Connected Office Success Stories

National Canadian primetime news program CTV News profiled The Utility Company and our unique way of using technology to deliver technology services in a cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner. See Paul Brent, host of CTV’s Tech Now news segment, explain it in his words...

The Utility Company has long lobbied and strived to have technology support service, in the form of Managed Services, be treated as a professional occupation. To build to this stature we are doing our part to build trust with our professional customers. If you own a professional services company isn’t it time you received technology service, support & advice from a fellow professional? Full Professional Services Success Story...

Accountants are the trusted business advisors of the world.  Their clients need to have absolute faith that the numbers they divulge in his or her office will be handled with the utmost care and security.  Robert Hall & Associates of Glendale, California understands that their clients’ trust hinges on both their expertise and their ability to safeguard their critical information. That's why they turned to Utility...Full Accounting Success Story...

“We have contracted technology support in the traditional block service model for years,” stated Marcel Castonguay, Partner at Hamel & Co. “This model works well if you are not reliant on technology to operate your business. The Utility model really brings us into the 21st century by proactively monitoring and remotely managing the infrastructure we have, while trying to reduce its complexity and cost with solutions like online back-up and other hosted applications and services. We have moved away from wild variances in fees and service levels to a predictable, insurance-like model with The Utility Company.” Full Accounting Success Story...

“We signed on with The Utility Company when our IT support person left, resulting in a 60% annual savings in our technology services,” stated Greg Powell, President and CEO of Municipal Tax Equity Inc of Georgetown, Ontario. “We are very pleased with the level of onsite and remote support we have received along with the predictability of fixed fee managed services for our network, desktops, security and data back-up. Moving from the convenience of an internal IT resource to the Utility service model has been a smooth transition and one I would recommend to any company under 50 employees.” Full Consulting Success Story...

The Utility Company visited Thorn Ford Dental Laboratory in Seattle, Washington and presented their owner Loren with an option to manage all his company’s IT needs for a fixed monthly fee. The Connected Office “managed” program wasn’t necessarily something Loren had been searching for since he took care of most IT issues himself at the time but the concept of no longer having to deal with all his daily technology headaches personally was appealing, even if it meant a new fixed expense. A little over a year and almost 300 support cases later, we asked Loren how he enjoyed no longer being the “go-to-guy”... Full Dental Success Story

Barnett Engineering Ltd. is in the business of designing, manufacturing, and distributing site monitors and controllers, voice auto dialers, and alarm reporting units that are installed in critical monitoring applications world-wide. Like so many other small and medium-sized companies (SMBs) Barnett Engineering did not have a ‘defacto IT person’ but instead had one of their full-time Engineering Technologists operating as a 50/50 Technologist/IT guy. When this Technologist decided to leave in early 2008 that left Barnett with a decision to make. They asked themselves ‘how do we fill the void on the IT side of things when there wasn’t really enough work for a full-time IT person?’
Full Engineering Success Story...

Regulatory compliance, overtaxed Exchange servers bogging organizations down and moving to proactive (versus the traditional reactive) support are a just a few of the issues addressed in the Connected Office for the financial institutions story. Full Financial Services Success Story...

Connecting multiple offices, HIPAA compliance issues and Network Audits to uncover huge annual savings - these are just a few of the ways Connected Office is helping Medical Practices. Full Healthcare Success Story...

How does a well-established leader in the Insurance industry maintain it’s competitive edge? Bradley’s Insurance is one of the largest and best-known insurance brokers in Eastern Ontario and Western Québec. With multiple locations and a reliance on both their network infrastructure and their insurance-specific software, the management of their IT infrastructure wasn’t trivial. The Utility Company approached Bradley’s once in the past and the idea of having a The Utility Company experts proactively monitoring their infrastructure and being always available resonated with Ray Shannon – the VP and partner in charge of Bradley’s technology needs. When Ray heard that The Utility Company’s technicians had certified the specific line of business software packages that Bradley’s relies on the most, he was ready to make a change.This success story details how Connected Office for Insurance helps make Bradley’s even more competitive and also talks about the switchover process for their employees in getting used to “A NEW WAY” of receiving technology support. Full Insurance Success Story...

