Case Studies

Education and Health Services

  • ISD

  • In the ISD library, students had access to applications, Internet browsers and the library database on desktop PCs. The only problem was they tended to mess with the computers’ settings, forcing the librarian to monitor each computer constantly.

    To solve the problem, CITOC installed Thin Clients. Perfect for multi-user systems, Thin Clients form a single point of security and maintenance, which eliminates the need to monitor individual computers. The library was able to lower its total cost of ownership and prevent students from tampering with the computers.

    “CITOC was very responsive and our experience with the engineer was very impressive. He knew what he was doing and explained everything in layman’s terms so we were able to understand.” - ISD Librarian

  • Prep School

  • A Houston–based prep schools exist had a goal to grow enrollment from 3,000 to 10,000 in the next 10 years. The school needed to quadruple its IT capabilities. In keeping with this goal, the school identified two areas for improvement: system monitoring and management. Using System Center Operations Manager and System Center Configuration Manager, CITOC enabled them to reduce manual involvement in operating system deployments, monitor the status of its entire infrastructure and improve network performance.

    "CITOC matched the right person and skill set with our environment and from day one, they were able to break down what we wanted to do and how to get there. We are really impressed with them and the process we have defined as a group." - Prep School Network Manager

Financial Services

  • Investment Firm

  • A Houston-based hedge fund, needed 100% uptime and real-time access for employees to mission critical applications and data to give them a competitive advantage over other investment firms. To achieve that goal, CITOC was brought in at the ground floor of the creation of the company. CITOC installed a server infrastructure in their office, as well as at a secure, offsite location. Real time data and application access was setup to allow an automatic failover without any downtime. With CITOC’s solution in place, the company gained a competitive advantage that helped them become one of the fastest growing investment firms in the U.S.

    “Without the help from CITOC and the technology that they implemented,” said a representative of the investment firm, “we could not have obtained the current investors.”

  • Money Management Firm

  • A money management firm was without a Citrix administrator, and therefore the company was short handed. CITOC, a Citrix partner, was called in to assess their existing environment and relieve unnecessary stress on their departmental staff. We proposed and implemented Citrix XenDesktop to support full-featured virtual desktops and upgraded the Web interface. The company’s customer experience increased with little to no downtime and servers were reconfigured. With their new virtual desktop, power users were able to access a full-featured corporate desktop from home and anywhere in the world.

Manufacturing

  • Chemical Company

  • A chemical company that produces and distributes specialty chemicals to carefully focused global markets more than doubled its size when it purchased two related manufacturing facilities, one domestic and one in Europe.

    At the time, the company had one network server and no IT department. Within two short months, CITOC designed and installed a scalable system in a SOX compliant data center. During the following nine months, CITOC led the extensive IT efforts necessary for the successful assimilation of the newly acquired businesses.

Marine Industry

  • Marine Vessel Repair

  • In an industry that traditionally relies on manpower and not technology, a marine vessel repair service delivered quality work with a can-do attitude. Yet, something was missing. All the bits and pieces of information that kept the business operating were disconnected amongst paper-based documentation and manual reconciliations. Management was time-consuming and costly. To gain a competitive edge, the maritime service provider needed to streamline the way it processed information. The company called on CITOC to come up with an innovative way to work more efficiently. CITOC implemented a Business Process Management (BPM) workflow solution to capture expenses, track hours and manage funds.  

    “I challenged CITOC with an outrageous, Star Wars style mission,” said a representative of the marine vessel repair service. “Our industry is habitually resistant to any and all change, but CITOC came up with a great technological solution. Even the naysayers have all responded with a resounding ‘WOW - this really works great!’.”

Medical Industry

  • Hospital

  • A local hospital came to CITOC suffering from aging hardware, limited floor space and rising energy costs. As a trusted business partner, CITOC provided a virtualized solution that consolidated 320 servers down to 32 blade servers. The power requirements were immediately reduced and aging servers were running on newer hardware. The project started paying for itself before it was even completed.

