TPX Communications (Formerly DCSI)

Please describe your organization.

We are a K-12 school district of about 3,800 students and approximately 700 staff members. We’re located in Maine.

What is your position?

I am the director of technology.

What business challenge were you trying to address with DSCI?

We were looking for assistance in some network troubleshooting.

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

We were struggling with some network traffic issues. We reached out to DSCI to come in and help troubleshoot the network and try to find some bottlenecks that were slowing things down. After that first project, we’ve used them for switch configuration. We purchased new switches, and they did the configurations on those for us.

They’ve also worked with us to develop our five-year plan, as far as the infrastructure of our network and server environment. We’re still in the process of working that through, but they’ve been working on recommendations for us as to what our best course of action is going to be over the next five years or so.

How did you come to work with DSCI?

DSCI has been in Maine for a year or two. I was working with another company, Unified Technologies, which DSCI acquired, so we just continued the relationship that we had in place.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

We probably spend around $25,000 a year with them.

What is the status of this engagement?

From my first days with Unified to the present, I’ve been working with them for about four years, and the relationship is ongoing.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We haven’t had any substantial downtime since we started working with them. We’ve been very stable during that time. Most of the work they’ve done has been preventative and evaluation type of work, to make sure we’re going in the right direction and that our course of action is proper at the time. We haven’t had to call them in for any mission critical issues.

We did have a pretty bad firewall issue that had a real bad impact on our network. They were able to secure us a replacement firewall, and get it up and configured, in a very timely fashion. While we were down, we were severely hampered, but they were very time-efficient. We went to our account manager for that. We were definitely impressed with their response time and their status reports. We never felt left in the dark. 

How did DSCI perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve instituted their web service dashboard, which allows me to log in. It can be used for anything from invoicing to quotes, and to progress on ongoing projects.

What distinguishes DSCI from other providers?

There is one particular person, Tyler, for whom we have a lot of respect, and we trust his knowledge. I think that’s what sets them apart. His experience and knowledge, especially in a school setting, has made it a lot easier for me trust the company. I knew Tyler before he was at DSCI, and his knowledge is unparalleled. I trust him immensely when it comes to networking, troubleshooting, and planning.

Is there anything DSCI could have improved or done differently?

My frustration with them at first was timeliness, and they have taken some steps to improve that. Once they were made aware of how we felt about how long it took to achieve our end results, they took action to fix that. It has definitely gotten better.

Please describe your organization.

I work for RSU57, Regional School Unit 57, in Waterboro, Maine. We are a K-12 [kindergarten through 12th grade] public school, with approximately 3,000 students in seven different schools.

What is your position?

I am the director of technology.

What business challenge were you trying to address with DSCI?

We worked with DCSI before they were DSCI, actually. We worked with Unified Technologies, who maintained some servers on our network. There were some managed services happening, but it was more on-call basis. When they eventually went to become DSCI, we continued that relationship. In the meantime, we've had some servers that were getting more vital for the functioning of the school. We liked their services enough to warrant getting premium services through them for server protection and service.

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

They provide mostly data security. We host our own data, but they manage the servers that we have contracted with them. We have also used them for network audits. They've audited our system and given us some help in creating a plan on how to make our network more efficient. If we need their help, we reach out to them, as far as carrying through on some of the tenets of the plan. We also have the disaster recovery service with them as well as daily maintenance on three of our servers.

How did you come to work with DSCI?

I've been in this position for a little more than a year, and they've had an ongoing relationship with the school district for longer than that, so I'm not familiar with that process.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

This year's contract with them, which encompasses all of the services we get from them, is around $70,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We've been working with them for two or three years, and the relationship is ongoing.

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

There are two that have actually happened within the last week [October 2015]. We had a server that was throwing out seemingly random errors. It was our Chronos server, which is a time management system. There was one function of the program that was working. Everything else was locked out. When our techs went to in to see that some significant things had changed, we called DSCI immediately, and they were actually on it within 10 minutes. They were fixing the problem and contacting the vendors with question. They provided full service to get the situation resolved. They have a very rapid response to those kinds of things, which is great because we can't really have unplanned downtime.

