More than an IT Provider

Verteks Consulting is an integral part of the team for the City of Eustis.

Public-sector organizations have the same IT needs as businesses, but typically have smaller budgets and less IT staff to meet those needs. Finding the right technology provider is crucial to the success of new implementations as well as the day-to-day maintenance and support of the IT infrastructure.

The City of Eustis, Fla., feels lucky to have Verteks Consulting as its technology partner. Verteks President Don Gulling and his team understand the city’s budget and staffing constraints and work hard to deliver cost-effective solutions along with the broad array of skills needed to keep the city’s IT systems humming. Verteks responds rapidly and resolves problems quickly. Just as important, Verteks takes a very personal approach that sets it apart from other technology providers.

“Don and all the people at Verteks have been a great help to us from day one,” said Mike Sheppard, IT Manager for the City of Eustis. “There are just two of us on staff here to support 14 servers, more than 200 users and a pretty far-flung network. We call on Verteks for extra help on just about every type of technology issue you can think of.

“Verteks has always been great when it comes to response time. If something happens and we need them quickly they’re just a phone call away. They never fail to answer with someone who can get us prompt results. You couldn’t ask for better service or support. The Verteks team is part of the crew here.”

State-of-the-Art Solutions

Almost 20,000 people call the City of Eustis home, according to official numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau. But Eustis serves as the hub for several rural communities of eastern Lake County, northwest of Orlando, bringing its actual population to more than 50,000. State-of-the-art technology helps the city provide services to its residents.

A vital link is a 3Com IP telephony system that Verteks Consulting deployed more than five years ago. The phone system replaced a legacy PBX and created a unified voice communications network encompassing all of the city’s operations.

“It links all of us together – the police and fire departments, library, everything – with extension dialing, paging capabilities, everything you need. Plus, it ties into our computer network, which simplifies administration,” Sheppard said. “We were pretty fortunate as a smaller city to have voice over IP before many bigger cities did. And, of course, Verteks was responsible for getting us up and running with this technology.”

The phone system even extends to the city’s recreation center via a wireless network. The Wi-Fi solution saved the City of Eustis the cost of running fiber-optic cabling to the remote site.

Proven Expertise

Verteks Consulting also does a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the city’s IT systems up and running. The Verteks team recently upgraded the city’s network and servers, implementing a virtualization solution that has improved performance, increased reliability and simplified management.

“We were outgrowing our server farm,” Sheppard said. “We’d had a file server crash, and our Exchange server was getting near the end of its life, too. Verteks was able to get us good deals on two nice HP servers, and with virtualization we’re able to run Exchange, SQL Server and our other server systems on two boxes as opposed to eight. It has given us a smaller footprint and saves on electricity and other costs.”

Verteks also replaced the city’s nightly tape backup system with a disaster recovery solution that provides both onsite and remote backups. The system backs up all of the city’s servers every 15 minutes, and enables instant loading of a backup image in the event of a hardware failure.

Sheppard says Verteks takes the lead on these projects, from design through product sourcing to implementation and support. He trusts the Verteks engineers to steer the city in the right direction in terms of technology. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, with an Advanced Network Infrastructure specialization, Verteks has well-recognized industry credentials in addition to a proven track record of success.

“I totally trust their ability to handle all of our IT needs. They know our environment, understand our requirements and have done an all-around good job,” Sheppard said.

A Broad Range of Skills

Verteks Consulting also provides the city with a broad range of skills and years of hands-on experience. That makes working with Verteks more cost-effective than hiring additional staff.

“If I wanted to go out and hire another person, it would cost more than it does to bring in Verteks,” said Sheppard. “Plus, we’re getting the expertise of not just one person but their whole staff. That’s a real win, all the way around.

“That’s why we decided to use Verteks as a backup help desk. If we are busy or on something else they can take help desk calls and either create a ticket or remote in and take care of the problem if possible. It provides better service to our end-users and improves productivity and efficiency in the long run.”

Public entities often struggle to keep pace with technology change and maintain their computer systems for efficiency, security and performance. The City of Eustis faces the same budget and staffing constraints as other government agencies but has found all the IT support it needs with Verteks Consulting. With extensive experience, top industry certifications and rapid response, Verteks helps the city derive maximum value from its IT investments.

Solution Summary

State-of-the-art IP telephony solution links all of the city’s departments and locations with extension dialing, paging capabilities and more, and unifies voice and data on a single network for easier administration.
Virtualization enables the city to consolidate application onto two new servers, resolving capacity challenges while reducing costs.
Disaster recovery solution provides both onsite and remote backups. The system backs up all of the city’s servers every 15 minutes, and enables instant loading of a backup image in the event of a hardware failure.
Verteks delivers turnkey services, including design, product sourcing, implementation and support, and serves as the city’s backup help desk.•As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, with an Advanced Network Infrastructure specialization, Verteks has well-recognized industry credentials in addition to a proven track record of success.