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Service Directions, Inc. (SDI) is an award-winning provider of laundry room design and management services to thousands of buildings throughout the New York tri-state area. SDI does more than just provide washers and dryers; they provide custom-designed laundry room solutions... with leading-edge technology. SDI's dedication to superior service has guided their growth for more than 50 years.
In 2006, Service Directions consolidated their operations from two locations into one state-of-the-art facility in Yonkers to accommodate their growing customer base. Soon after, SDI decided to invest in a technology infrastructure that would help them maintain their superior level of customer service through this growth period. BBH Solutions was called in to assess SDI's Business IT needs and create a solution that would align with their growth and objectives.
"Security and back-up were primary concerns of ours," said Steven Jagde, Service Directions' COO. "We had no standardized or centralized file storage procedure, and a great deal of our information was being saved locally on our 35 end users' desktops."
Staff members that have access to SDI's customer service, operational, and administrative AS400 applications were working on terminals placed alongside their PC desktops and local printers. The resultant productivity and cost concerns added to SDI's desire for a more robust network.
After evaluating SDI key staff members' operational objectives and existing technology, BBH engineers designed and implemented a Citrix thin-client solution that consolidated file sharing, applications and print operations. BBH installed a new Microsoft network with Small Business Server, and two load-balancing Citrix Servers for high availability and full tolerance. End users can now access all applications, including AS400 for their designated user groups through their new Windows XP desktops.
With their new centralized method of file sharing and storage and the installation of Symantec's Backup Exec, SDI now has a standardized data protection process. "Now we back up our files every night, and the tape goes offsite to a secure location," said Mr. Jagde.
The thin-client setup has helped SDI streamline their process of introducing new employees into their system as well. "Before the Citrix solution, when we brought on a new employee we had to go through a long process of cleaning up the PC left behind by the previous staff member," said Mr. Jagde. "Now this process takes us minutes. When someone leaves the company, we simply disable their account. When we hire someone new, all we have to do is create a new user account with the specific rights to the group they are joining. That's one less headache that frees up my time to concentrate on business rather than to act as SDI's ad-hoc network administrator."
Since the implementation, SDI has realized savings on some hidden "soft costs" as well. "With our new network, we were able to eliminate 35 desktop printers and install six centralized network devices," said Barry Heller, SDI's VP of Sales and Marketing. "This has saved us a tremendous amount of money in ongoing print cartridge purchases."
Service Directions has retained BBH Solutions as their technology partner for ongoing monthly network maintenance. "One of their engineers comes in every month to review our list of priorities and take care of regular maintenance," said Mr. Jagde. "BBH does a great job of understanding our needs, communicating to us what the solution will be, and giving us a time-frame as to when the work will be completed."
The best part about working with BBH Solutions, according to Mr. Jagde- "BBH told us what we were going to get, and delivered exactly what was promised. As a service organization itself, that is most important to SDI."
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