After event-management company Caldwell Group, Ltd. took a technology plunge and developed its own in-house IT infrastructure, the firm realized that the solution was not meeting its needs. While investigating other options, Caldwell Group President Polly Bermingham found a better answer in the cloud with ITility by DynaSis cloud solution. That was in 2007, and today the partnership is as strong as ever.

From Under performing to Outstanding
“At the time, we were working with a pharmaceutical firm that had huge meetings—2000-3000 attendees—so we needed a fast system,” says Bermingham. “We had spent a lot of money on a server that could take 200 hits a minute, but it wasn’t enough. We kept expanding and expanding and it just wasn’t cutting it.”

Bermingham’s frustration lead her to search for a new IT solution, and she came across a mailing piece she had received from DynaSis. She and her team began evaluating vendors and eventually chose the ITility by DynaSis solution because, as Bermingham says, “We liked them the best. Plus, we were paying more to our one IT guy for service than we would pay DynaSis for everything in a year.”

DynaSis transitioned Caldwell Group’s data and business applications—Microsoft Outlook and Office—to a cloud server hosted at its world-class data center. With the new solution, Bermingham and her employees would access their data, email and software over a secure, redundant, high-speed Internet connection. She would no longer have to worry about on-site infrastructure or data security and backups, because DynaSis would manage and maintain everything in the background.

Responding to Changing Conditions
When the economic recession hit, ITility by DynaSis enabled Bermingham to be technologically prepared. With the meetings and events market taking a tumble as companies tightened belts, Bermingham adapted without any IT headaches.

“The economy had a huge impact on the industry, so we went to a remote model,” says Bermingham. “Today, our people still work from their homes, and we are incredibly more productive. We have all our files on the server. We’ve saved so much money, and it’s not just because we went remote. It’s because we partnered with DynaSis.”

Ultimate Portability
Using ITility by DynaSis has given Caldwell Group benefits that extend far beyond the money Bermingham saved in infrastructure and office space. Her team can access their files—from any Internet-connected computer—while they are in the field or at a conference, trade show or client meeting.

“We used to have big file books we would drag around with us, but now we just get on our computers and we have everything we need,” says Bermingham. “When we have presentations, if people forget or lose something or we need something in an email, the information is right at our fingertips.”

Bermingham also touts the ITility by DynaSis solution for what she calls the “crisis management” phase of meeting management. “You have the plan, but it changes until the day everyone arrives. You need access to that information and it has to be current—almost real time. With ITility by DynaSis, we have a security blanket. DynaSis saves the day, all the time.”

Service Beyond Expectations
Bermingham says the DynaSis support staff is knowledgeable, friendly and focused and says, “They will teach you and coach you until you get it. They have made me a fan of technology.” If something goes wrong, she notes, “Their emergency service is quick and responsive. You never have to wait and you never have to call them twice.”

As evidence of the DynaSis team’s enthusiasm, Bermingham relates the story of getting a new computer. “I was trying to set it up remotely, and I couldn’t figure it out. I said, ‘Just let me bring it over,’ and in 10 minutes they had it up,” she reports.

Even though Bermingham and her team are now working with different people than when they started with DynaSis five years ago, she says the team is just as helpful as they were at the outset. “We were big fans of DynaSis back then and we still are today,” says Bermingham. “I have not talked to one person who couldn’t do what we asked. It doesn’t matter if it is 10 on a Sunday night, they will call you back. There are not many companies like that.

“DynaSis has totally lived up to our expectations,” Bermingham concludes. “There is no better decision we could make, for the service; the product; the money. I would highly recommend them to anybody, and I have.”

When the housing market took a tumble, it wiped many construction companies off the map. Determined to be a survivor rather than a casualty, Brayson Homes turned to DynaSis for help downsizing its IT needs and budget while remaining customer-focused and competitive.

DynaSis recommended its cloud-computing solution, ITility by DynaSis, as the best means for Brayson Homes to minimize IT costs and increase operating agility. Brayson Homes said yes, and now the company reports it is stronger than ever.

"DynaSis provides what we need at a reasonable, affordable rate," says Brayson Homes Office Manager Kim DeLong. "We’re still getting the same excellent service, even though we don't require the level of support we used to."