  • Clinical Progress Tracker

  • The creator of a revolutionary web-based clinical progress tracker had a large customer base that needed real-time secure access to sensitive customer information. They were looking for a technology partner to manage the logistics of an IT infrastructure that integrated well with custom applications as well as one that met with HIPPA compliance. Utilizing dedicated servers, daily backup, offsite storage, 24/7 monitoring and other controls, CITOC delivered a solid IT infrastructure and has become the company’s “fortune 500 IT department”.

Oil and Gas Industry

  • Land Company

  • As a full-service land company for the oil and gas industry, the organization was quickly growing, but that growth was hampered by old technology.

    Looking for a technology partner they could grow with, the company called CITOC. They needed clients and employees to be able to access information anytime, anywhere. And they were looking for a long-term relationship with a company that had the experience and ability to assist them strategically.

    After analyzing the company, CITOC helped them lower IT cost by virtualizing the server infrastructure and installing a data center to enhance speed and reliability. The clients and employees were provided a web portal to gain access to important documents and Citrix servers. The new infrastructure provided an immediate increase in productivity for office and mobile workers.

    “We have gone through an enormous growth period for the last couple of years and CITOC is responsible for us being able to manage the technical side of this growth in an efficient and secure way.” - Land Company CEO

  • Oil and Gas Company

  • A technology-driven oil and gas company, discovered the immense benefits of VoIP phone systems when CITOC installed a Cisco Smart Business Communications System. With the previous phone system, all of the company’s phones rang whenever a customer called. That meant that high-value employees, such as the service manager and operations manager, spent a lot of time answering calls intended for other people. What’s more, the company had just one shared voicemail box, so the company’s owner had to listen to messages every hour and leave notes on employees’ desks.

    With the new system from CITOC, calls are directed straight the intended employee or to his/her personal voicemail box, the built-in, secure wireless access allows employees to work remotely, and audio/video conferencing capabilities save travel expenses, allowing the company to improve customer service and reduce costs.

    “The more time we save, the more customers we can serve,” said a representative of the oil and gas technology company. “Our entire staff now has 30 minutes extra each day to spend with customers because we no longer need to answer calls intended for other employees.”

  • Oil and Gas Ultrasound Technology

  • Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the company operations needed to be moved safely from Reno, Nevada, to a secure and reliable data center in Houston. Not only did the move need to be completed by a specific deadline, but the business also needed to be able to function as usual throughout the process.

    Using backup servers and thorough testing, CITOC moved the company’s servers safely and quickly. After the move, users were able to work locally from both Reno and Houston, improving productivity for the company. The relocation enabled them to reduce operational costs for administration and support and provide faster access to all users.

Professional and Business Services

  • Staffing Company

  • When Hurricane Ike hit, a Houston-based staffing company was left without an office, computers or a network. To become functional again, they sought out the help of CITOC. We helped them recover from disaster and got them back on their feet in less than a week. After retrieving their file servers, we set up a hosted environment, allowing them to work from home, out of town or even on a friendly neighbor’s computer. The employees were able to access email, Microsoft Office, SharePoint and other applications from wherever they were, whenever they needed to.

  • CPA Firm

  • When nearby road construction knocked out power lines, a CPA firm was faced with a challenge to keep up business as usual. So CITOC implemented a hosting solution that provided anytime/anywhere, secure access to employees, allowing them to work from home and keep business running smoothly.

  • Law Firm
  • An award winning Texas law firm provided quality representation for its clients for more than 20 years in many areas of practice. However, the company needed a network infrastructure that would allow employees remote access at a reasonable cost that required little maintenance. By moving the firm’s server infrastructure to a secure, offsite location and applying application hosting, CITOC was able to guarantee 99.9% uptime and lower IT costs by more than 50% while enhancing speed and reliability. This allowed them to increase their client-to-lawyer ratio and increase the overall utilization

Wholesale and Retail Trade

  • Leather and Iron Goods Company

  • A retail wholesaler of designer leather and iron goods was unprepared for a disaster. They had no documentation and an unstable network. Fortunately, before disaster struck, they called CITOC. We implemented a firewall with redundant internet connections and installed the industry leading backup software to provide backups daily. The new network provided the company with a reliable and secure environment in which downtime was reduced and Internet connectivity was improved. The infrastructure now supports future growth and is maintenance free.