When to Outsource Your IT Consulting: Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat Example
More often than not, an organization’s ability to attract new customers, keep existing customers and employees happy while maintaining positive cash flow, are all signs that the company will enjoy steady and continual growth.
Growth comes with challenges and opportunities. You might need to hire additional employees, extend your office or workshop space, acquire more equipment or new technology. A side effect of all this progress is the need for the IT network infrastructure to also expand.
TNTMAX provides IT consulting for New Jersey businesses and can help yours with a flexible, efficient, and cost-effective strategy to solve any IT issues you are facing, no matter how unique or challenging.
After years of standard practice, business owners think nothing about outsourcing services like cleaning, equipment repair and maintenance, and security to others. However, some find it difficult to outsource their IT to a managed IT services provider. Their hesitations may be due to any of the following reasons:
- Feeling like they are giving up control of their business to outsiders
- Fearing that external IT personnel don’t share their business vision and won’t act with urgency when the need arises
- Believing that outsourcing IT would cost more money than their budget would allow
Unfortunately, what usually happens is tech-savvy employees are roped in to oversee the new challenges, projects, and problems that come with growing IT needs. These challenges pull them away from their other day-to-day duties. Other times, dedicated in-house IT staff find themselves stretched thin as the business is on the cusp of massive changes.
A professional managed IT services provider like TNTMAX’s IT consulting in New Jersey will acknowledge these fears and realities. By working to understand a client’s unique technical challenges and identifying potential risks, a professional provider creates an all-around, effective, custom IT strategy to ensure the continued growth of a client’s business. Everything from planning and implementation to operational and architectural opportunities is part of the procedure.
Our relationship with a nonprofit based in Bergen County, New Jersey exemplifies TNTMAX’s commitment to both our client’s satisfaction and our responsibilities. So today, we’re looking at the details of our relationship with Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat and how TNTMAX helped them to meet their new and ever-changing IT demands.
Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat
Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat (ECCR) was founded in 1972 to provide the comfort and security of home to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The special needs of the retreat’s over 100 residents are cared for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.
In 1987, ECCR expanded its facilities by developing group homes in the surrounding communities keeping with its mission of home-like living environments. 1992 saw the construction of on-site lodges to cater for their growing needs. Today, ECCR manages 13 facilities in Bergen and Passaic Counties!
Growth Challenges
To continue to run successfully, ECCR’s technology and security requirements needed to grow and evolve with their new business plan over the years. With their growing needs and the ever-changing technological landscape including increased reliance on internet-connected devices, ECCR needed to create the best experience for its staff and residents.
Overseeing IT support for ECCR was not the primary job of the retreat’s in-house person tasked with the role. The result was a passionate individual pulled in different directions at the same time. ECCR needed a trusted IT partner to manage their information technology and make recommendations where improvements could save them time, money, help avoid stressful situations, and protect sensitive information so they could run more efficiently and securely.
What’s more, the nature of their organization meant that HIPAA compliance was a top priority. HIPAA security analysis would shed light on the status of their health information privacy and the security of that data.
Solution: New IT Focus
ECCR needed a qualified professional IT consulting partner with the experience to oversee all aspects of their information technology and the vision to deploy improvements where needed, whether small or scary.
ECCR contacted TNTMAX because we are a managed IT service provider and provide IT consulting to New Jersey businesses. After selecting us, we performed a comprehensive audit, going over the hardware and software they used daily, and their security and network systems. We identified key areas where improvements could be made such as upgrading out of date, unreliable and insecure technologies.
We made sure to evaluate ECCR’s best options for growth while staying within their budget. After fine-tuning our action plan with the IT and administrative staff at ECCR, we put the plan into action. We began implementing the plan and reviewed it every year since, updating or adjusting it in response to changes in the organization’s requirements.
Some of the items included in the overall new IT plan were:
- A server upgrade: Did you know that on average, the day-to-day performance of business servers drop by 14% each year? If your server is 5 years or older, it’s running at 40% capacity. These performance issues cost most companies downtime by 20%. For these reasons, plus a need for a lower-maintenance server option, TNTMAX decided it was time for ECCR to have a server upgrade.
- Implement a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect employee information and safeguard ECCR’s business data online
- Virtualization of their server
- Secure wireless deployment
- Cloud migration
- HIPAA-compliant email
- Email security
- HIPAA compliance roll-out
- Security procedures and policies development
- Disaster recovery services
- Data backup strategy
- Training and ongoing support for their entire team moving forward.
The upgrade strategy we developed for ECCR addressed their most pressing concerns first, those areas that when upgraded brought in immediate improvements and evident rewards. The rest of the changes were spread over several years, an approach that will help ECCR stay within their budget.
ECCR Today
Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat now has a technology partner they can rely on and trust. Using a TNTMAX dedicated consultant builds a level of continuity which allows for efficient and straightforward support.
As a nonprofit organization reliant on donations and contributions, staying on budget is at the forefront of their steady growth and fulfilling their mission. ECCR knows they can focus on taking care of their residents, and TNTMAX will take care of their IT needs with the same level of dedication and care. The search to find the right IT partner who will provide professional services with the utmost respect for a business’s vision can be difficult, but one that paid off well for the Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat.
What Can Your New Jersey Business Expect from TNTMAX’s Managed IT Services?
Hiring the services of an external managed IT provider is a smart way to alleviate the sufferings of your overburdened in-house IT team.
Your business can avoid wasting time, effort, and money by assessing your current IT infrastructure to make sure any expansion objectives are fully supported and comply with industry regulations. TNTMAX can help identify IT gaps by evaluating your business needs and provide customized and effective strategies to obtain your desired results. We are proud to be one of the top software companies in leverage technology to fuel their growth. We offer the following services:
- Backup & Disaster Recovery – Read our blog “Reasons why your business needs professional data backup”
- Cloud Migration & Management – Read our blog: Is Cloud Computing Right for your NJ Business? We Can Help You Decide
- Database Administration
- Email and Spam Protection- Read our blog “Over Half Your Staff Misunderstands Cybersecurity: IT Services in Bergen County Talks Training Tips”
- IT Support & Monitoring
- IT Strategy & Consulting
- Malware Protection
- Phone System & VOiP – Read our blog “Talk to Managed Service Provider New Jersey’s TNTMAX About Whether VOiP Services Could Help Your Business Grow “
- Security & Compliance
- Server Design & Virtualization
- Website Hosting
- Website Design and Development
- Wireless Network
Still not sure whether outsourcing your IT services is for you? Read our Common Myths About Outsourcing to a Managed Service Provider
