Bringing the Business Into the Digital Age
When Vic Kedaitis, President and CEO of World Wide Material Handling, launched his company in 2010. His accounting firm recommended Digimite Managed Services. The referral came just in time, as Mr. Kedaitis had an urgent need to bring his business–which manufactures and facilitates the wholesale distribution of industrial warehouse equipment–into the digital age.
“We came from a very rigid and antiquated culture that did not allow for adaptation to a rapidly changing tech environment,” Kedaitis said. “We had a need to understand current IT and communications as they related to our industry, quickly and thoroughly.”
These needs included creating and maintaining the website, new and existing operating systems support, along with a stable and highly available network environment that would ensure consistent communication and up time. So, Digimite got to work.
Installing CRM and ERP
Before working with Digimite, World Wide Material Handling was relying solely on off-the-shelf software to manage its financials. But as David Castaldi, CFO of the company, soon realized, a business of their size needed a more robust system that allowed move visibility – faster.
“We have multiple stocking locations of our product,” Castaldi said. “We needed something that would give us stability and extract data easily—all things we needed to have as a business.”
That’s when Digimite took charge of installing CRM and ERP solutions which now account for the company’s stable enterprise platform, sophisticated marketing efforts, improved customer interaction, and up to the minute insight on all the key metrics of the business.
“Digimite was on point with the back-end, and with the software consultants,” Castaldi said. “They’re the experts on server configurations.”
As he described the upgrade from off-the-shelf software to a fully functioning CRM/ERP, “It’s like going from a Yugo to driving a Mercedes.”
Maintaining the Infrastructure
Daily, World Wide Material Handling depends on five different servers that service well over 75 devices (VOIP, mobile, laptop, desktop) across multiple locations within the United States – and for mobile employees, across the world.
These servers host email, CRM/ERP, and the databases for the software platforms. They must be monitored and managed properly, otherwise the company loses valuable time and revenue.
“Digimite’s main function is maintaining that the servers and workstations are operable,” Castaldi said. “If there are any errors, they are alerted to it and troubleshoot it.”
Similarly, if there are any issues on workplace computers, the company can just call Digimite’s 24/7 US based help desk, and resolve it right away.
Implementing a Virtualized Environment
With these servers storing all of the company’s most important information, World Wide Material Handling had to be sure that the data was redundant, safe, and backed up efficiently.
For instance, at one point, the business rolled out a CRM update, and found that it wasn’t working properly, which ultimately was causing disruption for World Wide Material Handling’s clients. “If we had a virtual environment, we could have reverted to the snapshot.” Castaldi said.
To prevent this extensive downtime from happening again, Digimite installed a virtualized infrastructure, which now provides complete failover, redundancy, and backup storage for the enterprise.
Savings – the Bottom Line
In addition to running these major projects, Digimite also monitors the company’s Cisco phones, mobile devices, and remote connections for traveling employees. They even upgraded the corporate facility with Gigabit Ethernet/CAT6 backbone during a renovation.
In other words, by working with Digimite, World Wide Material Handling has access to its own competent and responsive IT team that can handle any technological need—and at $65,000 less annually versus hiring adequate staff needed to support their business..
“Because we did not have the resources to develop our own IT staff, the services of Digimite were critical as it allowed us to realize the benefits of current efficient technologies while focusing on our own core competencies.” Castaldi said.