How did DSCI perform from a project management standpoint?

We use their ticketing system, and they have a dashboard that we log into, which allows us to manage both the tickets and the billing. We have access to both an emergency support team and a dedicated account rep. The account rep that we have is more for sales than service, although he does act as a liaison with the service department at times.

He actually, on more than one occasion, has gone to bat for us with billing and pricing issues. He's gone through the service department to maybe speed them up, or let them know that the issue was more significant than it sounded. Also, if we're just generating a ticket, there's an online process we can use, but for the most part, we have a phone number we call into.

What distinguishes DSCI from other providers?

I think what distinguishes them is the fact that they're local, and they know the area and what the needs are. I also have had conversations with one of their vice presidents, Tyler [Dunphy], who has previously been in my position for one of the local cities. He knows the infrastructure that I'm dealing with, and he's able to offer some really solid advice on directions to go in. In general, DSCI's ability to help you strategize and come up with a workable plan is a great characteristic. 

Is there anything DSCI could have improved or done differently?

I can't think of any. Everything that I've mentioned to them that I'm concerned about, they respond to immediately, whether it's customer service, or maybe a resolution didn't kick in, and we need to work on it more. They've always been very accommodating.

Please describe your organization.

My company is an audio/video installer and integrator. We also do rentals for productions, from small things like a family function, to corporate events with thousands of employees coming to a main location. On the installation side, we do a lot of boardrooms or corporate meeting rooms, where we integrate displays, projectors, video conferencing systems, and audio conferencing systems, with everything controlled through a single touch panel with a custom interface.

What is your position?

I am the information technology systems manager and a control system programmer.

What business challenge were you trying to address with DSCI?

We first contacted them when they were just Unified Technology, before merging with DSCI. We were looking to license Office 365, and they made it easy to get everything transferred over and set up. They took care of the implementation and customization for our business.

Please describe the scope of their involvement.

The initial project was the implementation and custom integration of Office 365. More recently, we wanted to upgrade our network infrastructure, everything from the switches and hardware on the network to replacing some old servers. We wanted to get everything upgraded to improve performance speeds.

We also decided to utilize their services for maintaining and monitoring our network and servers. I'm an IT department of one, and my duties go well beyond IT. I'm often sent out into the field to work on A/V installation jobs, so it's difficult for me to maintain the network back at the office. If there's a problem, and I'm six hours away, it's hard for me to do anything about it beyond trying to walk someone through a process that they shouldn't be doing.

Bringing in DSCI has been a huge help for me, just knowing that I've got someone back here monitoring it and taking care of problems that can be handled remotely. Anything that can't be done remotely is usually minor, and someone onsite can usually handle that.

How did you come to work with DSCI?

I believe their sales associate originally reached out to me. We talked about doing the host exchange, and there were some other projects I had planned, but didn't have a timeframe or a budget for them yet. He understood that, and he put together a proposal for it so that I had some numbers for future reference. I liked that he wasn't pushy about it. I never felt that I was being pressed to do something I wasn't ready to initiate.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It's in the range of $40,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our relationship is ongoing. The most recent milestone was completed about three months ago [July 2015].

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

The biggest thing for me is that, while I'm away from the office and working on other projects, I haven't had to worry about the network. There have been a couple of occasions where issues happened, and DSCI has been able to resolve them without my involvement, other than just being notified. As far as I'm concerned, that does everything that I want it to do. Other than that, we haven't really set any benchmarks, but to me, it's certainly well worth it.

How did DSCI perform from a project management standpoint?

Everything went smooth on the project. Everything came in right around where it was estimated, and a few things came in under, so it all worked out well. It was an unexpected surprise, but definitely a pleasant one.

What distinguishes DSCI from other providers?

They all seem very personable and professional. It just seemed a lot easier to work with DSCI, and I felt very comfortable with everyone there. 

Is there anything DSCI could have improved or done differently?

There's nothing I can think of. I don't really have a reference for comparison, but I've been happy with everything that I've done with them. It's all worked really well.