LANserve - Accounting Recovery services, Lease compliance, Auditing, Accounts management, Indirect tax operation

We’re The Experts Call Us Now 1300 133 966
Medium Business Scenario PDF Print E-mail
This company is a firm of financial advisor's, based in Melbourne, which specialises in providing financial advise and strategies to the corporate market.

The company was set up in 1990 and employs 30 staff, 12 of which are fee-earning contracters. Jeff Lawson deals with the administration side of things, which ranges from facilities management to I.T. support.

The Benifits
Emerging IT's' first step was to audit and recommend some modifications to Financial Advisors network, before offering the firm I.T. support in the shape of its new LANserve service. LANserve incorporates Remote I.T. Management and Monitoring technology.

The LANServe service is aimed at small to medium enterprises and enables Emerging IT to monitor customer's computer networks remotely, provide them with anti-virus protection, identity management and network asset management. Should problems arise, it also covers I.T. trouble-shooting and support by means of a helpdesk service.

After taking advantage of Emerging IT's free IT systems Audit, Lawson arranged and ordered the LANserve Platinum Care Plan. Lawson explained how the scheme worked: "Most of our data is stored on the server, but all files coming in and out are monitored every day for any potential problems and to make sure the system is running efficiently. If there are any issues, I can also just call a LANserve Technician and they will dial in instantly and sort them out."

Moreover, LANserve sends Financial Advisors a report each time it dials into the network, which is important for security reasons. (Lawson requested the reports)

Security is an important issue for us because we hold privileged information about clients. But Emerging IT don't have access to that information - it's only concerned with the network and can't get into other areas because they're password protected," Lawson said.

The reports are also useful to him because they show exactly what LANserve is doing, which files it has opened and which buttons to press. This he says "has been a good teaching device for me. It's given me a nice learning curve. It also means we have a very secure system in place and one we can monitor because of the reports we're being sent, so we know who is doing what, when and where".

But if Financial Advisors wants to introduce new software or hardware to the network, it simply informs their LANserve Technician of the addition and support is provided immediately. For example, the company is currently evaluating the possibility of enabling staff to work from home by allowing them to dial into a virtual private network to access the server remotely.

The LANserve Remote I.T. Management service has proved invaluable for Financial Advisors because the continual monitoring that it provides ensures that I.T. systems are always up-and-running.

Lawson explained:
"The biggest return is knowing that the system has become more efficient and available. The business couldn't run without these systems, which means that the stability and integrity of the network is absolutely vital. If it goes down, people can't do the work they need to do, but there's usually time constraints on activities in the legal profession, so we need it on full-time."

He adds that the service is a cost-effective one, especially as Financial Advisors would not be able to justify hiring a full-time member of staff purely to handle I.T.

"It's a good investment and is a lot cheaper than hiring a full-time person. While I could do 70 per cent of the work, it takes me 10 times longer than it does the LANserve people," Lawson said.

But he has also found it as a useful tool for being able to bounce new ideas off people. "We want to use technology to make us more efficient and it's useful to be able to chat to people who advise how people do things in different organisations and who will advise me on whether they think something will work or not," he added.

The support staff at Emerging IT are "first class" in his opinion and "very approachable", and unlike rivals elsewhere "don't just tell you 60 per cent of what they're doing to try and protect their own expertise. They give you the straight answers you want and in full".

As a result, Lawson considers Financial Advisors experience to be a success story. "I can't praise the LANserve Remote I.T. Management service enough. Wish we could have done this years' ago because it's greatly reduced any headaches I've had. We're pretty well covered now, which is reassuring because, with the whole business moving so fast, it's always difficult to know what's round the corner," he concluded.
 
[ Back ]