Managed Services Portfolio

Aardvark IT Solutions-founded in 1993 and headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado-designs, deploys, and supports WANs and LANs for its small and medium-sized business (SMB) clients, helping them remain competitive by providing innovative technology solutions.

Aardvark's success and quality of service depends on continuous access to a high-quality, secure, and reliable phone system. Aardvark employees have daily phone contact with their clients, to answer technical questions or schedule emergency, same day, or future project appointments. In this environment, missing a call means missing an opportunity.

"We're in a reactive business," says Wray Smith, president of Aardvark IT Solutions. "At the start of each day, we have technicians ready to respond to customers who need immediate attention. On average, we do between three and five thousand dollars worth of business each day. If we are without our phones, the opportunities evaporate."

Aardvark needed a telephony and data system that would improve service levels in a rapidly changing and demanding environment.

Aardvark's data and communications system was overpriced and offered little flexibility and few functions beyond the basic phone service. With limited copper facilities available for Aardvark to obtain analog lines, the Company was forced into a digital solution that required them to pay for ten lines. In addition, Aardvark's phone system was becoming more costly and more difficult to maintain. For each change or addition, no matter how small, Aardvark had to turn to the phone provider, whose fees for moves, adds, and changes were prohibitive and whose responsiveness was less than ideal. "Sometimes we would wait days just to add a new employee," says Smith. "Big companies can often afford an employee on staff that knows the phone system and can handle such matters, but we, like any other small company, had to wait and rack up charges for every change."

Smith knew that if Aardvark was going to continue to help its SMB customers deploy the technology they needed to address their business issues, it had to do the same. Aardvark needed a more flexible, reliable, secure, affordable, and high-powered communications system. "We are a full-service network infrastructure company," Smith says. "If our network is down, our revenue goes down, and we could lose credibility as industry experts."

In August 2002, Aardvark decided to replace its voice provider. Recognizing that big businesses have reaped the benefits of converging voice and data over single IP networks, Aardvark was determined to move to an IP Communications platform. Aardvark turned to Cbeyond, a Cisco® Powered Network service provider focused on small businesses, for help. Using voice over IP (VoIP) and an end-to-end Cisco Systems network, Cbeyond provided Aardvark with a tightly integrated package of high-quality local and long-distance telephony services, high-quality T-1 Internet access, and Web-based applications.

"Cbeyond is an excellent fit for us," Smith says. "Its customized packages and unique customer support demonstrate the company's ability to improve the way that we, as a small company, do business." In addition, he says, "The Cbeyond/Cisco network infrastructure provides clear and robust voice quality because it is a private, managed IP network where voice calls never touch the public Internet, so we were confident our communications needs would be met and we would soon capitalize on the benefits once afforded only to big customers."

The company deployed Cbeyond's BeyondVoice1 (BV1) solution, which provides five analog lines and 1500 monthly long-distance and toll-free minutes. As Aardvark grew, adding additional lines was simple and they now have seven. As part of the package, Cbeyond installed and manages a Cisco 2431 Internet Access Device (IAD) that merges voice communications from Aardvark's phone system and IP data traffic from its LAN, then passes all traffic in IP format to Cbeyond's network.

With Cbeyond Online's Web-based account management tool, Aardvark now has the power to manipulate, modify, monitor, and make instant changes to its voice and data services and its account-quickly and easily. "Instead of waiting for someone to add an extension, add an employee, or change the hunt group, we do it ourselves," Smith says. "We can schedule call forwarding so we never miss a call. And, we can even view and pay our Cbeyond bill online. At any time, we can access our account and adapt our services according to our needs. This gives us flexibility in managing our communications services at our convenience and without hold times-and reinforces our confidence in Cbeyond."

To extend the benefits and reach of the new IP Communications solution, Aardvark installed a new Cisco phone system complete with Cisco CallManager Express for call processing and Cisco Unity® for voicemail. Aardvark's employees are now equipped with the phone features and functions they need to be able to respond to customers quickly and effectively.

The Cisco IP Communication solution gives Aardvark a smart, flexible, and affordable end-to-end solution and common infrastructure-while significantly reducing the total cost of ownership. In addition to Cisco CallManager Express and Cisco Unity, Aardvark deployed 24 Cisco IP phones and three analog devices in its infrastructure, including one 7902, one 7935, five 7960's with four 7914 expansion modules, four 7940's and thirteen 7912 devices.

