What do you look for in an IT provider?
Tina Gayler, Information Systems Manager for Furniture Country Galleries, expects her IT provider to be knowledgeable, experienced, responsive and thorough. After hassling with a number of less-than-qualified technicians, she found all of those qualities in Verteks Consulting.

“I called a guy I trusted and asked him to recommend a good technology provider. And he said, ‘Call Verteks Consulting. They’re wonderful,’” Gayler said. “So I called them, and I was happy with what they had to say. We decided to give them a try and it’s been a wonderful relationship ever since.”

"Verteks had to earn my trust but they’ve done a great job. I’m a big Verteks fan.” Tina Gayler, Information Systems Manager for Furniture Country Galleries

Talk Gets Cheaper
That was nearly five years ago. Since then, Gayler and the Verteks team have worked together on a number of projects that have brought cost savings, increased efficiency and reduced risk for Furniture Country Galleries. Chief among these projects was the implementation of a 3Com voice over IP (VoIP) system.

“As our company expanded we needed to look at new voice technology that could help us work a little smarter and save money in the process,” Gayler said. “We talked to Verteks and determined that voice over IP was the best solution.”

Because the VoIP system routes voice calls over Furniture Country Galleries’ WAN, all of the company’s locations operate with a single, unified phone system. That saves long-distance charges between its stores in Ocala and Leesburg and warehouse in Wildwood.

“We communicate with each other a lot, so this system is saving us a substantial amount of money just on our internal calls,” Gayler said. “Plus, when our delivery department calls customers, the system routes those calls through the local store’s phone lines so it’s a local call.”

Many Benefits
The 3Com VoIP system provides other benefits as well. It enables Furniture Country Galleries’ staff to contact each other by dialing an extension versus a 10-digit phone number. It also provides each person with voice mail.

“We have a large sales staff, and taking messages for them was a huge headache,” Gayler said. “The voice over IP system enables us to set up voice mail even for people who don’t have a physical phone.”

The VoIP system is also easy to maintain. Gayler can handle many of the moves, adds and changes herself.

“The system we had previously was pretty antiquated and making modifications was difficult. I had to have somebody come in and help me,” Gayler said. “Now I can make changes myself — and if I have a question Verteks can usually talk me through it over the phone. It’s convenient and saves money because I don’t have to call somebody out every time I have a question or problem.”

Gayler says the VoIP implementation went smoothly, and that the system has worked well. She credits both 3Com’s technology and Verteks’ expertise with the success of the project.

“I did a lot of research going into this project and was concerned that there might be more issues than there turned out to be,” she said. “Verteks is very knowledgeable, very capable. Their technicians do a great job.”

Double Vision
The continued expansion of Furniture Country Galleries drove another IT project — the implementation of a redundant server and network-attached storage solution. The system is designed to help minimize downtime and improve data backup processes.

“We’ve been fortunate but downtime happens to everybody at some point. We wanted redundancy so that if we were down we could be back up in hours versus days,” Gayler said. “As a small business we have one primary server. If it goes down, we have three sites with more than 100 people who aren’t working. That’s a big concern.”

Verteks played a key role in helping Gayler design and implement the redundant server solution.

“They did the legwork for me,” Gayler said. “They built a redundant server that had dual everything — from processors to hard drives to power supplies — to reduce the possibility of failure. They then built a secondary backup server so that if the primary server did fail we could restore a backup image and be back up and functioning within a matter of hours. They also designed a network attached storage solution so that I have a constant backup even if my tape backup fails.

“Verteks did another outstanding job implementing the new hardware and software. We were able to get everything done in the timeframe we had allotted.”

Look! No Wires!
Verteks has also helped Furniture Country Galleries take advantage of 3Com wireless network in its new warehouse facility.
“This solution enables our warehouse staff to use PDAs to access inventory information, do receiving and a whole host of things while they’re walking around the facility,” Gayler said. “The site plan Verteks developed was key. This is a large building — 60,000 square feet — and two-thirds of it is 40 feet tall. There is a lot of open space and also a lot of racks with product in them. We had some concerns about coverage, but Verteks came up with a great solution.”

The real magic with the 3Com wireless switching system is that it enables roaming. With other wireless systems, a user would have to manually reconnect to the network each time he moved to a different zone.

“With this system I have continuous network access no matter where I go,” Gayler said.

Proven Partner
Gayler says these projects exemplify the high quality work performed by Verteks’ technicians as well as the firm’s dedication to service. With about 50 end-users and a WAN to support, Gayler relies on Verteks for advice and support, as well as project-based work.

“I am the whole IT staff, and if I didn’t have Verteks I’d probably go crazy,” she said. “I can call them and if they can’t help me over the phone they are always willing and able to send somebody quickly — in some cases immediately. Every technician who comes out knows what he’s doing and sticks with the problem until he gets it resolved.

“I was very skeptical at first because I’d had bad experiences with technicians in the past. Verteks had to earn my trust but they’ve done a great job. I’m a big Verteks fan.”