Staffing Firm Enlists SMBology’s Technical Aptitude and Project Management Capabilities during Transitional Period

Company Overview

SMBology’s client is a staffing firm specializing in recruitment, recruitment process outsourcing as well as human resources consulting. The company provides solutions to Fortune 100 firms and small-to-medium-sized businesses operating within the financial, telecommunication, energy, retail, and technology markets.

Established in 2005, this firm was originally formed to manage the staffing and recruiting division of a telecommunications company. In 2007, this telecomm company was purchased by AT&T. Despite the acquisition, the staffing firm continues to operate as an independent company and remains under its original ownership.

Business Challenge

After AT&T’s acquisition of the telecomm organization, the staffing firm (client) chose to stay in the office building once shared by both companies, retaining a significant portion of the telecomm company’s IT infrastructure. In the time following, the firm did little to maintain these acquired assets, with much of its infrastructure being underutilized. Additionally, the staffing firm had limited documentation of passwords, licenses, and architecture relating to the inherited infrastructure, proving to be an organizational challenge.

Simultaneously, the staffing company was in the process of renovating its current building to create spaces that could be sublet to tenants, as it had a large amount of vacant office space due to the sale of the telecomm organization. To make the spaces more desirable to potential lessees, the company requested that all tenants be able to have secure Internet access. Security was paramount and information would need to remain secure between tenants, despite the fact that all occupants within the building would have to share the same cabling infrastructure.

The staffing firm selected SMBology to be its proactive IT partner. In particular, SMBology was chosen for its high level of business acumen, strong technical skill set, and ability to conceptualize and steward the organizational change necessary.

SMBology Solution

SMBology was engaged by the client during a crucial period in which the client’s business was changing substantially. The engagement proved more challenging due to the fact that SMBology’s client was not able to retrieve and provide documentation for the residual IT infrastructure previously owned by the telecomm company. Lacking fundamental information, SMBology followed standard industry best practices to retrieve the necessary data, produce required documentation, and update passwords on multiple vendor platforms.

To facilitate the firm’s reorganization, SMBology performed an initial IT audit, resulting in a recommendation that the client consolidate much of its unnecessary core infrastructure in order to better support its needs. SMBology collapsed the business’ IP infrastructure into one segment, executed a complete Active Directory audit to remove legacy computers and domains that no longer existed, as well as standardized desktop configurations with Active Directory Group Policies. In doing so, SMBology created a solid infrastructure system serving as a foundation upon which the company could continue to expand in the future.

Concurrently, with the building’s renovations partially complete, SMBology was asked to assist with the IT planning and implementation for the unfinished tenant suites. During this process, SMBology recognized a lack of oversight with regards to the strategic planning and organization of the company’s renovation project. After consulting with the client, SMBology was able to effectively fill this void. Using technical project management capabilities, SMBology provided coordination between the various IT equipment vendors and the building contractor to ensure a successful end result for all tenant spaces.

These efforts were completed while keeping security best practices in mind. Addressing the need to supply secure Internet access to the different tenant spaces all sharing the same cabling system, SMBology created private “virtual” networks for each designated tenant suite. This implementation leveraged preexisting/unused network devices, eliminating the need to purchase upgraded equipment while saving the client time and money.

Results

SMBology’s employed its technical expertise and consulting abilities to successfully consolidate and organize the staffing firm’s inherited assets as well as facilitate the company’s development of tenant spaces. SMBology reduced the complexity of the client’s internal environment to provide minimal maintenance costs and created an automated, robust infrastructure better suited for the company’s current and future needs.

Well-defined processes allowed for a streamlined delivery of IT resources during the building’s renovation, taking the burden away from the company’s management team. Additionally, by leveraging and repurposing the existing equipment, SMBology was able to reduce the company’s capital expense of its IT infrastructure by more than 10% as well as provide secure Internet access to all tenant spaces.