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 CASE STUDY FOOD BANK OF THE ROCKIES |
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| Customer Profile: |
The Rocky Mountain region’s largest food clearinghouse, providing food
supplies to more than 900 hunger relief
programs. |
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| Business Situation: |
Antiquated software and hardware solutions
causing unnecessary user downtime and
interruption of workflow. |
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| Solutions: |
Design and implement a technology solution
which will utilize new hardware and
software technologies and will provide a stable network environment
for years to come. |
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| End Result: |
A highly available computing platform
has significantly reduced ongoing support
costs and increased end-user productivity.
An ongoing system replacement plan
ensures that the Food Bank will not be affected by aging computer
systems. |
The Food Bank of the Rockies, with its staff of 35
employees and over 1000 volunteers, supports 900
food relief agencies in the Rocky Mountain region.
The Food Bank operates a 37,000 square foot facility
in Denver, Colorado, with regional distribution centers
located in Grand Junction, Colorado and in Casper,
Wyoming. Previous IT support was handled by smaller consulting
firms that did not have the technical expertise to
design lasting and forward-thinking IT solutions.
When
the Food Bank decided it was necessary to design
and implement a new IT infrastructure, they looked
to BNC’s engineering
staff for guidance. Hardware failures were becoming
more frequent, causing significant downtime for the
base of end users.
The management team realized that their current computer
systems were nearing their end of their life expectancy.
One
of the major challenges the Food Bank faced during the
design process was the significant hardware and software
costs associated
with implementing a new IT solution. As a non-profit
organization, the Food Bank continually strives to
keep operating
costs at a minimum in order to maximize their effort
in donating to the needy. Fortunately, they qualified
for a major grant
initiative with Microsoft that allowed the Food Bank
to acquire the necessary desktop and server software
licenses necessary for their migration. Without this
donation, this project would have been difficult, if
not impossible, to implement.
BNC’s engineering staff began the design process by analyzing the business
processes and requirements for the organization and
identifying areas that needed improvement. From this
discovery, we designed an IT solution that would
replace antiquated systems and provide a platform
for future growth. The overall technology plan would
require the technical expertise and design input from several members
of BNC’s engineering staff.
The first phase of the migration plan was to replace
the aging server infrastructure with a highly available
and redundant design that featured Hewlett Packard
NetServers. Key business applications were isolated
on individual servers to improve performance
and to balance the load across the network. Networking
hardware was replaced with faster Ethernet switches
and a firewall to protect corporate data. The previous
tape backup solution that consisted of individual
drives in each server was replaced
with a high-speed, singe-drive design that reduced
media and overall support costs.
Once the server infrastructure was in place, all
desktop workstations were either upgraded or replaced
with new systems. Operating systems and desktop applications
were also upgraded to utilize the latest in software
technologies. This updated hardware
and software platform provided a level of technology
reliability that they had never experienced before.
We
also determined that the Food Bank would benefit
greatly by moving their messaging system in-house.
By utilizing the features
and functionality built into Microsoft Exchange Server,
users have been able to collaborate and exchange information
in ways that they never could before. Having departmental
information available for the entire staff has improved
communication and increased workflow.
The implementation of these hardware and software
systems has dramatically reduced the support time
necessary to support the Food Bank network. A stable
IT platform combined with a consistent and ongoing
maintenance support plan has also eliminated recurring
problems and helps identify smaller issues before
they become larger ones. We also helped reduce the
support costs by decreasing their hourly labor rate
and implementing solutions that allow our engineering staff the ability
to access their network remotely.
All of our solutions are unique to the companies
that we work with. The Food Bank of the Rockies is
just one more example of how BNC increases efficiencies and cuts costs.
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