At the Office to in the Cloud
Brayson Homes has been a DynaSis customer since 2002, when the DynaSis team set up a peer-to-peer network for the expanding company. DynaSis grew with Brayson Homes, transitioning them to a networked client-server environment during the heyday of the housing boom. When the housing market collapsed quickly, DynaSis was ready to help Brayson Homes sidestep the fallout.

With ITility by DynaSis, Brayson Homes' data and applications are hosted at DynaSis's world-class data center, enabling the firm to eliminate the expense and hassle of maintaining and upgrading on-premise servers. Employees access company data and applications through a dedicated Internet-based portal, anytime and anywhere, which enables Brayson Homes to save even more money through workshifting.

"ITility by DynaSis gives us the flexibility to access work wherever we are, so we can succeed with fewer employees," says DeLong. "When I am on vacation, I can access what is happening at the worksite. We have at our fingertips what we need, as we need it, and we can produce an effective outcome for our clients."

Future-Proofing
Another benefit of ITility by DynaSis is built-in system scalability, which will enable Brayson Homes to ramp up its server capacity almost instantaneously when the economic forecast improves. "We will grow again and need more of their support," says DeLong, who is confident that when that time comes, DynaSis will be eager to assist them. "DynaSis has always been willing to listen and work towards a solution," she says. "No matter what the stage or size of our business, they have been flexible and able to provide what we needed at the time. They were efficient and effective when we were small, then got large, then went back to being a small firm."

DeLong  says DynaSis's dedication is more than an attitude—it's a mission. "They really care and want to provide services not only for today but for tomorrow," she says. "They are very proactive in reaching beyond the current boundaries to see what people and businesses are going to need—and be—in the future."

For the present, DeLong couldn't be more pleased. "Going from standalone computers to accessing our information anywhere, at the click of a button, has added tremendous value," says DeLong. "The system helps us to be more productive and efficient, providing savings for the company. I definitely would recommend ITility by DynaSis to anyone."

Successfully running a meeting and event management company is a challenging pursuit. Competition is fierce, reputation is everything, and enabling communication between widely dispersed office and field workers is critical to success. After Caldwell Group, Ltd took a technology plunge and developed its own in-house IT infrastructure, the firm realized that the solution was not furthering its ability to meet these challenges—or powering its success.

Maintaining the new IT systems required expertise that in-house personnel lacked, and it took the focus away from the Caldwell Group's core business. Equally important for the company's operations, an on-premise implementation lacked the flexibility to support staff outside the office.

In 2007, Caldwell Group President and CEO Polly Bermingham turned to DynaSis for a solution. The company recommended ITility by DynaSis, its cloud-based, fully hosted solution for company applications and data. Half a decade later, both the partnership and Caldwell Group are still going strong. "ITility by DynaSis allows us to work remotely and share all our files, which makes us so much more efficient and effective," says Bermingham.

With ITility by DynaSis, Caldwell Group personnel access the firm's applications and data from any location and on any device through a dedicated, secure Internet portal. Whether staff is working locally on a corporate meeting at a trade show or halfway around the world at a pre-site visit for a corporate incentive event, ITility by DynaSis keeps proposals, contracts, menus and other documents and details at their fingertips. And, since ITility by DynaSis supports 24/7/365 access from any Internet-connected device, staff can also work at home or on vacation if needed.

A Refreshing Change

Bermingham credits not only ITility by DynaSis but also the DynaSis staff itself for helping propel Caldwell Group's success. "DynaSis team members are professional, friendly and warm, and they never make you feel like your questions are stupid, even though what you are asking might be," says Bermingham. "It's so unusual to find somebody that offers great, professional service. It is really refreshing."

If problems ever pop up, Bermingham says, the DynaSis staff "knows how to fix them and will work on them until they get them fixed." So pleased is Bermingham with ITility by DynaSis that she credits them with the firm's continuity.

"There is no better decision we could make, for the service; the product; the money," Bermingham concludes. "They keep us in business, and that's the truth."