Tired of inconsistent & inconvenient service from ‘Big Box store’ IT service providers, Kaleva Law Offices discovered A NEW WAY. Being a niche legal firm, isn’t a large office – however their technology needs are the same as those of large practices – namely they are completely reliant on their technology to be productive and to bill for working hours. At their size, they didn’t have the need, or the budget, for a full or even a part-time time IT employee. For the past several years they have relied on the technology service providers dispensed from the “big box stores”. This, according to principal Elizabeth Kaleva, led to several major issues... Full Legal Success Story...

In the real estate industry both brokerages and individual agents rely more and more on technology to make their clients happy – to get the sale. With increasingly technically-savvy clients looking for up-to-the-minute notifications on potential homes that meet their needs (especially in hot markets with competition for listings), the individual real estate agent simply needs their technology to work – and when they need help, they need it NOW. One such agent is Dennis
Tarrant of Coldwell Banker. A full time, full service Realtor, Mr. Tarrant saw the value of the service right away and shares his experience since signing on with The Utility Company.... Full Real Estate Success Story...

Over the years, the IT needs of Mission Valley Ford Trucks of San Jose, Californa, continued to grow but their infrastructure didn’t necessarily keep up. Additions were made as needed, however changes weren’t made in a controlled or planned fashion with an eye towards the overall health of the system. The dealership was relying on a “break-fix provider”, a single individual, to come in a couple of days a week, on their own schedule, to make changes, perform updates and see to user issues. When it started to become apparent that they couldn’t always rely on a single individual who gave them sporadic service, they began to come to grips with their true reliance on technology. Mission Valley began assessing options with an eye towards a more strategic and proactive solution. That’s when another dealership owner recommended he talk to The Utility Company...
Full Automotive Success Story...

Mr. Janitorial of Toronto, Ontario describe why they iniitially brought The Utility Company in as a stopgap during their ‘IT guy’s’ planned leave of absence, but ended up going ‘fully managed’ in order to concentrate on customer service - not their technology issues.
Full Distributor Success Story...

Knight Enterprises is one of Canada’s most successful independent media production companies. They produce innovative, captivating and highly stylized lifestyle programming for stations such as The Food Network and HGTV. Although physically headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, the company is always on the move - going to wherever their next TV production takes them. They have a core staff that requires constant technical support but their team grows as each production requires it. Knight’s VP of Business Affairs, Sheldon Speers, overheard a radio interview with The Utility Company’s and decided to bring us in for what amounted to a ‘sanity check’ on his then current provider. His original intention was to verify that they were getting good value from his existing IT supplier, but the lure of Utility’s TRUE fixed-fee pricing, in combination with the extra value of TUC’s Connected Office programs, led Knight to make the switch.
Full Entertainment Success Story...

Founded in 1939, the Biloxi Housing Authority (BHA) works together with the City of Biloxi, various civic organizations, local businesses and banks to aggressively solve housing problems in Biloxi. The tragedy of Katrina - where the Biloxi Housing Authority lost approximately 60% of its housing units - only made the BHA’s mandate even more crucial to the well-being of Biloxi’s most beleaguered residents. In the wake of Katrina, the BHA turned to The Utility Company of West Tennessee to begin planning their infrastructure updates - and completed them well in advance of this year’s threat, Hurricane Gustav... Full Housing Authority Success Story...

From an 'in-house' IT person, to 'out-house' provider to the Utility model... JIT Manufacturing has come full circle as they moved from Tactical, to Reliant to Strategic use of technology. Full Manufacturing Success Story...

Texas Motor Transportation Association of Austin, Texas was founded in 1932 as an advocacy and lobbying firm representing the Texas Trucking industry that currently employs one out of every 14 workers. Tracking legislation on Capitol Hill and communicating their efforts to their large membership makes uptime and connectivity essential to its day-to-day operations. So what happens when Nigerian Spammers were able to take over their communications server? Read how Utility came to their aid in this Non-Profit Success Story...

Metcalfe Realty Company Limited. (MRCL) has met the growing needs of one of Canada’s major real estate markets since 1949. As a full service developer and part of a larger group of companies, Metcalfe offers expertise in every area of commercial real estate: leasing, marketing, project finance, tenant coordination, operations and maintenance. MRCL is a 60 year old company that has an expansive range of services and years of solid experience in property management and development. As part of a larger group of businesses, the MRCL group of companies has a very diverse set of technology needs. With over 80 full-time employees in multiple locations, communications and the ability to share documentation/information is key to their effective use of technology. One invaluable aspect of our partnership has been the monthly 'Virtual CIO' visit. Read the full Property Management & Development Success Story...

