Networking Customer Speaks
Internet access is critical for Grand Rapids, MI based Griffin Transportation and its subsidiaries Accurate Truck Service and River City Equipment Sales. How critical?
“We can lose as much as $100,000 an hour if we don’t have connectivity,” said founder and president Craig Scholten. “It’s vital to our businesses.”
Griffin is a full-service ground transportation company that provides dedicated truckload and logistics services to customers with dry van freight needs. It currently operates 75 tractors, 200 trailers, and partners with additional carriers to deliver freight nationwide.
Earlier this year, issues with Griffin’s outdated phone, network, and Internet came to a head, and Scholten began the search for an IT provider to update their infrastructure. “There were two factors that helped us win Griffin’s business,” said Kevin Damghani, co-owner of IT Partners, a Grand Rapids based Datto Partner. “First, they were looking for a single managed service provider to handle all of their technology needs—that’s us. Second, they wanted to be certain that they’d have top-notch technical support. We partner with vendors that are focused on uptime, because that’s the core of our business. With Datto we can get support in seconds.”
Once onboard, IT Partners conducted an assessment of Griffin’s network, which revealed a number of vulnerabilities and opportunities to increase productivity. “They had a variety of IT pain points,” said Damghani. “But, having highly available network and Internet was the primary focus.”
Additionally ITPartners+ upgraded the company’s 14 year old phone system to a current VoIP system.
“I wish we updated the phones years ago. The new system is user friendly and there’s no hiccups,” said Jeri Smith, Administrative Assistant, Griffin Transportation. “If the phones go down everything comes unglued. When you look at the cost vs benefit — it’s so much better.”
Many small to medium sized businesses lack in-house IT acumen and struggle with outdated or poorly implemented technology. Depending on the nature of the business, this can have a major financial impact. IT managed service providers can recommend, implement, and maintain technologies that ensure SMBs are always up and running.
“Sometimes SMBs just look at Internet downtime as part of doing business,” said Christopher Morris, Network Engineer with IT Partners. “Datto gives us a product that changes the perception of what’s possible when it comes to downtime.”
