What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The impact they have on our business really comes back to our own operational or productivity KPIs. We operate a 1.9 million cubic foot warehouse that’s laced with WiFi. If there's latency in the network or if there are issues going on with our handhelds our machines, we wouldn't be able to process, pick, pack, and ship orders. We’d come to a screaming halt, case in point.
We had issues with our ISP on Cyber Monday, which TechMD has nothing to do with. They immediately had a backup for us. We have two ISPs, and they immediately moved us over to the backup one within seconds, so our team was immediately up and going across the board. We would have been dead in the water but they didn’t skip a beat.
How did TechMD perform from a project management standpoint?
I don't know that component. I know that we have multiple ways of contacting them, whether it's a simple phone call and issuing tickets or a more escalated thing that requires additional details. We never struggle to get ahold of anybody. Usually, if it's not Jackson immediately, it's one of a handful of their team members that have worked on our account before and can escalate the issue to Jackson.
They also proactively schedule meetings and call us about what we might want. I wouldn't call them quarterly business reviews, but, throughout the year, they identify open projects and ask how our network is and how they themselves are performing? Sometimes it’s a focus that we've had or that we've talked about internally but haven't shared with them yet, so we start to create timelines and budgets. Then, we can either escalate it or put it on the back burner. They're pretty responsive.
What did you find most impressive about them?
They handle our network as if they were our own internal IT department, acting as an extension of our company. I don't use that lightly. There have been multiple times when we had either an issue or an opportunity and didn’t know how to handle it. They’ve stepped up to close the gap and make sure our operation doesn’t miss a beat.
Case in point, they've got a great team. Around 4:00 pm one Friday, we had one faulty piece of equipment in our WiFi. We had thousands of packages to get out and were already going to run a full-production schedule that weekend. Jackson didn’t have any resources available, so he came over personally and oversaw the fix, even though it took hours.
He could have easily handled it on Monday or Tuesday when his team was back in the office, but he didn’t bat an eye. We were able to run our production that weekend and meet our client demands because he did what was necessary to keep us operational. Both that urgency and willingness to be proactive and hands-on speak highly to the services they provide.
Are there any areas they could improve?
We haven't seen any issues in timing, turnaround or attention to detail. They’re also all-over forward-thinking solutions and cybersecurity. They’ve allowed me to focus on what we do for our clients.
I wouldn't say networking and what they provide is an afterthought, but I know that when an issue does come up, it's unforeseen. It's usually hardware-related, and they usually fix it quickly anyway. We’re pretty happy.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
This is a type of partnership where you don’t want to select the low-cost leader necessarily. That shouldn't be the driving factor. At the end of the day, when you're a business and a service provider, the security and up-time of your network can't be an afterthought.
You want the best; you don't want somebody that's going to reduce your cost by cutting corners and removing resources from your account.
In my experience, too many businesses select a networking partner based on price alone, instead of the full comprehensive list of what that partner does. TechMD checks all our boxes. If we had to make the same decision 10 times over, I don't see another player in the industry meeting our needs the way that TechMD does.
TechMD's work significantly impacts the client's workflow and makes it a lot easier for them to access everything remotely, making the process seamless and effortless. They have great communication skills and are really responsive. Their team is big enough to solely work on infrastructure.