The migration from the company's existing time-division multiplexing (TDM)-based system to the Cisco VoIP-based phone system was virtually problem-free. Because VoIP uses data wiring instead of phone wiring, Aardvark was able to have both sets of phones running side-by-side on each desk until it was certain that all employee extensions were properly programmed and the auto attendant and voicemail features were working. "From a productivity standpoint, this was tremendous," says Smith. "We never missed a beat-the phones kept ringing and we kept scheduling. Because the Cisco IP phones have intuitive features, training was minimal."

Among the many robust features and functions of the Cisco IP Communications solution are the voice system's auto attendant, night service bell, voicemail, call logging, caller ID features and call monitoring. "The Cisco solution also allows us to use Web-based administration with Cisco CallManager Express, so we can manipulate our own extensions, either as individuals or as a company," says Smith.

With both the Cbeyond solution and the end-to-end Cisco IP solution and infrastructure in place, Aardvark has been able to stay competitive and has experienced steady growth, even in tough economic times. "Thanks to the efficiency and innovation of this technology, we continue to grow and increase productivity using our existing resources and employees," says Smith.

With Cbeyond's managed services network IP Communications solution, Aardvark has the same telecommunications capabilities that larger businesses use-at a fraction of the cost. "We now get ten times the bandwidth and have reduced our voice, data, and long-distance charges by more than US$300 each month," says Smith. "In addition, because we receive a single fixed, predictable bill every month, we can plan accordingly."

Aardvark's overall productivity has improved greatly as a result of the flexibility, ease of use, and feature-rich Cisco/Cbeyond IP Communications solution. The process of adding lines, changing extensions, or programming features, which used to be time-consuming and expensive, is now dramatically simplified, and allows the company to make changes as necessary. The call forwarding, call pickup, dual-line appearances, and hunt groups help ensure that Aardvark's customer calls are answered promptly.

Implementing the Cisco Unity solution has helped increase savings by eliminating the company's after-hours answering service. "When a call comes in, Cisco Unity goes hunting and dials one person, then pages the person, then dials another," said Smith. This system has proven to be much more reliable, sophisticated, and cost-effective than our answering service."

Aardvark also benefits from the convenience of Cisco Unity Unified Messaging, which allows employees to manage e-mail, voice, and fax messages through the device of their choice, such as a PC or personal digital assistant (PDA). "Our salespeople access e-mail and voicemail through one interface. This boosts employee efficiency, especially when they are away from the office," says Smith.

Most importantly, the new communications infrastructure enables Aardvark employees to serve customers more efficiently and effectively. With the new voice and data system, Aardvark's employees and technicians can identify the caller's name on the phone prior to picking up. Caller ID allows employees to respond personally to each customer, which in turn makes it easier to address their customers' needs.

Call monitoring, call recording, and conference call capabilities also help make employees and third parties more accountable. "Sometimes a customer's issues require the involvement of a third party," says Smith. "By getting all parties on the phone at the same time and, if necessary, recording the conversation, our customers experience faster results because people become accountable very quickly. And, with call monitoring, our service managers are able to monitor technicians' calls, which allows us to ensure that our customers' messages are not going unanswered."

The superior performance, flexibility, reliability, and security of the IP Communications solutions from Cisco and Cbeyond, as well as their productivity-enhancing features and the savings the company has realized in maintenance and support costs, have more than justified Aardvark's investment, according to Smith. "With Cisco and Cbeyond, we enjoy peace of mind with the expert backing of two industry leaders," he says.

Together with Cisco Systems, Aardvark extends the reach of IP Communications to its small and medium-sized customers by reselling the Cisco IP Communications solution. As a Cisco Premier Certified Reseller, Aardvark is able to take advantage of its first-hand experience with Cisco to help its SMB customers deploy the Cisco solutions that will enhance their businesses.

"Aardvark experienced a powerful transformation in the past year," Smith says. "For thirteen years, we thought of ourselves as a `data' company-providing firewalls, security, virtual private networks (VPNs), and Internet connectivity. A converged voice and data network must be extremely secure from an external connection standpoint, with managed switching capable of prioritizing the voice above all data traffic, and Cisco provides that kind of security. The Cisco IP Communications solution embodies the most mature versions of everything we've been teaching for years," concluded Smith.

To find out more about Cisco SMB Managed Services, go to: http://www.cisco.com/go/ms4smb.

To find out more about Cisco SMB Class Solutions, go to: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns339/networking_solutions_small_medium_sized_business_home.html.

For more information on Cbeyond, please go to: http://www.cbeyond.net.

For more information on Cisco IP Communications solutions, please contact your Cisco account manager.