Client Stories

Technology Review

Our client was a medium size organization that had a small information technology management staff. There were over three dozen servers (including a mix of Linux and different versions of Windows) to support a staff of nearly a hundred. Many of the Windows servers were overdue for operating system upgrades. This upgrade project represented a considerable investment, both in terms of licensing fees and staff effort. Prior to making that investment, the Director of Information and Technology Services wanted to ensure that the technology and direction were appropriate.

Chryxus was asked to conduct a technology architecture review, with an emphasis on the server infrastructure. Our recommendations were based on three strategies: reduce costs by reducing the total number of servers; improve reliability/availability and reduce costs by using Linux more extensively for common utility functions; and position for the future by recommending directions that promote open, published standards.

We made about two dozen recommendations covering a range of topics. Once fully implemented, our server recommendations will result in a 20% reduction in the total number of servers and a 45% reduction in the number of servers that need expensive operating system upgrades. Server location recommendations should result in improved performance and availability of outward-facing system functionality.

Content Management System

One of our clients is a small company that uses the Internet as a primary communications vehicle. However, the staff do not consider information technology a core competency. They want to be able to change the content of their web site easily, without having to involve a technical specialist. And they do not want to learn HTML, FTP or any of that other "technical stuff."

Another client is a candidate for a school board trustee position. She wanted a professional-looking web site that could be used to support her campaign. But like the firm above, she wanted to deal with the content as easily as dealing with a word processing program.

In both of these cases, Chryxus implemented a content management system (CMS), tailored the overall appearance of the site and provided instruction to the staff so that they can change the content of their site as needed.

System Requirements Review

The client was a provincial government ministry that had implemented the first production release of a large application system. However, the business area had compiled a list of over 200 system requirements that they wanted included in the system. A senior Chryxus consultant was asked to conduct an assessment to see what could be done to address the situation.

Our consultant led a team that analyzed, rationalized and consolidated the list of system requirements into about three dozen implementation packages that had business area buy-in. These were further organized into prioritized system releases with associated cost estimates. He developed a method of presenting the relative cost and value of the packages in a manner that was understandable by the business and could be used for system enhancement planning. All of this was done in an extremely compressed time frame. Both the business area and the systems group were pleased with the result.

Small Business Server

Our client was a small municipality that was exceeding the capacity of its Windows application server to act as a file server. As well, it was spending a considerable amount of money to have their email and web hosting services supplied by an external company.

To address these issues we implemented a robust firewall and installed two Chryxus Small Business Servers. One server was set up in an isolated subnetwork (DMZ) for security and hosted the municipality's email and web site services. This eliminated a significant cost item. It also gave them the internal control and flexibility to enhance their web site content without further external expenditure. The other server was positioned on their local area network to act primarily as a file server. This removed a considerable load from their aging Windows server and provided reliable storage facilities for both shared and private data. Both servers were backed up on a regular schedule to removable media for off-site storage.

Fax Server Solution

One of our clients is a small business with a principal office in one city and the administrative assistant's office in another city. The principal and the administrative assistant communicate regularly by telephone and e-mail, with the assistant coming to the main office only occasionally when needed.

Many aspects of the business are conducted by fax. Despite the fact that both offices had fax machines, only the primary office fax was used for incoming faxes from clients and associates. This presented a problem when the fax needed to be shared with the assistant in the other office.

To address this issue, we recommended that the client employ a fax-to-email solution. However, because of the sensitive confidential nature of the business, the client was uncomfortable using a commercial fax service. Chryxus therefore installed a fax-to-email server at the client's principal office. Now, whenever a fax comes in it is converted to a PDF file and sent as an e-mail attachment to both the principal and the executive assistant.

This has resulted in a number of other benefits being realized. First, junk faxes can now be dealt with quickly by the push of a delete button; and no supplies (like paper and toner) are wasted. Second, the principal has eliminated his fax machine because he now uses the fax server for outgoing faxes as well. Third, all faxes can now be stored electronically with other electronic files like word processing documents and spreadsheets.