Documents Majemta Incorporated (DMI) opened their doors in March 2006 and quickly became a trusted and reliable print and document service provider in the National Capital Region (Ottawa, Canada). Prior to partnering with The Utility Company, DMI had used a couple of ‘break/fix’ IT service providers in hopes of saving some money. After a string of disappointments, DMI found these providers either weren’t certified or didn’t have the skillsets they needed. But perhaps more importantly, they couldn’t react quickly in an industry that required immediate customer service. Read how Utility met DMI’s unique needs & helped them land a $400, 000 translation contract.

Reeves Brothers Trucking is a 30+ year old transportation company based in Lexington, Tennessee. The trucking business may not, at first blush, spring to mind as an intensive user of technology. However, over the years of doing business, Reeves has become more and more reliant on technology until today where all of their trucks are now tracked real-time via the internet. So what happens when a transportation company with over 150 trucks finds its' technology needs were starting to exceed their level of support?
Find out in the full story of 'Black Monday'.

Afterburner began as a motivational speaking/training company but quickly evolved from providing seminars for motivating sales teams to strategic development and eventually to helping their customers with HR placement options.  At one point in their evolution (or “continuous improvement” as they like to say) they brought in a COO who started to build an internal IT development team.   This approach wasn’t universally accepted internally and eventually the COO and his team left the organization - leaving Afterburner with plenty of semi-wired infrastructure but no one to plan for its usage or run it.  For a company dependent on satisfying Fortune 500 customers like Microsoft® and Home Depot® they understand the value of technology, the need to protect their client’s data and their reliance on communications to respond instantly. Read the full Afterburner Success Story >

The founders of The Utility Company have long felt that the owners of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) deserve to have access to the same type of technology services that enterprises can afford – namely proactive managed services.  In fact, our very business model was predicated on creating a way to scale down enterprise-level managed services with a unique approach to serving our customers.  Our other long-standing belief was that today’s technology service providers are not held in the same light that other professionals are – despite the level of access they are granted to your organization.  As of late 2008, we’ve taken one giant step towards rectifying that perception…
Full story on becoming one of the first MSPAlliance-Accredited Master MSP's in North America.

For years, The Utility Company has made it clear that our goal is to become the Trusted Business Technology Advisor to small and medium-sized businesses across North America.  We don’t (and aren’t) simply another service provider to your organization - instead we partner with you to build a better business (by making intelligent IT choices).  Thanks to the kinship we share with our customers we’ve realized that we are in a position to further aid our partners who run Associations by helping them help their members, with an increasingly important, but often overlooked, part of their business.  Read about our new Affinity Program and a Success Story from two early adopters of the Program.

The mere notion of “having to” call a helpdesk is something that can bring tears to the eyes of grown men and women. Generally speaking, trying to walk someone through a problem you are experiencing, using only the telephone, is never a fun task. The Utility Company is doing its best to change that perception with our refreshing 1-866-My-Utility and 1-866-My-Utility Per Minute live helpdesk service...
Full Customer Satisfaction Success Story...

When you have a technical problem who do you turn to? Local community newspaper for Peterborough, Ontario, SNAP, decided to dial 1-866-My-Utility and experience firsthand the power of remote computer support - on a strictly usage basis. At only $2 per minute, SNAP was so intrigued and overjoyed at the result, they wrote an article themselves on their experience. Full Per Minute Success Story...

Many service providers will claim to be managed services providers (MSPs) offering proactive technology support, but most aren't really proactive. Why do YOU need proactive IT services? Our customers explain what the value of true managed services is to them. Full Proactive Support Success Story...

Moving to a new service provider can be a frightening prospect for any business - but it doesn't have to be... A professional services corporation relates their story and welcomes the professional switchover after an initial betrayal!. Full 'Professional Services Corporation Experiences a Professional Switchover' Story...

Every company is unique and therefore asks different things from their technology in order to go about their daily business effectively. At The Utility Company, we take a consultative approach when meeting every prospective customer and then strive not only to meet their immediate needs but help prepare them for their future needs as their trusted technology advisor. This case tells the stories of three very unique customers.
Full 'Unique Needs' Success Story...

After an internal exodus left them with plenty of semi-wired infrastructure but no one to plan for its usage or run it this company made the move to a Virtual Exchange solution to best meet their dispersed team's vast communications and collaborative needs. Read the full Virtual Exchange Success Story...