Staffing Agency Email System Upgrade

The Context

As the economy rises and falls companies have learned that it sometimes makes more economic sense to outsource their staffing requirements, increasing and reducing head count as business needs dictate. Others forego the traditional Want Ad for people and leave the bulk of the recruitment and screening process to staffing agencies who know how to identify top talent.

The Situation

The Bernstein Group staffing agency offers an intelligent alternative to temp agencies, costly consulting firms and Big Four Accounting firms. They help companies in need of assistance in all areas of finance and accounting. If your project requires expertise and functional experience, then you can expect their highly-skilled finance and accounting professionals to work with you to deliver results in an efficient and cost effective manner.

The Bernstein Group founders have been providing staffing solutions for more than 20 years, and the Company currently maintains offices in California and New York, providing services to companies throughout the West and East Coasts.

With multiple office locations and over 150 consultants in the field with Fortune 500 companies, a reliable, comprehensive messaging system is needed for staff to communicate with each other and customers to maintain a steady stream of talent and client prospects. Recruiters and sales staff must have ready access to these prospects through a robust customer relationship management (CRM) system while the finance department must be able to collect time card information for accurate and timely billing.

The Problem

The existing legacy messaging system was clunky and difficult to manage. Any changes, like adding an email account for a new employee involved a day or two wait and a costly invoice form their current IT support provider. Spam protection was billed on a per mailbox basis at $10 per month and there was no thorough anti-virus solution or control of employee Internet access. There was no standard for a shared company calendar – some used one program while others used another resulting in no reliable way to schedule meetings, interviews or appointments with customers. Office computers and servers were antiquated and misconfigured leaving huge security holes in their network and data vulnerable to attack from internal and external threats. Their existing provider was charging them thousands of dollars per month but wasn’t delivering much in the way of value.

The Selection

A thriving multi-million dollar organization like The Bernstein Group needed world class IT systems, but not a world class price tag. With a strong referral from a colleague, the CFO called Plexus IT in for a meeting to discuss how their environment could be optimized for security, reliability and ease of management. After a conference at their office, the CEO and CFO knew Plexus could deliver what they needed for much less money than they were currently paying.

The Results

Within weeks Plexus was able to bring stability to their network and implement an easy to manage in-house email system built on Microsoft Exchange Server that allowed designated personnel to easily add email and user accounts with appropriate levels of security. Exchange included Outlook Web Access, a comprehensive, web-based version of the Outlook email program allowing reliable communication between office and field staff. Exchange’s ActiveSync technology makes connecting mobile devices like iPhones,Blackberries and Android-based phones simple and secure. If the phone is lost, Bernstein staff can remotely wipe email from the phone to protect sensitive information.

With a branch office and some office staff working remotely,Plexus was able to replace their costly remote access system with Microsoft’s built-in Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Terminal Server. This secure solution cost very little to implement and unlike other solutions like GoToMyPC, involves no recurring subscription fees.

Gone were the ongoing charges for anti-spam with the implementation of Trend Micro’s solution to control malware entering the environment. With an added Internet Gateway Appliance, every bit of data is scanned before it enters their network and web access is closely monitored and controlled to be sure staff are not accessing inappropriate content.

By the way, Microsoft was so impressed with the work Plexus did for the Bernstein Group that they conducted two case studies to demonstrate the success of this project and featured our efforts on Microsoft.com

Call today to learn more about what Plexus IT can do to ensure your computer network is fast, secure and reliable: (310) 853-8822.