Trusted care for your information technology,

so you can focus on what you do best


 

 

 

 

 

 

“They understand the problems of a rapidly growing business, are empathetic, forward thinking, and they know the issues they need to address.  They feel our pain and then they are able to provide a plan and solution to ease the pain”

         

    


Service:      IT Outsourcing

Industry:     Healthcare - 85 Employees - 1 location

Goal:          Maintain all technology

Client for:   10 years (2000-present)

 

Project: A medical practice was experiencing stability issues with their growing computer environment. The number of computer problems were increasing, productivity was being affected, and management was being distracted by staff complaints. The support of the computer systems was primarily by one staff member handling basic questions and being an executive assistant at the same time. The advanced technical problems were the responsibility of an outside firm who was called in as needed yet was becoming less responsive.

 

Result: The Charlton Group started supporting this medical practice when it was 25 employees. At that time the medical practice lacked computer standards, proactive maintenance, a technology plan, and had no experienced technology manager. We provided a plan and timeline to stabilize the computer environment, established metric to validate technology goals were being met, and provided the technology foundation for growth. The medical practice is now over 75 employees and the computer environment remains stabled. We have completed many projects including the migration and installation of a new accounting and patient scheduling system, an electronic medical records system, a new web site, and new phone system.

 

Additional projects we have completed include the migration to a new accounting/patient scheduling system, installation of an electronic patient records system, and project management for the design of a new web site.

Service:       Special Project

Industry:      Building materials distributor - 60 employees - 7 locations

Goal:           Reduce phone cost, internet cost, upgrade phone system

Client for:    13 years (1997-present)

 

Project: A distribution company with 7 office locations in the east coast wanted to replace their antiquated phone system and reduce rising phone charges. They also experienced occasional phone service outages at remote office locations resulted in missed customer calls.

 

Result: We researched phone systems functionality and interviewed the manufactures narrowing the choices to two possible systems. At the same time we negotiated with phone and data service providers and identified the best possible solution to lower the cost of phone calls and internet access for all seven office locations. A new phone system was installed along with a meshed private network connecting all office locations. Using the technology features of the phone system, interoffice calls are now made for free using the private network. Fault tolerance built into the new design allows calls to remote offices with phone service outages to route to 1 of 3 backup office locations avoiding missed calls. The savings results paid for the new phone system in 18 months.

 

Our initial work with this client was IT Outsourcing which we still provide today. Additional projects have included the upgrade and support of the office accounting, billing, and sales application.

Service:        Business Continuity Planning (BCP)

Industry:       Financial - Mutual funds - 25 employees - 1 location 

                    ($25 Billion in managed assets)                   

Goals:           Continue business operations in the event of a disaster

Client for:     17 years (1993-present)

 

Project: A mutual fund service firm required the ability to quickly restore critical business functions in the event of a serious incident. The solution was to create and validate a logistical plan to recover business functions in a predetermined time frame after a disaster or extended disruption. Business systems included email, data files, trading software, fax, and phones. In this case three scenarios were addressed:

 

1) Component(s) failure in the primary office
2) All systems running but no access to the office
3) Complete systems failure and no access to the office

 

Result: During an early winter morning a water line ruptured under the street outside the office building. Police and work crews closed the surrounding area including the street and several buildings. The first employee arriving that morning discovered the situation and initiated the BCP for scenario #2. The company was able to continue business operations throughout the day avoiding any downtime.

 

Every business and organization can experience a serious incident which can prevent it from continuing normal operations. This can happen any day at any time. It is very important that every business have a continuity plan no matter how simple.