Managing over $10 billion in IT infrastructure worldwide, we are the leading provider of IT support and independent maintenance services for Fortune 500 companies, large businesses, carriers, US Federal Agencies, and the back line support provider for almost all third party support companies.
As a prestigious leader in the financial brokering and trading industry and long-term client of Arch Technology Solutions, this European-based company requires 100 percent uptime to ensure that both their clients and their employees have access to the tools needed to perform at their best. The $2 billion company operates in both financial and commodity-related markets across the globe and leverages the power of their worldwide network to provide clients with detailed insight into local markets and ensure the most lucrative buying and selling decisions.
At the point of engagement, the client relied upon a service level agreement (SLA) provided by a third-party and the SLA of their hardware vendors to ensure near-immediate responses to technical support needs and fast hardware replacements.
However, the SLA was costly and with hardware sourced from four different vendors (Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, and Juniper) the client was often at the center of a finger-pointing match when something went down.
To ensure necessary business support, some of the client’s hardware needed coverage that guaranteed replacement within four hours, while other aspects of the business could continue to operate utilizing failover equipment for up to twenty-four hours.
Other areas of the business required twenty-four support but could continue to operate effectively with next-day hardware replacement coverage. However, gaining access to twenty-four hour support required the purchase of four-hour hardware replacement coverage. This forced the company to over-spend on coverage in one area just to get the support it needed in another.
To further complicate matters, the client found that their third-party SLA focused on hardware replacement, an aspect already covered by the service agreements included with their purchased equipment, instead of technical support and expertise. As a result, the costs of maintaining a seemingly adequate level of coverage were going up while service levels were going down.
The client needed a provider with expertise in technical support, hardware support, and SLA application to ensure the optimization of both their technology support assets and budget.
Arch Technology Solutions experts performed an assessment to determine the client’s coverage needs. To ensure accuracy, Arch’s experts reviewed the client’s in-house hardware, business processes, and operating procedures.
With a comprehensive understanding of the client’s coverage needs, Arch Technology Solutions experts reviewed each of the client’s existing service agreements, both those provided by third-party vendors and those included in the client’s hardware purchases. The experts at Arch found that, in many cases, the client was paying for coverage that was identical to that included in the purchase of the hardware. They also found that while many aspects were “double-covered,” some hardware and service situations were not covered, and thus created vulnerabilities within the business.
The solution implemented by Arch is ongoing. Initially, much of the effort focused on cleaning up redundant coverage, ensuring vulnerabilities were eliminated, and holding existing service providers accountable to their agreements. Arch Technology Solutions cleaned-up old service tickets, resolved connectivity issues, corrected part failures, and implemented on-site spare provisioning to provide immediate access in the case of a failure. Currently, support often includes troubleshooting, security enhancements, network optimizations, and upgrade and patch installations.
As equipment ages-out of existing vendor SLAs, it is added to the Arch Technology Solutions service and support agreement. Arch’s support now includes a dedicated, technical assistance center team to ensure the client’s consistent access to Arch engineers that are familiar with the client’s equipment, business needs, and network architecture.
