MSI Managed Services: Breaking out of the Ordinary Shell When it Comes to Outsourcing

Today's businesses expect more and more out of their IT departments-despite the tight or shrinking budgets allocated to step it up. Overhead expenses make it tough for companies to go after market share while keeping up with all the services, security and uptime that go with the job description. Many IT personnel turn to outsourcing for these services, often without realizing the cost trap they are setting for themselves.

"Unlike business partners we've had in the past, it was clear MSI wanted more than to simply sell products. It was a matter of what we needed and what would serve us well into the future." - Beth Gritton
CIO
Harvest Manor Farms (HMF)

MSI Systems Integrators (MSI) has created a smart alternative for these companies wanting to break out of the ordinary and get more from their technology partner. Focused on infrastructure simplification and ongoing HA support, MSI's Managed Services offer a cost-effective layer of protection that enables IT organizations to keep their core business applications running, overhead costs low, and business growth within reach.

The alternative has worked very well for Harvest Manor Farms (HMF) in an engagement with MSI focused on enhancing the customer's infrastructure platform, server migration and HA for e-commerce. Based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, HMF buys, processes and sells Virginia peanuts, almonds, pecans and other nut-related products under the national brand names Hoody's and Original Nut House.

The Challenges

Prior to meeting with MSI, HMF's return on investment and ability to acquire new entities were stifled by an expensive outsourcing program that only provided the expertise of two people. More troubling, it lacked an HA component, demanding nightly backups and downtime, and did not have the capacity to handle expected growth. MSI's team was brought in to help HMF re-evaluate the economies of outsourcing, establish e-commerce, and build the needed HA infrastructure to support it.

In a nutshell, HMF wanted a solution that would:

• Enhance Web presence
• Position HMF for future growth and business acquisitions
• Ensure HA
• Offer real-time replication of information
• Increase overall customer satisfaction

What HMF did not realize was how little the company was getting for how much it was paying for the outsourced solution. Competitors were well into the world of online ordering, HA and real-time replication. With an eye on future business growth, HMF embraced a set of on demand objectives designed to beef up customer satisfaction and return on investment. It was time to offer customers more... more uptime, more online options, and more reliability without the maintenance fuss.

HMF chose MSI for its proven expertise and the rapport it had already established with MSI. Plus, MSI offered something the previous outsource vendor did not-an entire company dedicated to the solution. Not just during the deployment, but rock-solid infrastructure support as a permanent fixture.

The MSI Solution

MSI helped sort through the challenges and develop a strategy by first inviting HMF to a briefing at MSI's Technology Enablement Center (TEC) in Bloomington, Minnesota in September of 2004. Here the customer was able to fully visualize the value of MSI's Managed Services/HA solution over its existing one.

"Experts at MSI showed us new technologies of which we were unaware," said HMF's Beth Gritton, Chief Information Officer. "These technologies really came in handy during implementation."

HMF decided to bring the complete workload in-house and utilize MSI for implementation and managed services. HMF now leans on MSI's Managed Services team for all of its internal core business applications including 24/7 HA, monitoring, systems administration and support.

Specifically, MSI created a WebSphere based e-commerce site leveraging an iSeries i520 migration with OS/400; WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Application Server; Tivoli Enterprise Console; xSeries with VMware; Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) on the iSeries; BRMS for tape backup; IBM Director and Tape; and a host of ongoing monitoring, managing and testing services.

MSI delivered added confidence by leveraging HA software and integration support from one of the world's top developers of iSeries HA and continuous availability solutions- iTera™ Communications-to implement and manage the environment. This relationship promised the customer mandatory scheduled role swaps between systems and the added comfort of a remote iSeries that maintains a replicated copy of the production data.

This particular iSeries solution addressed the infrastructure component by providing a responsive and resilient on demand platform that supports HMF's business goals for high availability, guarantees real time information access, and positions the customer for its e-business on demand strategy.

The Benefits

HMF now has access to an entire company of experts, not just two heads, as well as online ordering, surefire HA, and real-time replication-at basically the same cost the customer was paying for its previous outsourced program. Simplification of the IT environment and improved support through MSI's Managed Services team were important factors in HMF's decision to acquire a rival company, House of Almonds. At the time of the initial engagement, HMF was ready to grow the business, but needed to establish e-commerce and a HA infrastructure that would support it. MSI delivered on both the technical expertise and the ongoing support to make this growth a reality:

"I have a very small staff... three people including myself," explained Gritton. "We basically outsource everything and need the high level of technical expertise that MSI provides to us. They also work directly with our employees as necessary; they have been a complete solution provider for my company."

In addition to growing market share, HMF has seen improved ROI and customer satisfaction. By Web enabling traditional back-office systems into an on demand Web site, online sales and simpler ordering processes have brought a boost to HMF's earnings. And with fewer outages and quicker recovery windows, the customer buying experience has become a very positive one.

The solution simplified the entire IT infrastructure, allowing HMF to operate core business applications at a lower overall cost. All of the customer's HA and backup solutions are now monitored and managed at MSI's Network Operations Center in Omaha, Nebraska. In addition, MSI proactively tests the availability of the systems once a quarter to ensure maximum uptime for the client.

The solution gave HMF a significant market share jump and allowed the client to execute on a new acquisition within just a few months, the ideal business success story in any industry vertical.

The MSI Managed Services team can provide one-time, prime-shift, off-shift or 24/7 coverage addressing client core business needs in the following areas:

• Scanning and Analysis - System "health checks," infrastructure evaluation, security scanning, penetration tests and other reporting performed on a one-time, monthly or quarterly basis
• Operations Management " Support - Remote infrastructure monitoring, backup/recovery management, user administration, change management and help desk services
• Systems Administration - Remote infrastructure administration, application/patch management, capacity/performance tuning, device management and technical support
• Disaster Recovery - Collect and send eServer data to storage, testing of recovery procedures and administration of recovery in the event of an incident
• High Availability - Implementation and management of an HA environment, perform scheduled role swaps and leverage existing or MSI-provided systems

For more information on how the MSI Managed Services team can help your organization, contact an MSI Managed Services specialist at 800.640.4674 or visit us at www.msiinet.com.