How Adhering to Best Practices Improved Outcomes for a Mechanical Insulation Company

In this case study, a mechanical insulation organization faced several IT challenges, including remote access issues, poor communication with its external help desk partner, and inadequate disaster recovery solutions. The company desired a proactive IT strategy to align with its planned growth and acquisitions. Framework IT implemented foundational cybersecurity tools, updated their internet, and began migrating their on-premises servers to Microsoft Azure cloud, resulting in reduced expenses, fewer help desk tickets per employee, and improved staff efficiency. 

Introduction: 

The Mechanical Insulation organization was founded in 1958 and is one of the largest commercial contractors in Chicagoland. The business provides mechanical insulation services, including HVAC and plumbing insulation, fire-stopping, insulation removal, and repair, energy audit and efficiency services, and more. The company has experienced significant growth in the past two years, with a 34% headcount increase. It is actively looking to acquire smaller companies in the industry to expand its market reach. 

Business Challenge: 

The company’s hybrid on-premises and cloud server environment caused remote access issues for staff, which impacted productivity. The organization had an external help desk partner that was reactionary and had poor communication, which resulted in micromanaging IT issues internally and wasting key staff members’ time. The IT partner consistently missed essential steps during staff onboarding, leading to poor employee experiences and wasting internal resources’ time. The organization lacked proper IT asset tracking and documentation. The disaster recovery solution was also inadequate and left the company vulnerable.  

The organization desired a more proactive IT strategy to plan a technology roadmap, budget intelligently, and align with planned organic growth and acquisitions. The company wanted to move entirely to the cloud but struggled to unwind from its current setup.  

Company leadership sought a long-term relationship with a reputable IT company to help transition to the cloud, provide professional support to keep staff productive and drive a technology strategy that would allow the business to scale effectively. 

Framework IT Solution: 

Framework IT took on this organization at Framework’s Level 4 Optimization (least optimal) and immediately replaced all Windows 7 computers to improve performance and security. 

Framework IT worked with the organization to roll out missing foundational cybersecurity tools, like multi-factor authentication, email security, and security awareness training to prevent cyber threats. 

To improve the office connection speed and reliability, Framework IT worked with the organization to implement dedicated fiber internet for improved speed and reliability. Framework also deployed a new cloud-managed firewall with a comprehensive security bundle and upgraded to cloud-managed Ubiquiti switches to separate traffic between devices with different security and bandwidth priority levels.

Framework IT has now begun migrating the remaining on-premises servers, storage, and applications to Microsoft Azure cloud, eliminating remote access challenges for overseas staff and improving their staff’s experience. Once the cloud migration project is complete, the company’s file shares will be moved to SharePoint. The client will have drastically reduced capital expenses on infrastructure and optimized IT management spending by achieving Level 1 Optimization. 

Results: 

By adopting Framework’s best practices, the organization has reduced expenses and eliminated many technology challenges that were sapping staff productivity, resulting in 55.2% fewer help desk tickets per employee and 48.7% less help desk time needed to support their needs. Since adopting business-grade internet, staff has worked more efficiently, and the organization has experienced no downtime. With many longstanding challenges resolved, the organization has grown its headcount by 25% since partnering with Framework IT. 

These initiatives allowed the organization to move to Framework’s more favorable Tier 2 pricing structure and reduce IT management expenses by 30%. Once the cloud migration project is complete, the client will reach Framework IT’s Level 1 Optimization (most optimal), thus decreasing the managed services expense by ~ 40% since the start of the agreement. 

Conclusion:  

Adhering to best practices has helped this Mechanical Insulation contractor overcome its IT challenges, achieve improved outcomes, and reduce infrastructure and IT management costs. By partnering with Framework IT, the organization improved its cybersecurity, network speed, and reliability, allowing the company to work more efficiently, reduce expenses, and grow its headcount while transitioning to the cloud. The project’s success has positioned the Mechanical Insulation company to achieve its future growth plans while minimizing IT management costs.