An established custom mold-making and design firm is the corporate parent and driving force behind its engineering divisions. The company hires highly-skilled engineers, designers, and mold-makers to execute demanding design challenges. The company is a leader in the manufacturing of precision molds for the liquid-injection molding of liquid silicone rubber and injection molding of thermoplastics as well as thermosets, compression and transfer molding of thermoset plastic materials.

The Challenge: Improve Network Performance without Diverting Internal Resources

As a small business this tool and die company does not employ a full-time resource to support IT operations. A design engineer for the company previously managed IT on his own and sometimes relied on an outside consultant who was not always readily available during business hours.

“As the company grew from ten to twenty-five employees, we reached the point where we needed to ensure consistent computer network performance with the capability of receiving service quickly when problems occurred,” the engineer said. “We also wanted to ensure we had reliable backups of our work. If a server goes down, we don’t want our design engineers having to replicate weeks of work.”

As the manufacturer began adding desktops and purchased a new server for each operating division, the engineer began working with a computer reseller but was not satisfied with the level of service provided.

“We needed a higher level of expertise that could recommend a technology support solution that met our specific needs and could ensure the technology would function properly on a consistent basis,” the engineer said. “It was time to solidify the management of the network. With everyone dependent upon up-time and proper backups, it became imperative to hire professional help.”

The Solution: Managed IT Services from Bryley Systems

The engineer conducted research on possible technology partners and met with two IT solution providers that presented proposals. He ultimately decided on Bryley Systems and its Managed IT Service offering.

“Bryley gave a professional presentation and clearly explained the multiple levels of service they could offer to match our business needs,” the engineer said. “The Managed IT Service takes the worry of IT operations completely off our plates so that our internal resources can focus on our core business.”

The manufacturer also selected Bryley for it convenient Massachusetts presence, which allows system engineers to visit if necessary. In addition, Bryley’s pricing structure compared favorably to the other solution provider, a large regional firm.

“Bryley also established a stronger personal connection,” the engineer added. “Their team seeks to form a true partnership in which they listen to our business needs and strive to create solutions that balance our technology needs with our business needs. They are also attentive to detail and willing to adapt their service to meet our needs rather than asking us to fit our operations into what they offer.”

For the Bryley Systems Managed IT Services options that the manufacturer chose, Bryley provided managed services for the two servers, twenty-five workstations and the manufacturer’s firewalls. Bryley also managed server backups and the disaster recovery process as well as the workstation anti-malware software and overall network security, providing compliance with most of the technology mandates of Massachusetts privacy statute 201 CMR 17.

The Deployment: Uninterrupted Operations and System Enhancements 

Bryley deployed the Managed IT Services solution with minimal interruption to the manufacturer’s daily business operations. Bryley first benchmarked both servers and all of the desktop computers while making sure not to interrupt each employee’s work day.

Early in the partnership, one of the manufacturer’s servers began experiencing RAID array crashes. Bryley repaired this system and stabilized the server with proper backups. As the second server began experiencing performance issues, Bryley recommended and installed a new HP server with a virtualized operating system.

“Our goal is to eventually consolidate our two severs onto the one HP sever with two virtual instances for each division,” the engineer said. “Bryley will play a key role in this by helping us determine the best way to connect our two buildings so both divisions have access to the virtual server—whether it’s by a fiber, wireless, or an Ethernet network.”

While providing managed services, Bryley has shown it’s adeptness at resolving general technology issues. “As a machine tool-and-die shop, we have a lot of CNC (computer numerical control) equipment with CAD software to program our tool machines,” the engineer explained. “We had machine controllers that did not always communicate correctly with our CAD software, but Bryley helped with this issue – even though it’s outside their primary service offering. Bryley engineers enabled our CAD software application to talk to all the CNC machine controllers.”

The Benefits: Server Costs Reduced and Internal Resources Focused on Core Business

Since partnering with Bryley Systems, the manufacturer’s computer network has run smoothly, and any issues that have occurred have been addressed quickly. “The networks of both divisions run much better than they used to,” the engineer said. “We have experienced very little down time, and that which has occurred has been due to hardware failures of systems that were previously installed.”

In addition to receiving Managed IT Services, the engineer also now looked to Bryley to help determine whether the manufacturer needed to deploy any new IT solutions, and if so, which technology made the most sense. “Bryley’s advice that we virtualize our main server so that it can provide services to both divisions saves us in capital expenses since we won’t need to purchase a new physical server and storage,” the engineer said. “This approach also saves us in the areas of on-going maintenance, support and backup costs.”

Having a partner like Bryley “who is always there” to support the business when needed is the primary benefit that the engineer pointed to. “Bryley takes a big load off of my shoulders, which is important because I’m not always here. And I can’t always divert my attention from engineering tasks.”

The engineer also said that Bryley was very easy to work with, dependable, and always got the job done: “It’s good to have a technology partner willing and able to help in other areas outside of their service contract. They know how to diagnose general technology problems even when they occur outside of their primary area of expertise.”

Side Bar

Major Benefits of Managed IT Services Provided by Bryley Systems:

  • Allows internal resources to focus on core business tasks
  • Creates cost savings with new solutions such as virtualized servers
  • Improves performance of computer network so employees experience fewer interruptions
  • Stabilizes system backups so design work can be recovered in the event of server failure
  • Provides a reliable partner that can advise on new technologies
  • Provides partial compliance with Massachusetts 201 CMR 17.00

 

 

 

For more information, please email Info@Bryley.com or call us at 978.562.6077.