we also speak directly to their tech people when we have a problem that needs to be resolved quickly.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

They contacted us and we decided to meet with them based on our initial conversations. At the time we were not happy with our vendor, so we decided to make the change.

What is the status of this engagement?

They have been our managed services provider since April 2014.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We cannot afford to have our network down for a long period of time because time is money for our firm. General Networks has done a great job of being responsive, and they deal with any issues we have quickly and effectively. Our previous provider would take much too long to respond to us, and simply patch issues so that they would reappear later on. We no longer have those issues with General Networks.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

They are great. They bill us on a per matter basis, and we communicate very often.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are quick to respond and are very good at what they do.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the administrator for CF Kent, a furniture manufacturing company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We needed a better provider for our IT managed services.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

The day-to-day is our outlook. They set up new employees and remove terminated employees. If we want to purchase laptops, they set up everything and get them ready for us. They’ve set up several new laptops and desktops for us. They do network security and manage our servers. Additionally, they made the transaction from Office 2010 to Office 365 easy for us with no downtime at all. 

What is the team composition?

I mostly coordinate with Erik (Solutions Manager, General Networks). They have a good support team.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

I found them in a Google search. I read the reviews of 3–4 companies. General Networks presented very well on the website and provided great details in regard to the services that they cover. The wording on their website was simple and easy to understand. It was exactly what we were looking for.

How much have you invested with them?

We pay $25,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in May 2017 and the work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They respond quickly when we email or call them for solutions or problems. They always take care of things right away. There’s less downtime on our system compared to our old partner. Our employees are happy when speaking with them or emailing them for support issues.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re available. We call or email them.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They are quick to respond and solve problems quickly. They’ve been great. They care. Jeff (Account Manager, General Networks) took care of us from the beginning. They are very professional, knowledgeable, and friendly and easy to work with. We’re very happy that we found them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m an IT director for a nonprofit research center.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We were operating with a significantly outdated Microsoft Exchange email server and wanted to migrate all of our mailboxes to Office 365. We brought in General Networks to assist with that migration from start to finish.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’re a large company and needed to transition 200 users to the new system. That’d be a nightmare to do manually, so we looked into using automated tools. General Networks helped us use automated tools to expedite the migration process and retain valuable information. They performed the backend work, while our team took on the responsibility of performing required tasks from the individual workstations. However, the migration got put on hold for a bit due to multiple reasons on our side. Ultimately, they moved our entire email system to Office 365 and handled some of the post-migration clean-up that becomes necessary after a project of this size.

What is the team composition?

We spoke to Jeff (Sales Director, General Networks) initially, but primarily worked with one system engineer and another team member who assisted him.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

They were referred to us by a business associate who had worked with them on a similar migration to Office 365. We decided to work with them because of several factors. Their pricing was reasonable in comparison to other vendors, but what made them stand out was their salesperson, Jeff. He’s very responsive and offers enough information to make decisions easy.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent a roughly $20,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

This project took place from September 2017–March 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The whole project was extremely successful. The integration wasn’t entirely seamless, but our user base is pleased with the results and new features. General Networks’ approach minimally affected our day-to-day operations. They did most of the work over weekends, so we were up and running by the time our staff came in on Monday. It was an easy process with minimal downtime that worked very well.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

Communication is always key with me and they delivered across the board. As I mentioned, I particularly enjoyed working with Jeff. I’ve worked with a lot of individuals throughout my career and Jeff is probably my favorite sales rep. The engineer we worked with was also responsive to any questions or concerns.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I appreciate their ability to summarize information and suggest actionable solutions.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had a small issue related to some oddities on our backend that could’ve been prevented by greater attention to detail. However, we could’ve better communicated that information, so we share the responsibility for that misstep.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of business operations for Thoreau Services. We’re a nationwide janitorial company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with General Networks?

