Meester & Company Improves Performance, Security, and Reliability

Client or Organization Profile: Small family based CPA firm serving ~650 clients in Northern California currently experiencing growth in both local and remote workers.

Background: This local CPA had expired hardware (5+ years old server and workstations) that were all due to be replaced. They were unhappy with their current IT Service Provider and things were not getting done in a timely manner.

Assessment: The great majority of their IT hardware was purchased around the same time and expired. Performance and reliability was suffering and functionality and productivity was not as great as it could be. Network infrastructure was dated and there was no security firewall in place. Email service was poor, not reliable and effecting productivity. Wireless networking was consumer grade.

Proposal: Ray Morgan’s technology consultant reviewed the current environment and came up with the following Technology Action Plan:

1. Install Pro IT’s Backup and Disaster Recovery Server and start backups.
2. Assess the current security firewall and workstation/server security.
3. Assess the current wireless security and performance.
4. Replace the current Server with an OEM quality enterprise server.
5. Replace all workstations with Dell enterprise systems. These were included as part of the monthly service through their Managed IT Services contract.
6. Setup secure work from home laptop solution for two home offices and secure access for remote contractors.
7. Setup Microsoft Hosted 365 Services and migrate previous email.

Putting Pro IT to the test!

Very shortly after Pro IT started our on boarding process the company suffered a major data corruption event. An essential component of the proactive nature of the Managed IT Services approach is that we start day one of our onboarding by installing our backup and disaster recovery server – we had backups in place and were able to remediate the corruption immediately and recover all of the damaged files. Nothing was lost.

Ray Morgan Company Solution: Both Principle owners work remotely and from home in a highly secured setting just as if they were in their office at their desks. All of the security is in place and constantly monitored while backups are maintained and monitored. Pro IT has replaced all IT related hardware and this CPA’s network is solid, reliable and performs as expected. Support calls have significantly reduced and their staff is highly productive. Everything that Pro IT does and has replaced is all covered under their monthly support agreement.

As part of this solution the following changes were made to their IT infrastructure:

• New enterprise grade Dell Server.
• Enterprise Wireless Access with Guest Network.
• A new business class security firewall with comprehensive licensing was installed.
• Personal firewalls and access points were installed at remote offices for site to site connectivity (work from home).
• POP3 email was migrated to Microsoft 365 Services.
• Core workstations added triple monitor support for increased productivity.
• Performance and reliability greater increased with all new business grade workstations.
• Proactive maintenance on all workstations and servers keep everything functioning well.

Post Install Benefits: Meester and Company now greatly appreciates the improved security and peace of mind of knowing Pro IT is monitoring their entire network to mitigate potential security risks. Stability, performance and productivity have all increased to a new level that didn’t exist before. Standardization of business class hardware through and through extending to home offices sets the bar high for this CPA. Where traveling and work were a challenge before those days have gone. Having local IT presence and an Engineer available on site when needed has been a great comprehensive service addition.

Summary: Ryan Dunn as the Ray Morgan Company sales engineer took a big picture view of the customer’s needs and designed an IT infrastructure solution that made their life easier and more productive. The customer is delighted to have the flexibility to work from home and also the convenience of a high performance network including a security solution at the office.

The Ray Morgan helpdesk technicians are available via the web, desktop chat, and phone to address issues and maintain Meester and Company’s hardware, software and network solutions. Ray Morgan is looking forward to continuing the relationship with Meester and Company CPAs for years to come.