How a company solved issues with network — and vendor — performance

For the IT manager at a large engineering firm, one of the many straws that broke the camel’s back was a 200 MB printer driver installation file. It resided on the environmental consulting firm’s server, and he tried to access and run it from another location. It stalled. Then, he tried to copy it from the server to a local computer before performing the installation — and it took 30 minutes. “Several decades ago 30 minutes wouldn’t be a big deal, but now, that’s not acceptable,” he says. “Today, in a business environment, you expect almost instantaneous access for a file that size.”

The company had been dealing with this type of challenge for quite some time because of insufficient bandwidth. It had a 10 Mbps MPLS network connecting its two South Carolina offices and 10 Mbps fiber internet service at both locations. The Greenville office, where all the company’s data and systems were hosted, routinely used 85 percent of the network’s bandwidth, leaving very little for staff in the Columbia office who needed to frequently access data from the company’s laboratory information management system (LIMS). Doing anything within the system — including something as simple as clicking on a dropdown menu — resulted in significant lag time.

Moreover, the IT manager received frequent complaints about errors generated by the company’s custom Excel applications when they would sync with the company’s server. He was confident it was related to the firm’s bandwidth issues.

“Ten Mbps, that’s just not enough bandwidth for a business with 60 people in two locations,” he says. “They’d have to wait between every click, every action. I knew there was just no way they could be productive working like that.”

The IT manager knew that to fix the problems, he needed to upgrade the bandwidth provided by their existing MPLS network — and he tried. But his service provider was unresponsive. “The bills were going up significantly every two to three months, but the services were not getting any better,” he says. “Whenever I reached out to the vendor, I was told I had to talk to my customer advocate. But I could never get that person to respond to email, telephone or anything at all.”

He was determined to find a partner who could not only provide a scalable network solution, but who was also responsive to his requests, and would collaborate with him to address his challenges. His search brought him to Spectrum Business.

A highly recommended provider becomes a trusted partner

The IT manager spoke with IT professionals, vendors and colleagues he trusted, and all of them highly recommended Spectrum Business for connectivity solutions. “Everyone I spoke to agreed that Spectrum Business was the number one choice,” he says.

These recommendations gave him confidence Spectrum Business could provide the solution he needed, but could they deliver the level of customer service he needed as well? As he soon found out, they backed up their solutions with knowledgeable and experienced individuals who provided the support he felt his business deserved. “Since our very first meeting with Spectrum Business, our account manager has gone above and beyond for us,” says the IT manager. “He’s always been willing to answer any question, any time. And if he can’t help me, he gets me in touch with the right person.”

The IT manager collaborated with the Spectrum Business account team to come up with a connectivity solution that would deliver the needed bandwidth, speed and reliability. Because the firm is reliant on a private server in the Greenville office, the Spectrum Business engineers chose 100 Mbps Spectrum Business Dedicated Fiber Internet (DFI) service to replace the prior vendor’s 10 Mbps internet service at that location. The dedicated, symmetrical high-performance connection was a perfect fit for critical, data-intensive applications.

Employees in the Greenville and Columbia offices also needed seamless collaboration across locations. The IT manager and the Spectrum Business team turned to a private, high-capacity, point-to-point 50 Mbps fiber Ethernet network to replace the 20 Mbps MPLS network. “I was fairly certain fiber-based solutions were the way to go,” he says. “The Spectrum Business team made sure we got the best solution for our setup. They put a lot of effort into making sure we had the right things.”

Throughout the implementation process, Spectrum Business continued to prove it could provide the level of support the engineering firm required. “All the people I’ve worked with have been very helpful,” the IT manager says. “The tech support people have all been good. Compared to what we came from, it’s been almost a dream.”

Built for what’s now and what’s next

The switch to Spectrum Business has benefitted the engineering firm in more ways than one. Today, files download quickly no matter what size they are. Employees in the Columbia office are much more productive now that the LIMS isn’t experiencing significant latency. “It’s a night and day difference,” the IT manager says.

And complaints about Excel errors have stopped. “As soon as we made the switch to Spectrum Business, the problem basically disappeared. “There’s been a 95 percent reduction in support requests from our Columbia location.”

The IT manager is also taking advantage of the solution by deploying more cloud-based applications from Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Teams. “The greater bandwidth we have available makes it possible to use these applications,” he says.

The fiber network further proved its worth when the pandemic first hit in March. “We had employees working from home and didn’t have any bandwidth issues,” he says. “With our previous vendor, I don’t think our CEO would have approved even five minutes of anybody working remotely because of the bandwidth issues. I tried working from home outside of regular hours when we were still with them, and it was very rough.”

Looking back, the IT manager knows he picked the right technology solutions and partner. “It was definitely the right choice at the right time,” he says. “The overall experience has been very good. I would do it again.”