Hsu’s Ginseng traditional farming methods supported by a fully modernized network

Customer Spotlight

Did you know that ninety-five percent of our nation’s ginseng crop is grown in Wisconsin, and 90-95% of Wisconsin ginseng is grown in Marathon County. Hsu’s Ginseng Enterprises has been supporting Marathon County ginseng farmers since 1974 and selling its products across Asia and the United States. As the company grew, their operations stretched over five states and one Canadian province. 

As a result, it became harder to manage communications and provide adequate bandwidth in a geographically dispersed enterprise. The ginseng producer partnered with Spectrum Enterprise and decided on a variety of managed solutions that can tackle even the toughest connectivity and bandwidth needs of the modern international business climate.

Today, although the product is still grown in traditional “gardens,” the operations that support the entire enterprise are run on a secure, modern, managed network, and company communications are managed with Spectrum Enterprise Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). 

“Right now, our partnership with Spectrum Enterprise is allowing us to move forward without having to hire more staff. I’m fortunate to have the Spectrum Enterprise team that we have here in Wisconsin. They all understand our business, ” says Mike Klemp-North, Vice President Administration and Facilities at Hsu’s Ginseng Enterprises. “Our IT department is very small, just three people, led by an amazing bilingual staff member.” 

The Spectrum Enterprise team provides Hsu’s a consultative approach to designing, implementing, maintaining and protecting the network. “If the Internet were to go out in Hsu’s LA branch, I’ll get an alert immediately, and we can resolve it by just submitting a ticket,” he explains. “Spectrum Enterprise will get support staff out there, and our LA staff doesn’t even need to worry about it. Before, they had to call somebody and who do they even call? They don’t remember who the vendor is, and their primary language is not English. Instead of calling four or five providers, I can just submit one ticket. Or, even better, I’ll get a text from Spectrum Enterprise saying, ‘We know this is down, we’re working on it.’ And that is incredibly helpful.” 

The ginseng industry in the United States is at a crossroads today. Like many other agricultural sectors, individual growers are disappearing, and the Hsu family mourns the loss of their fellow family farmers. Overall, the industry has not experienced sustained growth. But helping the Hsu family and their company continue to grow is where we come in. For instance, Hsu’s Ginseng and their Spectrum Enterprise partners are currently investigating how best to use their new modernized network and Managed Network WiFi for better humidity and temperature control of ginseng during the ginseng preparation process.   

Hsu’s Ginseng has been able to thrive, in part “due to the use of Spectrum Enterprise solutions and services, all of which allows us to focus on, and control, operational costs,” explains Klemp-North. He looks forward to further growing our relationship, adding, “One of the things that has worked well with Spectrum Enterprise is that with the support teams folks, I have that connection I need to gain the true value in our partnership.”

Klemp-North continues, “Right now, the partnership with Spectrum Enterprise is allowing us to move forward without having to hire more staff. I’m fortunate to have the team that we have here in Wisconsin. They all understand our business.”

Read the case study to find out more about our successful partnership with Hsu’s Ginseng Enterprises.