The Challenge

GDA Engineers was steadily growing and opened a branch office in Utah. In the transition, the network administrator left to follow other pursuits. With the new branch office struggling to have a positive user experience, the company sought out a managed services provider (MSP) in hopes of meeting its IT needs; however, instead GDA felt that the MSP took its monthly fees and never really fixed anything. Desiring someone in-house to handle IT, GDA advertised for an IT administrator position, but did not receive qualified applicants. In the interim, a local computer engineer built its computers and helped to put out IT fires. Reaching the breaking point and needing more than the company was receiving, Klay Nelson consulted with another company that was utilizing HEO Tech and was greatly satisfied with the service it had received.

The Solution

After consulting with Jeff Honcoop, Klay knew that HEO Tech offered a different approach to IT. The HEO Tech team took time to gather a wealth of information about GDA that would be used in a business analysis. Focusing not only on the information technology areas of the business, but the business as a whole, the approach helped to ensure that the IT change suggestions not only improved IT, but helped to alleviate some of the other issues that the company might have been experiencing.

Using the information gathered in these sessions, in addition to great scrutiny over network and technology areas of the business, the HEO Tech team prepared a proposal of problem areas and suggestions for improvement. All areas were detailed and backed with specific reasons for the recommendations. Klay appreciated Jeff’s honesty and candid approach regarding the company’s needs. Some of the areas of improvement included upgrading servers to a virtual environment and creating backups and redundancy where there had been none. HEO Tech improved existing software where possible, like reworking SureSync to be used to its max potential. In addition, enterprise-level Meraki systems were installed in job trailers, helping to improve efficiencies.

The Results

The new system improvements significantly helped the productivity of the company. Klay was careful not to blindly adopt changes without fully understanding the reasoning behind the recommendation. This push-back was welcomed by Jeff, as it gave him the chance to further explain the theories behind the suggestions. HEO Tech understands that working with individuals that are fully engaged in the process will only make implementation go more smoothly. In addition to improving the technology areas of the business, HEO Tech helped to ease the transition from a 60 year old company having an in-house IT administrator to outsourcing the responsibilities. The transition was close to seamless and the HEO Tech team continuously provided GDA with status information that was used to prepare employees’ expectations. This open communication was instrumental in easing the burden of change on the employees; knowing what to expect ensured that employees were not surprised as the changes were executed. All of these improvements and implementation of better products for the industry ultimately positioned GDA for acquisition by T-O Engineers, based out of Idaho with offices in four states.