Company

The telecommunications company was established in the early 1900s by a farmer in rural Ontario. Frustrated with Bell’s inability to provide local phone service to his farm, the farmer decided to start his own phone company. The company began in the farmer’s kitchen and has since grown to provide phone, long distance, networking, Internet, security, and cable TV services to residential, and small and medium businesses across mid-western Ontario. Still located in rural Ontario, the company stays true to its roots and prepares its fifth generation to take over the family business.

Situation

After being in business for a number of years, the company noticed that the existing data infrastructure could not scale and maintenance costs were escalating. To ensure continued customer satisfaction and sustain its growing operations in a highly competitive market, the company needed a reliable, high availability network and server infrastructure, as it was apparent that the current network had outlived its usefulness.

The company needed to satisfy a number of requirements. The Business Continuity Plan demanded redundancy and diversity through two Data Centres located 15 miles apart. At the same time, the company was growing: it was preparing to venture into new locations and expand business in a competitive arena where customers demand a robust network. In order to achieve these goals, the company realized it was time for a major network makeover.

Solution

The telecommunications company needed a business that understood the situation and would be able to provide a practical solution at the best possible cost. NetPulse recognized the challenge and presented the company with a proposal that included, not only well thought out restructuring plans, but also implementation, training, and Tier 3 support required to meet the company’s needs.

NetPulse has been providing Tier 2 Technical Support services to the company since 2003 and had already proved itself as a reliable and trustworthy partner. “We chose NetPulse not only because of the price, but because NetPulse demonstrated confidence in their ability to complete this task within the required timeframe.” says the company’s General Manager. “What influenced our decision was the solid expertise and dependability of the NetPulse team.”

Within three months, NetPulse’s team had completed the engineering, design, and implementation of the new network infrastructure. A seamless transition from the old network to the new one ensured minimum impact on the company’s customers. The new infrastructure included two identical core server groups – one for the primary site and one for the backup site.  Each contained new mail, web, and DNS/DHCP/Radius servers. The infrastructure delivers full redundancy and automatic fail-over for the Layer 2 and Layer 3 data backbones and server farm via a fully mirrored Disaster Recovery site. In the event of primary site failure, the new architecture will switch over to the backup site with complete transparency and without intervention from Network Administrators.

On the security front, NetPulse provided a solution that was designed specifically for the company’s high-volume ISP environment. NetPulse equipped the company with world-class commercial network security solutions that provides real-time detection and prevention of viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, and hacker intrusions. To combat spam, NetPulse installed TrueMail™, NetPulse’s state-of-the-art spam control and management system that eliminated spam with 99%+ efficiency. TrueMail™ operates in “failsafe” mode so in the unlikely event that the device fails, mail is still routed to the mail server. The company received device training and maintenance from NetPulse and was supplied with User Guides and FAQs to get the company’s staff familiarized with the new solutions.

Following the implementation process, NetPulse continued to provide technical support and training until the company’s staff was familiar with the new network.

“NetPulse met deliverables on technical build-up, customer service, cost effectiveness and follow-up,” says the company’s Network Manager.

Result

Revamping the old network proved to be a worthwhile investment. Since NetPulse’s involvement, the company’s high-speed Internet customer base has increased more than 400% and customer churn has been reduced by over 30%. The company’s attributes these successes to the fact that the new infrastructure allows its sales teams to deliver on their promise of a robust network – customers are now on a solid and secure network and are happier with the service. The company also achieved its goals in expanding to new territories with five new towns added to their footprint. There are plans to expand to four more towns across Ontario. The company has a 75% uptake rate for services offered to new customers despite going up against other, more established Internet Service Providers in some of these towns.

The new network has opened doors of opportunity for the company, allowing them to work towards adding voice services, based on VoIP technology, to their service portfolio. As the telecommunications company plans to embark on launching its unique version of VoIP services, it has become apparent that the new network provides a level of reliability and quality that the old network was simply not capable of.

“We’d recommend NetPulse to any organization looking for network redesign or implementation, as well as anyone looking for Tier 3 Technical Support. NetPulse is responsive, knowledgeable and highly effective.” concludes the company’s General Manager.