We needed a new firm to provide managed IT services. Our previous provider didn’t have the knowledge or resources required to adequately support us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We engaged General Networks to utilize their understanding of personal computers, networks, and workspaces. They assist us daily by eradicating computer viruses, troubleshooting glitches, and setting up new workstations. They also migrated our files and email from a localized server to Office 365 and SharePoint.

What is the team composition?

An account manager serves as our administration contact. We also work directly with four different support team members on a ticket-by-ticket basis.

How did you come to work with General Networks?

They were hired by someone who’s no longer with the company. As a result, I’m not aware of how General Networks was found or the criteria they were matched against.

How much have you invested with them?

Their services cost roughly $60,000 per year.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in March 2015 and the engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Integrating Office 365 has been positively affected our business by making daily operations more efficient. I have a lot more control of company-wide documents and everything is organized in one place. This accessibility facilitates easier workflows in every department.

How did General Networks perform from a project management standpoint?

The account manager communicates pricing and works through extensive solutions with me. If a task is outside of their wheelhouse, they’ll happily offer referrals. For the most, they’ll attempt any task you give them. Overall, I’m happy with the communication and availability that is provided through their ticket support system.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Some IT support companies can be defensive or unpleasant when you approach them with issues. Contrary to that, General Networks and their team are always respectful, patient, and helpful. They’re well-liked throughout my entire 40-person staff. I’ve been doing office administration work for 20 years and this is the best IT support company I’ve had.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Their itemized billing isn’t as detailed as I’d prefer. The monthly support bill is fine, but the issue occurs when we request extra work. They do a lot for us, so I’d like to know what exactly was performed and who put the hours towards it. Also, they frequently forget to use the purchase order numbers I give them on their invoices. It’s frustrating, but some companies are worst than others at filling out paperwork.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a brief description of your company?

I work for an agency under the California state government that regulates investor-owned utilities, gas, electric, communications, and water. We also have some safety responsibilities for various transportation companies and agencies within the state such as limousine companies, Bay Area Rapid Transit, and other railroads within cities.

What is your role?

I work for a quasi-judicial agency with judges that hear cases. These cases range from the very complicated, when PG&E is asking for a rate increase, or relatively simple, where an individual consumer will have a complaint against PG&E. I am an information systems analyst responsible for document management, Web publishing, and electronic filing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your organization’s business goals for this particular project?

We had a document management program also from OpenText, but it was getting old. It was going to be phased out, so we wanted to switch to a modern document system that would include all of our business processes. Processes include publishing our documents to the Web and publishing electronically filed documents to the Web. We had to migrate millions of documents from our old document management system to the new document management system, which is Content Server from OpenText. We were using eDocs before.

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting OpenText? 

We felt that there was a better chance of operability between eDocs and Content Server since both are owned by Open Text. We looked at other document management systems including FileNet from IBM and Oracle. We thought OpenText had a longer track record with document management. IBM also has a long track record, but we felt it would be a very difficult task to try to import our existing eDocs into FileNet. So, we decided to purchase Content Server.

What was your process for selecting General Networks?

We had a long relationship with General Networks going back to the late 1990s, prior to the acquisition of eDocs by Open Text. They had been a partner for what was then called TC Docs. They helped us develop our web publishing system. They knew us very well. They knew our business processes very well, and also procurement was easy because they were on the California master work schedule. It was a combination of knowing them well, knowing that they were a good company, and knowing that they worked with us successfully in the past. Plus, procurement was easier than it would’ve been if we needed to solicit large-scale bids.

Can you tell me about the scope of the project?

General Networks was involved from start to finish. We had an internal library, which was very large. We also had smaller libraries, which contained our Web published and electronically filed documents. General Networks wrote specific codes for us to migrate the internal documents. They also wrote other specific code to migrate the Web-published and the electronically filed documents. The electronically filed documents are probably the most important because they are now the document of record. If a case gets appealed to the California Supreme Court, those documents have to be collected and sent to the court for review.

Besides OpenText, were any other technologies used?

There were codes written in DotNet. We had specific code written on top of Open Text by General Networks prior to the migration to Content Server. That was rewritten for Content Server.

