Testimonials

“The move of a corporate office is not a small undertaking . … Computer Business coordinated the move so well that we began the move Friday and were up and running Saturday—one day early.”

– Lisa Sells, Executive Assistant, Schmid Construction

Schmid Construction Taps Computer Business to Move its IT Infrastructure to New Corporate Headquarters

Situation
In 2002, brothers John and George Schmid joined together to found Schmid Construction. Since then, the company has grown exponentially into one of the largest general contractors in Central Florida.

The family-oriented company, which started with three employees, has now grown to 79, constructing exceptional buildings throughout the Southeast. In addition to Florida, the company holds construction licenses in Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia.

Schmid Construction recently built its own new corporate headquarters to house its growing staff, as well as staff for its subsidiary companies. One of the challenges the company faced was moving IT infrastructure for its own operations, and those of its subsidiaries, from its old building to the new one over a weekend.
“We needed a team to move the servers, the network, install the server racks, run the wires, set up Wi-Fi throughout the building and establish robust security and backup, says Lisa Sells, Executive Assistant, Schmid Construction.

“The move was to begin on a Friday night, and everything had to be up and running by Monday morning. People here were concerned about what they would do if there were any delays.
We had to be ready to go on Monday.”

Solution
Schmid Construction relied on its long-time managed services provider Computer Business Consultants to make the move. Although others were concerned about what-ifs, Sells says that she was confident because of her years of working closely with Computer Business. “I had absolute confidence in Computer Business because they are so professional and dependable,” Sells says. “We have worked with them for several years and they always come through—quickly and efficiently.”

Six months before the move, Sells began conferring with Computer Business, keeping them posted on what needed to be done, and the progress of the new corporate headquarters building. She asked Computer Business to work with the six other vendors—including the internet service provider and the company pulling network cables—to ensure that all tasks were coordinated and ready to go prior to the weekend move. As is standard, Computer Business took the lead in scheduling and coordinating regular project meetings with all parties involved in the weeks running up to the move. Some elements of the project included:

• Security. Computer Business implemented tight cybersecurity technology across the IT infrastructure supporting Schmid and its subsidiaries. Security measures included creating network isolation between Schmid and its subsidiaries. Computer Business also integrated SonicWALL DPI-SSL deep packet inspection, to stop threats over encrypted channels and to protect bandwidth.
• Backup & Disaster Recovery. Computer Business implemented a robust backup and disaster recovery system that includes secure real time synchronized backups to onsite as well as off-site cloud-based servers.
• Wireless Deployment Design. Computer Business analyzed the floor plans for Schmid’s new corporate headquarters and created a design for Wi-Fi deployment, optimizing security and location of access points. The full-building design, serving Schmid and its subsidiaries, included isolated protected networks for guest Wi-Fi and a separate protected Wi-Fi network for employee personal devices such as their mobile phones.
• Network Update & Redesign. Computer Business’s pre-planning for the move included analysis of existing network infrastructure, upgrading gear as needed, and designing a more efficient and secure network.
• Separation of VOIP from Data. Computer new network design included separating Schmid’s voice over IP (VOIP) telephone network from its data network to enhance security.

Throughout, Computer Business worked closely with the vendors, including:

• Internet Service Provider
• Low voltage vendor
• VOIP phone vendor
• Building access control vendor
• Building security cameras vendor

The planning and coordinated effort paid off. Sells notes that the IT infrastructure move to the new building went smoothly, in fact faster than anticipated. This meant when Schmid employees arrived at their new corporate headquarters Monday morning, everything was ready to go.

Benefits
Schmid Construction has enjoyed a number of benefits from working with Computer Business, including the company’s professionalism and integrity, dependability, proactive security, and great customer support.

Professionalism and Integrity
Sells praises the professionalism and integrity of Computer Business and its employees. “Sometimes in business you find a lack of integrity,” Sells says. “So it is refreshing to work with a company like Computer Business which has exceptional professionalism and integrity. You can just tell by talking to Clinton Pownall [President and CEO of Computer Business] and his team that they have the highest integrity and that they are there to help you succeed.”

Dependability
Years of working closely with Computer Business meant that Sells could depend on the move going smoothly and on time. This, in turn, helped her to deal with nervous colleagues who would ask about whether the weekend deadline could be met. “The move of a corporate office is not a small undertaking,” Sells says. “But because of my
regular meetings with Computer Business, I was able to tell people at my end that I was completely confident that the move would go according to plan. It ended up going even faster than planned.”

While the team was given a full weekend to complete the IT infrastructure move, Sells asked that actual downtime be minimized as even over the weekend employees would want to be logging into resources to support their work.

“Computer Business coordinated the move so well that we began the move Friday and were up and running Saturday—one day early,” Sells says. “This was much appreciated by a lot of our people who like to log in remotely to work over the weekends.”

“We were up and running faster than I had expected,” Sells continues. “It’s always nice to get more than you actually bargained for from a
company.”

Proactive Security
Schmid Construction values the managed services it gets from Computer Business—including its comprehensive security services. “They are very proactive, running core scans and keeping everything updated,” Sells says. “We get regular threat assessment reports, and they also do security reviews with me.” Sells notes that the company appreciates the fact that Computer Business has professionals monitoring the Schmid IT infrastructure 24×7.

“Security is extremely important to us, but because of Computer Business, it isn’t something we need to get directly involved with,” Sells says. “It is reassuring to know that they are constantly staying on top of that.”

Great Customer Support “We get Immediate Response”
Schmid Construction likes the great customer support they enjoy from Computer Business.

“When you put in a ticket request for support help, you get an immediate response,” Sells says. “Someone reaches out within the next few minutes, either in a call or an e-mail to let you know who is working on the issue. Things get resolved in a hurry.”

Other times she just sends a text message to one of her close contacts at Computer Business.

“If it’s really important, I’ll just text the lead I work with or one of the engineers,” Sells says. “They are a wonderful company to work with.”