Make Your IT Dollars Work For You: Bring Mobility and Efficiency into You Business.
IT Solution
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Business Challenge
Tate Rice Homes, Inc specializes in custom-built homes in the Piedmont Triad Area. With over 10 years of experience in construction and contracting, Tate Rice began building custom homes after seeing a need for a dependable, cost conservative contractor in the area. Starting his business with a laptop and a handful of reliable subcontractors, Tate Rice Homes quickly grew into a thriving business with three full time employees and building sites throughout the Piedmont Triad Area.
As Mr. Rice's construction business grew so did his accounting responsibilities and communication needs. He quickly found himself struggling to keep up-to-date financial records both on his home and office computers. With long hours on job sites and no email access, Mr. Rice came home to an email box full of client requests and missed opportunities.
"I was constantly finding myself emailing documents to my home computer", states Mr. Rice. "Of course the next morning, I would have forgotten to upload the new version once in the office or my receptionist would have already made changes, which created a real mess. Although this was a nuisance, I hated to face the pile of emails after being in the field all day and it left my clients feeling neglected since I was not responding promptly."
As Mr. Rice's problems became more prevalent he began searching for a solution, focusing on finding a local business that could provide a reliable, all inclusive service at a manageable price. After approaching several different companies in the Piedmont Triad area, Tate Rice hired SolidSpace for their range of experience in the IT industry and professional IT outsourcing services.
"Mr. Rice first came to us with concerns about how he could affordably solve his business' IT issues about 6 months ago", stated Andrea Rice, chief operating officer of SolidSpace. "Problems with data storage, file sharing and mobile email are common IT constraints among small to mid-size businesses, like Tate Rice Homes."
IT Solution
After evaluating the needs of Tate Rice Homes, she worked with her staff to develop the best solution for this business. Several phone calls and proposals later, SolidSpace developed a customized solution that would allow Mr. Rice to save files in one location from any computer with an Internet connection, store valuable client information in a secure off-site location with daily backups and connect to his email via mobile phone, all for a cost effective monthly fee.
SolidSpace built a custom dedicated server for the Tate Rice Homes project that is stored in their secure data center, located in Winston-Salem, NC. The dedicated server is the central storage location for all of Tate Rice Homes' financial files and client records. By providing a file server that is accessible through an internet connection, Mr. Rice can manage a single set of files from his home, office, and employee's computer. The solution even allows his accountant to remotely access the most recent financial files. Mr. Rice's server is managed by the professional IT staff of SolidSpace, which provides daily backups, routinely monitors the server's performance and troubleshoots for any problems that may arise.
Tate Rice also has his email hosted with SolidSpace, giving him and his employees access to their email from any computer with an internet connection. Since the majority of Tate Rice Homes' business is on job site, SolidSpace configured the email server to push and receive messages to the company's mobile devices. By supplying the employees email throughout the day, projects ran more efficiently and clients felt they had a better line of communication with the company.
Business Results
Now that SolidSpace services have been in place for over 6 months, Tate Rice Homes has seen a dramatic increase in employee productivity and new client development. By providing the company the ability to perform work without the hassle of multiple document versions and the freedom to work from various locations, Tate Rice Homes is enjoying the stability and functionality in the service offering that SolidSpace developed.
"I can't image going back to the way our business was operating before" stated Tate Rice. "Our business has seen a new surge in growth because we no longer have to worry about how things are going to be stored or if we have a mountain of emails waiting back at the office. Now, I can really focus on the business at hand, not our IT problem."
