“We have enjoyed a great working relationship with Miller Systems for many years and value their common sense approach to IT infrastructure consulting and implementation,” - Theresa Panero, Director of Human Resources and Administration, Fabreeka.
Fabreeka International is an international company focused on the development and manufacture of components to control vibration and shock. Miller Systems has been the outsourced IT department for Fabreeka for over seven years, providing the company with IT infrastructure consulting and implementation services to help streamline business processes, protect critical business information, stimulate workflow, and improve communications between manufacturing facilities and sales offices. As part of Fabreeka’s effort to achieve improved efficiencies, Miller Systems implemented frame relay lines between Fabreeka’s headquarters and remote offices to facilitate the integration of a company-wide ERP system in 1998. Five years later in 2003, Fabreeka had outgrown the network and called upon Miller Systems to help define and implement a new VPN solution.
• Find affordable and secure remote connections • Select cost effective VPN solution • Integrate disparate Windows networks
Fabreeka’s challenge was two fold. Seeking less expensive alternatives for connecting remote locations, Fabreeka intended to implement secure and reliable VPN technology, which in the time since its Frame Relay lines had been installed, had advanced significantly. At the same time, after acquiring Tech Products, an Ohio based company specializing in vibration control systems, Fabreeka realized that it needed to integrate its new subsidiary’s Windows network with its own existing Windows network to ensure optimum inter-office communications.
Fabreeka turned to Miller Systems for recommendations on the most cost-effective VPN solution for its needs. After extensive cost analysis, Miller Systems recommended that Fabreeka implement Internet connections from a top tier ISP with a VPN installed and managed by Miller Systems. Because Fabreeka’s needs for ongoing management of the VPN were small, having Miller Systems manage the VPN would save the company approximately $130,000 over the course of three years, as opposed to outsourcing it all to a top tier ISP.
With a plan in place, Miller Systems worked with Fabreeka’s ISP of choice to get T1 lines installed at each remote location and then pre-configured and shipped Cisco routers and firewalls to each remote Fabreeka office. Once the equipment arrived on location, Miller Systems worked with Fabreeka’s local office staff to install and test them before bringing up each VPN connection, eliminating the need for expensive trips to install, configure and test equipment. Leveraging this process for each location, Fabreeka’s original remote offices transitioned seamlessly from Frame Relay to VPN connections with less than one hour of downtime at each location.
With all the remote office locations online, Miller Systems next brought the new subsidiary’s assets easily onto the network using a Cisco VPN. Miller Systems then worked with Tech Product’s local IT staff to integrate the two diverse networks so that users in each location could share resources and the corporate ERP system.
Fabreeka's four North American facilities are now linked and able to share centralized client-server technology. In the near future these seamless and secure links will also extend to Fabreeka’s European operations. By moving away from expensive dedicated links for each office, Fabreeka was able to see an annual savings of $14,000 on their telecommunications expenses by using a secure VPN over shared Internet lines. At the same time, by centralizing IT resources such as network backup, email and virus protection, Fabreeka was able to recognize significant software cost savings and streamline its IT staff responsibilities at each remote location.
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