Benchmark Imaging & Display | Chicago Church of Christ | Cook Associates, Inc.

Phase 2 | Phase 3 | Phase 4 | Phase 5

Phase 1: Telecommunications

Challenge: Evaluate all telecommunications services and vendors for Cook Associates’ nationwide office locations and recommend changes and upgrades for improved efficiencies and increased capacity and functionality.

Evaluation: Cook had a total of 27 vendors carrying a total of about 35 different accounts and contracts. Their office to office networking communication at the time was being handled by a service known as Frame-Relay, which is a communication protocol allowing for direct network packet transmission from one location to another, rather than the multiple hopping you would experience sending information across the normal internet. The office locations across the country each had their own telephone system, LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) or local phone company, and their own long distance contract, and finally each location had a separate DSL or cable internet communication service, some locations also had a backup service in case the first service went offline.

Step One: Replace the existing telephone system in the headquarters office in Chicago, a ROLM 9000 telephone switching server left over from the 1980s.

Considerations:

• Cost for installation and maintenance
• Features and reliability
• Service requirements and expected lifespan
• Cost for annual upkeep and maintenance
• Expansion capabilities

Solution: Altigen

• Altigen had the lowest installation cost because I was already certified and could install the equipment without assistance
• As a certfied systems administrator I could not only install the system but handle all updates and maintenance without a contract
• Maintenance contract minimum allowing for software updates under $1,000
• The Altigen system is a hybrid switch with expansion capabilities capable of handling all types of telephone services and desk sets making it the most versatile system we examined. Especially considering the system is a computer based switch and expansion capabilities are only limited by the number of PCI slots available for expansion.

Step Two: Investigate and evaluate all of the telephone and networking contracts to come up with methods for cutting costs on these services and improve communications through the use of newer technologies and services.

Considerations:

• One vendor for all locations nationwide
• Ability to deliver on time and without complications
• Company reputation
• Future technological advancements

Solution: AT&T

Phase 2: Office to Office Communications top

Over a four year period of time the office to office networking and communications services went through several upgrades, during each upgrade the goal was to impact the day to day business of the offices as little as possible while maintaining the current budget. The office to office network communications was upgraded from a Frame Relay service consisting of four end point locations with the sizes 128k in Boulder Colorado, 128k in Atlanta Georgia, 256k in New York New York and 512k in Chicago Illinois to a final footprint in 2009 of 3Mb in Boulder Colorado, 3Mb in Boston Massachusetts, 3Mb in New York New York and 7.5Mb in Chicago Illinois including MPLS network communications protocol service which carries both voice and data traffic. The MPLS network service eliminates the need for a separate T1 providing telephone service to the PBX switching equipment.

The first phase of this upgrade consisted of migrating all network and telephone service contracts to a single corporate service plan through AT&T. In some markets the cost was slightly higher than the previous carrier, in other markets the price was slightly less. But considering the amount of paperwork and accounting that needed to go into the proper budget provisioning for each office location and the company as a whole, the savings over time far outweighed any potential for higher rates during peak usage times. During the upgrade in the telephone communications systems the network was migrated to a point to point VPN configuration over the public internet rather than the more expensive Frame Relay service. The increase in bandwidth as compare to the less reliable peaks and spikes provided by the internet based packet communication over the public internet was considered an improvement due to the controls and reporting afforded us by the level of control given to the IT department, since the network was now controlled by our department instead of the telecommunications company.

The second phase of the upgrade consisted of opening the new office in Boston Massachusetts and installing the Altigen in a third office location affording the unification of three digit dialing between all three offices, once this installation was completed we upgraded the network to the MPLS services, giving us the same kind of bandwidth available in the prior configuration but introducing the voice communications in all three major markets where we had an office location over the MPLS network eliminating the long distance charges in our three busiest markets. The MPLS network service returns the communications to the direct point to point communications network like we had over Frame Relay, but now with enough bandwidth to transfer a 10 Mb file from one office to another in seconds rather than hours, allowing the larger database and document data transmission between office to happen at a fraction of the time as compared to previous configurations over the years.

End result: the final communications platform costs less and performs several times faster and more reliable than at any other time in the companies history.

Phase 3: Servers top

Challenge: Evaluate the existing server environment and recommend upgrades and improvements to improve the efficiency in all aspects of communications and data storage and delivery.

Evaluation: Very old computer equipment, under-utilized network capacity, inconsistent and poorly designed services that don’t communicate with each other, primary systems reaching capacity frequently and beginning to fail regularly.

Considerations:

Solution:

Phase 4: Desktop Computer Systems top

Challenge: Like the server environment at Cook, the desktop systems were an average of three to five years old and having trouble keeping up with application and operating system updates and upgrades.

Evaluation: 99% of all desktop computers at cook were ineligible for upgrade to the more modern Windows XP operating system and had issues performing regular daily tasks like reading emails, opening documents and browsing the internet without causing crashes and freezes. The impact of these issues on employee moral and mood was extreme.

Considerations:

Solution: Sony Vaio all in one system

Phase 5: Outdated Proprietary Candidates Database top

Challenge: Database application improvements, modification or replacement.

Evaluation: Cook’s database system had been written and modified over the years to accommodate many different people’s interests, business styles, preferences and priorities; so the system although it was functioning well had severe limitations when compared to the modern web based systems being developed like Salesforce.com. When new employees from much larger firms began joining Cook it became evident that a major upgrade or replacement would need to take place soon to accommodate the business process style that people had now become accustomed to using. The proprietary system Cook had developed over the years was adequate to accomplish the basic business goals but as other firms began using more modern database platforms they began to outperform Cook in the marketplace and could offer a similar service at a much lower price point. So either Cook would have to embrace the future and the technologies that drive future development or they would be left in the dust by the other firms out there charging similar amounts of money and delivering a better product.

Considerations:

Solution: