Accountability In Action

CLIENT EXPERIENCES

Real-World Results From Businesses We Support

One way we’re able to relay to others the value of the services we have to offer is by sharing real world results we’ve been able to achieve. We solve a plethora of complex issues on a daily basis, but we’ve highlighted a few below that we feel deserve a bit more attention:

TOO MUCH INTERNET

Nearly all of our clients act as our marketing team, as we operate mainly on word-of-mouth referrals. One of our CPA clients referred us to a daycare center in 2018. While we were going through our onboarding process, we discovered each of the four centers were paying for two internet bills in which both were serviced by the same company. We questioned why this was done, but no one seemed to have understood the reasoning. Instead they were blindly paying for the services.

One of the reasons an organization may have two internet connections is if they desire a redundant failover connection, but that usually occurs with two different providers.

While discussing issues with staff, they mentioned that many times per day their cameras were going offline and creating a great deal of issues. The state requires constant video surveillance for their licensing and this was creating a potential violation.

Once we began troubleshooting the issue, we discovered that one of the internet modems was connected directly to the camera’s NVR. Not only was this a major security concern, but it also created a blackout of all internal cameras when the internet was down which occurred quite often.

Thus, we proposed setting the cameras up on the local network so they would work even when the internet were not working, as well as eliminating the second internet connection at each property. Since we were new to the organization and they had trust issues with previous providers, they were hesitant to act but we were able to convince them of the value of changing the infrastructure.

Based on the recommendations of the previous provider, they overpaid approximately $26,000 in internet fees that were not necessary. On day one of taking over as the new IT management company, we were able to eliminate nearly $8,600 per year in charges and thousands of dollars more to come in the next few weeks of onboarding.

THEY PROFITED FROM A LACK OF TRANSPARENCY

Too often we conduct initial consultations with prospective clients in which the dialogue of the conversations make the hair on the back of our neck stand up in anger.

On a warm summer morning, we visited a local business that was interviewing several managed service providers including us. While reviewing the services the company had, we often ask how much they are being charged due to the plethora of experiences we have had with clients being overcharged, as IT is not their field of expertise.

They discussed their website, marketing, and internet fees which were a bit high but we digress as they began talking about phone services. Their phone services have been provided by the same local communications company for the past 15 years, so there were never any discussions or thoughts from the business owner as to the prices being fair.

When the owner and manager stated they had been charged nearly $2,000 per month for phone service for eight employees, it left our Owner and COO absolutely flabbergasted and thinking it was a total misunderstanding. After asking where the prank camera was several times, they printed off the bills and showed us they were indeed paying nearly $2,000 in monthly phone services.

While it is never our goal to take business from another company, this situation required an immediate need in which we could demonstrate our phone service capabilities and also highlight the price gouging that was taking place from a publicly available company.

Ultimately, the company chose our phone service and now saves over $21,000 per year.

THE $75,000 WEBSITE

Our company has been building websites for the past 15 years. We are very well versed in what it takes to create a website from one page design to complex custom developed sites, as we have created hundreds of them. When a maintenance agreement went sour with an e-commerce company, they commenced the search for alternative providers to fill the gap. Thus, they interviewed multiple companies and we were chosen as the new maintenance company.

Several months later, the merchant informed the company that their website was insecure and easily hackable. Due to major security vulnerabilities they were going to stop supplying merchant services unless the issues were fixed forthwith.

The owners of the company asked us what it would take to fix the website and make it compliant so we conducted an investigative analysis. Once we reviewed the website, we were able to see all usernames, passwords, credit card information, and other personal information that should have been built on an encrypted basis. The website infrastructure itself was built on an insecure framework and did not have any security gates in place to prevent a breach or hack of the website.

Our recommendation to the company was to recreate the website using WordPress. We would be able to match the design, create additional functionality, secure it, and enable the website to load much faster.

The website had a simplistic design and did not have much complexity so we quoted a cost of approximately $4,000. The customer was in shock and did not believe that it could be such a low cost. We inquired further as to what expectations they had and why they felt we could not deliver for the price we quoted. After discussion, they stated they had paid $75,000 for the previous website, even with its many flaws and insecurities.

Out of absolute shock and disgust, we agreed we would build the entire website as promised and the client would only pay 30 days after the website was fully built and in production.

Not only does the new website produce more sales and leads than it did prior, but it passes all security and PCI checks. The client now enjoys having the ability to log in and self manage many of their website features and content.

IT’S TOO DRY

While visiting one of our newly signed clients, we noticed an employee sitting at a computer that we recently purchased and installed. They were editing and uploading product images to their company website. We inquired as to the tasks to see if there was a way we could make the process more efficient, as we look out for DRY tasks.

After discussing with them further, the owner stated he hired the employee to work for 30 hours per week simply editing and uploading pictures to the website. Needless to say, if there is a way to improve and make a process more efficient, we do everything we know how to accomplish it.

We proposed a solution to the owner in which we could auto edit the images, batch rename them with the SKU, and once dropped into a folder, they would auto upload to the website and attach to the products with little to no effort.

While he was surprised at this task, if he could reallocate the employee to customer service or sales, he was willing to give it a try.

Thus, we were able to implement software that would auto crop and optimize images. Secondly, we implemented a software that took the edited files and automatically uploaded them to a website folder without any human manually uploading them one by one as done prior. Finally, we created a custom WordPress plugin that would take images from a folder, look for the naming scheme in the file name, and automatically attach them to their respective products.

With the process we created, the client was able to only spend 5 hours per week on image editing and reallocate the employees time to customer service and sales.

INVENTORY HOME AND ABROAD

A client has a complex sales environment in which each of their products sold has a unique serial number. The client sells their products in store, on their own website, and through several online brokerage sites.

While having a general discussion, the client stated they were having issues managing inventory, as often a product was sold in person from the store inventory while a customer had already purchased it online. Inevitably, the online customer was disappointed and refunded because the item had already been sold.

Using our custom development skill set, we were able to create a system in which all five systems communicated with each other. Using the application programming interfaces supplied by the three brokerage accounts, a custom developed WordPress plugin, and output from the company’s existing inventory management system, we created an up to date inventory ecosystem.

Any time a product was sold on any of the five sales channels, it was automatically removed from all others, preventing the double or triple sale of a single unique product.

This solution resolved an issue that had been occurring for years and eliminated inventory conflicts across all sales channels.

THE SERVER ROOM IS HOT. HOT. HOT.

Several weeks after onboarding a new medical client, we were discussing heat issues in the existing server room. Due to the office being a rental space, they were unable to modify the infrastructure and wanted to move the server room to a new part of the building for improved security, access, and proper ventilation.

For several months prior to meeting us, they had been soliciting quotes for the server room relocation. Many of the quotes ranged from $25,000 to $50,000, stopping the project in its tracks due to the excessive cost. If the issue was not resolved, the company was at risk of losing or severely damaging all of its technology equipment.

Without knowing the prior bids, we stated the cost would be approximately $3,000 for a new server rack and a day’s worth of labor to relocate the equipment. Understandably, they were confused and apprehensive as to why our price was a fraction of the other proposals they had received.

Our team identified that by keeping a single network switch in the existing technology room, installing a small wall mounted frame to hold the switch, and running a few data lines to the new server room, we could meet all requirements to relocate the server environment and its resources.

They were surprised that the solution could be that straightforward and agreed to move forward. We completed the project in a single day, met all objectives, and saved the organization between $22,000 and $47,000 compared to other proposals.

THERE’S THE MILLION WE WERE MISSING

We onboarded a client with the initial objective of resolving their technology related issues. After discussing other needs within the organization, it became clear there were significant frustrations with their existing software provider’s inability to deliver accurate and meaningful data needed for leadership to make informed decisions.

The existing software systems were cumbersome, lacked visibility into key data, contained major reporting gaps, and were missing critical features required for the company to operate effectively.

After discussing our ability to create custom software solutions, the client agreed to allow us to develop several targeted features to resolve immediate operational bottlenecks.

We first created a module that analyzed the existing software data and generated a custom accounts receivable report alongside missing subcontractor documentation. Once the data relationships were established, it was discovered there was over $1,000,000 in outstanding receivables that had gone unnoticed. Subcontractors were being paid, but the company was not collecting payment, creating the false impression that the organization was in poor financial standing.

After the executive team conducted an extensive audit of the software outputs, our findings were confirmed as accurate and praised for uncovering operational and financial issues that had previously gone undetected.

Once the company began recovering the outstanding funds, they recognized our ability to improve operations at a much higher level. They then expanded our engagement to include additional modules such as payroll management, employee and subcontractor document uploads, subcontractor location tracking, missing paperwork monitoring, client tracking systems, and other operational tools.

WAIT… WE DON’T HAVE TO COME TO THE OFFICE?

In September of 2018, we were selected as the IT support provider for a law firm with more than 20 employees. Their existing technology environment was complex, outdated, and far from ideal, but it was functional. Early in the relationship, we explained that continuing to support an aging infrastructure would ultimately be more expensive than transitioning to modern, more reliable systems.

After reviewing our proposal, the partners determined the long term value outweighed the initial investment. We began implementing a new firewall that allowed the entire firm to securely connect remotely when needed, a new phone system with advanced features to improve internal and external communication, upgraded servers for performance and compliance, and several additional improvements across the environment.

Nearly a year later, the COVID 19 pandemic forced many organizations to abruptly shift to remote work, not for days or weeks, but for months and in some cases permanently.

While many businesses struggled to obtain equipment or were forced to keep staff in the office due to being considered essential, this law firm experienced little disruption. Because of the infrastructure decisions made early in the relationship, the firm transitioned seamlessly into a work from home environment.

Employees were able to place and receive calls using mobile applications as if they were in the office, securely connect to the firm network through virtual private network access, communicate internally using Microsoft Teams, and work more efficiently using multiple monitors with their laptops.

The firm expressed a high level of satisfaction and appreciation for the recommendations and systems that had been implemented. They were able to continue operations with minimal downtime, and their clients never felt a disruption in service.

THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE… CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Early in the formation of our company, we worked with a small business client that had purchased a perpetual license for software used to manage their clients and services. The software carried a $15,000 price tag, which was a significant investment for a three person team that carefully evaluated every expense.

Losing even one or two customers would have had a meaningful impact on the company’s bottom line. When one of their team members planned to move across the country with their spouse, the business became concerned. The software license restrictions would prevent the employee from working remotely, and purchasing an additional license was not financially feasible. This would also result in fragmented data and disconnected systems.

We contacted the software vendor to explore possible solutions and were told the only option was to purchase a second license and manually send and receive files weekly to merge data. It was immediately clear this approach would be inefficient and unsustainable.

After researching alternative approaches, we proposed a virtualization strategy. The concept was to create a virtual server that team members could access from the office, home, or anywhere with internet access. When we presented this idea to the software vendor, their development team insisted virtualization was not possible with their system.

Despite never having built a virtual server at the time, we moved forward. After several hours of training, setup, and configuration, we successfully deployed the software on a virtual server and adjusted the environment to allow full remote access without loss of functionality.

The employee successfully relocated across the country and continued working as if they were in the office. In the months that followed, the client expanded their team and supported a fully remote workforce without disruption.

BANK SECURITY = PLAIN TEXT FILES?

When we launched our IT services company in 2010, we performed an initial technology audit for a client whose business focused on resolving financial issues for their own clients.

The client was using industry leading software that claimed to provide state of the art, bank grade security to store and protect sensitive data. When we began our audit, it quickly became apparent that if this level of security truly qualified as bank grade, the economy would be in serious trouble.

While we uncovered numerous security concerns, none were more alarming than when we asked the owner if his social security number matched a specific value, followed by his checking account number, and finally his banking password. The last was an educated guess, as many people reuse the same password across multiple systems, and unfortunately, we were correct.

As the owner processed what had just occurred, we demonstrated how easily all of his personal information and that of his clients could be accessed. If a computer were stolen or compromised, the organization and every one of its clients would have been exposed to significant financial and identity related risk.

ADA OR 80K

We onboarded a client in 2016 that sells custom products online to consumers across the country. Their website was custom built using the WordPress content management system and was difficult to edit or update due to the risk of breaking core functionality.

Over the years, we successfully implemented a variety of customizations to support changes in the client’s operations. Because of the complexity of the site, any infrastructure modifications required extreme caution and experienced development oversight.

In early 2022, the company was hit with an $80,000 lawsuit due to the website not being compliant with accessibility requirements. When the site was originally developed, accessibility tools were limited, and updating the existing infrastructure presented significant challenges.

After legal review, it was determined the website had to meet compliance standards by the end of the year or the company would be responsible for the full $80,000 in damages. While there was a clear path forward, it was not an easy fix given the site’s complexity.

Once a lawsuit is filed, many firms scrape public databases and aggressively market accessibility services using fear based tactics. In this case, multiple unsolicited vendors claimed they could resolve the issues for prices ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, without understanding the complexity of the website.

Understanding the position our client was in, we analyzed the accessibility reports that outlined the compliance issues. We then demonstrated a comparable website that had received a full accessibility compliance certificate after our work.

We were able to resolve all accessibility issues across the entire site, including its complex structure and numerous pages, in a single day of development. Completing the work efficiently saved the company tens of thousands of dollars.

The petitioner was provided with an accessibility certificate of compliance, and the lawsuit was settled under the agreed terms.

FIGHTING TERRORISM

A transportation client faced repeated rejections for C TPAT certification, a critical compliance requirement for their business operations. After receiving proposals from national firms estimating more than 1,000 hours of work and costs nearing a quarter of a million dollars, they turned to Tech365 for help.

Our team took on the challenge by focusing on the technology and security requirements of the certification. We dedicated approximately 220 hours to the effort and worked closely with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security to ensure all requirements were fully understood and properly addressed.

We streamlined the process by developing and implementing clear policies and procedures that met the stringent security standards required for certification, eliminating unnecessary work and complexity.

The result was full C TPAT certification, completed faster and far more cost effectively than the client had anticipated. Our work was formally commended by Customs and Border Protection for the quality of the policy development and implementation.

This achievement secured the client’s compliance, strengthened their operational credibility, and improved supply chain security, demonstrating that complex regulatory challenges can be solved efficiently with the right partner.

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