Case Study: IndustryPro

In 2008 IndustryPro, an international mergers and acquisitions advisory firm, was looking for ways to streamline its business and cut overall operating costs. When the economy was hitting so many business, CEO Fred Zirkle was looking at ways he could trim back.  He decided that if he could get everyone to work from home, he could move out of their expensive professional space and significantly reduce overhead – no more rent, electric bills, etc.  With the rise of remote business solutions like cloud computing, the company saw an opportunity that needed to be exploited. But IndustryPro didn’t know how to best implement these cloud-based solutions. Enter i.t.NOW. i.t.NOW is a Utah-based provider of I.T. solutions including cloud computing, data backup and recovery, desktop virtualization, and more. The company’s i.t.CLOUD offering gives small businesses the ability to decrease in-house operating and hardware costs, and access vital company data on any device in a majority of locations. To implement IndustryPro’s transition to a cloud-based company, i.t.NOW developed a custom plan of action. First, IndustryPro needed to give its employees the ability to work from home on any device, to eliminate the need for expensive office real estate and maintenance costs. i.t.NOW migrated all of IndustryPro’s data to its secure, off-site data centers, and configured remote access for each of its employees. This allowed the company to shut down the physical office.  Server hosting fees were a lot less than his rent. Second, IndustryPro was looking for a way to rapidly expand its business. i.t.NOW’s cloud computing solutions allowed the company to add additional employees in different states, and even overseas. With i.t.CLOUD, IndustryPro employees could access company files and e-mail from their homes or on the go, on any device. Fred and other employees are able to travel with more flexibility as they never have to be ‘in the office’ to work, and still has full functionality.

“We had employees working on PCs, iPads, Macs, and other various hardware and software systems. With i.t.NOW, our transition to a cloud-based company was seamless. Our data and connections were secure and we also saw a substantial increase in productivity without increasing our business I.T. costs. i.t.NOW has helped our company grow from one expensive office to four virtual offices and one smaller brick-and-mortar location in Georgia. This has allowed us to expand our customer base and increase our bottom line. The staff at i.t.NOW was very professional, and I would recommend i.t.NOW to any business looking to cut costs and expand its business.” – Fred Zirikle, founder and CEO of IndustryPro