When MendenFreiman LLP decided to change technology service providers, the company had a specific set of requirements. Their prior firm had failed to provide the necessary level of round-the-clock service and support—an issue that could cost the firm dearly in terms of lost productivity and client goodwill. When MendenFreiman Director of Operations Allan D. Freiman met with DynaSis in 2007, he knew he had found a provider that could meet the firm's high expectations. Five years later, the partnership continues to grow and thrive.

"If we are down for an hour—we don’t have access to our data —it literally costs us thousands of dollars an hour in lost productivity," says Freiman. "When we took a tour of DynaSis's facilities and met some of the staff, we saw an opportunity to maintain significantly more uptime with DynaSis than with other vendors."

Keeping the Legal Eagles Flying

Unlike firms that maintain a strict workday schedule, says Freiman, MendenFreiman's business frequently requires its staff to work nights and on weekends. To maximize attorney productivity and reduce the stress of working long hours, the company considers it paramount for staff to have remote access to the firm's databases.

"Our office hours may stop at 5:30, but we may have people working into the night," says Freiman. "We manage all relevant documents and emails so our staff can go to one place and retrieve everything we’ve done for a particular client. If we don’t have access to that data, then we’re not going to be able to meet deadlines and our clients are going to look elsewhere."

To support MendenFreiman's on-site servers, DynaSis initially implemented its 24/7/365 remote monitoring and support solution. This service also included a secure, remote-access portal through which authorized staff could access firm files from any Internet-connected location.

Since that time, DynaSis has been maintaining the company's servers in the background, applying fixes and performing other tasks that ensure maximum uptime for MendenFreiman. If a problem arises, DynaSis's Help Desk Support team stands at the ready. "DynaSis monitors our servers 24 hours a day," says Freiman. "I am very happy with the service. I like that I can get online and open up a support ticket and get status update notifications continuously."

Moving to the Cloud

After five years with Novteach remotely managing MendenFreiman's on-site servers, Freiman reports the company is moving to adopt DynaSis's fully cloud-based solution, ITility by DynaSis, and a test environment is already in the works. "This past summer, we had some server issues and our disaster recovery solution, because of our volume of data,  had a 24-hour window to up time. That prompted us to look at totally fail-safe solutions," says Freiman.

"With ITility by DynaSis, the DynaSis data center will provide a disaster recovery system that is better than what we could afford on our own," he says. "The goal is to do away with our servers and rely on DynaSis to manage our IT needs even more than we do now."

A  Solid Foundation

Freiman says his firm is comfortable making the shift to a cloud-based environment because of the excellent support and service DynaSis has provided from the outset. "DynaSis has been very accommodating to our users, even when they are working at night or on weekends," says Freiman. "They are always very customer driven and have continued to show exceptional customer service even under extreme circumstances."

In summation, Freiman notes, "We pay DynaSis a monthly fee for their service, and we look at that as an insurance premium. DynaSis has given us the confidence to make client commitments and know that we can keep them. The more we keep those commitments, the stronger our client relationships will be, and the more business they will bring us through referrals. The ability to be up and running is worth every penny."

After a week when most of Atlanta was out of work and stuck at home due to a massive snow event —which will go down in history as "Snowmageddon 2010," —you’d think CSM Research President Frank Saunders would be anxious to get back to work. Thanks to the remote access DynaSis's ITility service provided during the storm, Saunders felt blissfully at ease.

“Actually, I hated to come back,” says Sanders. “Being able to use ITility by DynaSis was a great thing because we were able to complete all of our work from home. Except for not having access to the Post-it notes on our desks, it was just like being in the office.”

Saunders and his 50 Atlanta employees are now loyal fans of ITility by DynaSis, the hosted platform they use for secure access to their Microsoft Office and proprietary applications as well as Microsoft Exchange.

Business as Usual.

ITility by DynaSis has enabled CSM Research to take advantage of workshifting, an increasingly popular productivity builder for companies large and small. With workshifting, employees can work when and where they choose, because corporate data and applications are hosted in the cloud and accessible over any Internet connection. DynaSis's ITility by DynaSis offers precisely that solution, making it a perfect fit for firms that want to adopt workshifting.