Can you give us a sense of the size of the initiative in dollar terms or personnel hours?

It was approximately $500,000, and it was for what the state called four full-time person years. Four full-time employees worked on it for about a year.

When was the project completed?

The project was completed in August of 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement?

Our goal was to expand the use of document management. eDocs and its predecessors were unpopular and not widely used outside of the team involved in web publishing and electronically filing. We had about 30 out of approximately 1,000 employees using it back then. After some time, we had 250 full-time heavy users, and we’ve now doubled that and hope to triple it. Content Server has been much more popular. It’s much closer to the look and feel of Microsoft Windows. People seem to be using it more than they did eDocs. Employee feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with only a few glitches reported occasionally.

Do you feel you made the right choice to use OpenText?

I think so. Our only issue right now is a licensing dispute. We were not really aware of this issue when we started the project, but the actual technology itself is working just fine.

How did General Networks perform during the project?

They performed wonderfully. They knew us coming in. We were able to sit down with them, and tell them what we wanted to do. Since they already knew us, General Networks had a good idea of how it could be done. They planned for a week and said, “Here’s the plan. What do you think?” They worked with us for the schedule, planning, and the migration. There was a lot of testing, and they were there the whole time, very responsive.

The project was successful?

Yes.

What’s unique or special about General Networks compared to other vendors you may have worked with?

It’s the responsiveness. When there have been minor glitches, they have a deep knowledge of my organization and Open Text. We send them an email or call them, and they’ll respond immediately, usually with a solution. The General Networks team is just very friendly. They rarely if ever make mistakes.

Is there any area that you think General Networks could improve upon or maybe you would do differently?

The step that caused the most problems was migrating millions of documents. I think if we had to do it all over again, we would’ve started on that much earlier than we did to identify problems earlier. There was some scrambling in the middle of the project trying to figure out why certain documents weren’t getting migrated. There were some issues making sure all of the metadata was getting into the right places. We should’ve started earlier. These problems are more the fault of my organization than General Networks.

BACKGROUND

Please provide a brief description of what your company does

We’re a utility company based in California that reports to the state government.

What is your role?

I am a Project Manager

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals or reasons for undertaking the project with General Networks?

Basically, it started with negotiations with Open Text itself. We needed to find a reasonably-priced professional services firm for implementation of Open Text. Our Open Text sales representative suggested using General Networks. I did the initial research on three total companies and the other two companies didn’t perform well. General Networks was selected out of that group of three

SOLUTION

Why did you decide to use Open Text?

It is one of the biggest three companies and famous for acquiring smaller companies and one of the best offerings in the industry. My organization wanted to partner with a large company that had a diverse product set.

What parts of the project was General Networks involved in?

They were involved in installation, configuration, custom development, support, and the enhancement stages.

Besides OpenText, were any other technologies used for the project?

We are using a combination of Open Text and General Network’s products and custom-web development. Our system is based on Dotnet development and we have a custom website to retrieve and view the documents and metadata associated with it.

Can you give us a sense of the initiative in dollar terms?

About $500,000.

Is the project completed or still ongoing?

The main project is completed and we are currently running enhancements. The latest round of enhancements are related to CPUC findings and we need to implement some of the changes into review cycles for our documents.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any stats or metrics to track improvement from the project?

No, unfortunately we don’t have the resources to track improvement but it’s been successful.

Do you still feel you made the right decision to use OpenText?

Yes, it has worked well for our needs.

How did General Networks perform during the project?

Very well, we’re really happy with them.

When working with them, was there anything unique or special about them compared to some other companies that you’ve worked with?

General Networks tracks their work down to the minute, which is very unique. They track all activities by the minute so it’s very transparent.

General Networks has good reporting, good communication and their group is very professional.

Is there any area that you feel General Networks could improve upon or you would do differently?

Nothing that I can think of.

Would you recommend General Networks to others?

Yes, of course and I already have.