Building A Strong Technological Foundation For A Digital Business

It takes a dedicated support system to ensure that today’s technology companies have seamless day-to-day business operations. It’s especially vital when that company is responsible for building digital brand presences for some of New Hampshire’s most visible businesses.

However, a dedicated team was not what Altos had at their disposal to drive the digital agency’s day-to-day IT infrastructure back in 2017. Instead, the New Hampshire small business relied on one team member in particular to keep their digital systems healthy and functional: the Director of Technology.

This individual alone was responsible for maintaining Altos’ phone systems, web servers, in-house file servers, Google Drive accounts, digital security, and more. As capable as they were in keeping Altos’ network in action, IT management and security didn’t leave enough hours in the day for Altos’ Director of Technology to focus on what they were really there to accomplish: enhancing clients’ digital brand presence through custom web development and data-driven digital marketing solutions.

Recognizing this productivity roadblock, the Altos leadership decided that it was time to seek IT support from beyond the walls of its headquarters in Bedford, NH.

“We had grown to a point where we needed off-site assistance from a dedicated team of IT professionals,” said Joe Savitch, Altos’ Director of Marketing & Operations. “We’re tech nerds for sure, but IT maintenance was taking time away from what we do best.”

An Onboarding Process Beyond “Business As Usual”

After vetting several outsourced IT support options, Altos ultimately partnered with us at Kilpatrick IT. The timing, as it turned out, couldn’t have been better.

The day after the ink dried on our proposal, Altos’ internal file server experienced a major failure. Their team, which relied heavily on that server to create custom, creative digital marketing solutions for their clients, had no access to their shared files.

Under normal circumstances, our onboarding process with new clients would have happened gradually—but Altos didn’t have time for gradual. So, we switched gears to get their servers back up and running as soon as possible.

First, a team of KIT technicians arrived on-site to clone Altos’ existing server to a temporary version. We then restored the materials required to keep the agency’s workday going, building Altos’s permanent infrastructure separately.  24 hours later, Altos was back to business as usual and lost zero data in the process.

Over the next week, our techs configured all of Altos’s machines on the new server, working quickly during lunch and off-hours to ensure as minimal a disruption to production as possible.

“It was not the normal onboarding experience, but we are incredibly grateful to Kilpatrick for helping us get back on track as quickly as we did,” said Savitch.

Staying Adaptable During Unprecedented Times

Over the next few years, we continued to manage Altos’s IT operations from inside the agency’s Bedford office space—until the entire concept of “office space” suddenly changed.

In March 2020, Altos—like thousands of businesses across the US—had to make a crucial decision for the safety of their team. As news of the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country, agency leadership shifted operations from the company’s physical office to employee’s homes, spread out across New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The agency looked to us to facilitate the shift and make the sudden transition as seamless as possible. Here are the steps we took:

  • Set up VPN access for the entire Altos team, giving them 24/7 access to shared files.
  • Onboard the team to Splashtop, our go-to remote-desktop software, so they can access office machines from home.
  • Set up an IP-based phone system, with office numbers routed to team members at home.

“Without Kilpatrick, we wouldn’t have been able to make the remote shift as seamlessly as we did, and we would not have been able to build a remote culture and infrastructure at the rate that we did,” said Savitch.

After the agency’s initial remote work migration was complete—and it was clear that the work-from-home arrangement would last a lot longer than the originally anticipated two weeks—we worked with Altos to transition the agency’s network to a cloud-based format. Our priorities shifted to helping the agency move their operations from Google Drive to Microsoft OneDrive.  

To date, our goal is to provide the agency with consistent access to the digital tools they need no matter what their future holds—whether they continue to work remotely, back in the office, or under a hybrid schedule.

Be Prepared To Face Any Technological Obstacle

“Specialists help your business to be better, no matter the field, and seeking support from a team of IT experts unlocked our agency’s ability to streamline our internal and client-facing processes,” said Savitch. “Kilpatrick allows us to be a better business.”

“From day one, Kilpatrick went above and beyond working after hours and weekends to minimize the impact on our business. While we have been with them, we have never had any down time.”

Technology challenges are not always easy to predict. We make it our responsibility at Kilpatrick to ensure our partners have the support and security needed to confront any potential roadblocks. Get in touch to learn more about how we can build your small business a strong, reliable technological foundation to stand on with confidence.