“We have folks with young kids, and when they have a sick child they can stay home and work; when they need to be home from 12-4 to meet the repairman, we can accommodate that, too," continues Saunders. "ITility by DynaSis is great for allowing our people to work whenever and wherever they need to.”

During Snowmageddon 2010, when CSM Research and the rest of Atlanta were housebound for a week, ITility by DynaSis and workshifting helped Saunders' team not miss a beat. They were emailing and calling each other and conducting business as usual. That was important for CSM Research, a leading customized integrated surveys and focused data collection provider with a national client base.

Seamless Workplace Continuity

"Most of our clients are located around the country and not in Atlanta," says Saunders." They didn’t know we were down or that Atlanta was snowed in. We continued work without interruption. Our clients didn't have to wonder if they might need another firm because we go down in bad weather."

Of course, his employees missed the interpersonal engagement aspects of physically being in the office, which he says helps them "manage a diverse set of clients with a lot of balls in air." Nevertheless, his team quickly made up the week of collaboration time they missed, and unless his clients happened to follow Atlanta weather, they never knew anything was amiss.

"One of our clients is large entertainment industry firm, and they wanted to know if we could facilitate surveys over a smartphone," says Saunders. "They sent an inquiry while we were all working from home, and our team was able to do research, collaborate and respond quickly to the client, even though no one was in the office."

Saunders says one IT employee—who doesn't like having a duplicate workstation at home—came into the office. He sent ongoing reports to his remote coworkers about how bad the ice was. "There is nothing worse than ruining your day by sliding down a hill in the ice, running into a tree and doing thousands of dollars worth of damage to your car," says Saunders. With DynaSis, ITility by DynaSis and workshifting on the scene, the only thing CMS Research employees were hitting was their weekly production goals.

Our new data center space at the 55 Marietta Street carrier hotel in downtown Atlanta was given mention by Data Center Knowledge.

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After several years with DynaSis on-premise support, Brayson Homes found itself in a time of transition. The server management on-site was becoming more costly with the growing complexity of the network. They looked to the experts at DynaSis to elevate their current IT systems to the next level. Brayson Homes transitioned to a cloud-based, on-demand solution called ITility by DynaSis in early 2010.

When Briot Network Administrator Tommy Orr needed a third-party opinion on network strategy, he immediately thought of DynaSis. Orr had been impressed by DynaSis when he attended an event the firm hosted, and he was quick to contact them when he needed help. As Orr discussed the network with DynaSis's expert engineers, he realized ITility by DynaSis would be a great fit for Briot. With 14 out of 25 employees working in the field, and the CFO traveling between the Atlanta and Canada offices, ITility by DynaSis support for workshifting and remote access sold Orr.

As a cloud-based, hosted solution, ITility by DynaSis delivers Briot's data and applications over the Web from the DynaSis hosting servers to Briot workstations or any other Internet-connected computer. Employees access the network seamlessly, using a dedicated, secure online user interface. This not only enables Briot employees to access work from any of their offices, or from home or other locations, but it also gives Briot's road warriors a flexible, convenient and fully provisioned work experience no matter where they travel. "ITility by DynaSis has changed our business by making it easier to connect remotely, which has been key to servicing our clients," says Orr.

Beyond workshifting flexibility, ITility by DynaSis also incorporates 24/7/365 monitoring and maintenance of the equipment and automated backups of Briot's cloud server. This has enabled Orr to eliminate his network maintenance schedule. "I no longer have to buy or maintain server room equipment, so it takes a lot of worry out of my job," says Orr. "Plus, I am free to work on improving the performance of our products and invest my time in other high-level tasks."

When asked how he feels about the level of DynaSis's expertise, Orr replied, "I am very pleased with DynaSis. There is always someone available to answer my questions, and if they cannot answer right away, they work to find the answer until the problem is solved. They address my tickets within 2-3 minutes and always check with me to make sure everything is working before they close out an issue."

Briot has been working with DynaSis since 2009, and Orr says they have always stayed on top of any needs or concerns that arose. "ITility by DynaSis gives me the freedom to work on other business tasks, and it saves us money," says Orr. "I would absolutely recommend DynaSis and ITility by DynaSis to other clients going forward. In fact, I already have."