DEMAND GENERATOR: Rich Levin, Sirius Computer Solutions

THE PROJECT
Computer

Nick Spino, IT manager at the Waterbury Companies—a conglomerate of businesses that manufacture products ranging from bathroom air fresheners to agricultural pesticides—had a vision for expanding its use of technology, but it was Sirius that enabled that vision to come to fruition—and then some.

"When we first met with the customer, we started to identify what we call a 'critical resource map' within the Sirius organization. It basically helped the customer to understand all of the different aspects that Sirius could plan in the form of solutions and one-stop shopping," said Rich Levin, senior account executive at Sirius. "[Spino] was fairly impressed with the coverage model that Sirius could provide. I think that's one of the things that got us off to a good start."

Spino wanted to take the IBM AS/400 270 system that the Waterbury, Conn.-based company was currently using and push its potential. He also wanted to adopt more digital imaging technologies to create an almost paperless office, as well as bring the company's hosted e-mail solution in-house.

But Sirius, San Antonio, thought the Waterbury Companies could go even further.

"It was through Rich that we started talking about options. One of the things that stood out in my mind as I was going forward was that Sirius was on the cutting edge. What about Lotus Domino? What about [Lotus] QuickPlace and instant messaging? Putting a new tape drive on to better manage backups and restores? The other vendor never brought that stuff up. I was the one pushing the envelope," Spino said.

In addition to bringing in an IBM AS/400 520 with Lotus Notes, Domino and QuickPlace, a collaboration platform, Sirius was able to incorporate digital imaging solutions outsourced to another solution provider into the Waterbury Companies' lease with IBM, allowing it to finance the package under one umbrella.

"We convinced the customer that in today's world they need perhaps a secondary device to do backup and recovery," Levin said. He suggested that Waterbury Companies continue with maintenance on the AS/400 270 to keep it available as a backup machine running Mimix backup and recovery software by Lakeview Technology.

"It's more cost effective for the Waterbury Companies to take what they have, being that they only want a minimal amount of information transferred from one machine to the next. It will cost a little bit less than $100,000. If they were to have looked at a brand-new machine, [the cost] may have been far greater," Levin said.

For Spino, the availability of help, breadth of expertise and quality of Sirius' technicians has made the Waterbury Companies trust the VAR with its IT well-being. "Rich has been very instrumental in getting the right resources at my disposal," Spino said. "I found Rich to be very trustworthy. ... If I had a problem in the middle of the night, I know he would work with me."

UPSIDE FOR THE VAR
Being able to meet various customer needs helps Sirius Computer Solutions pitch projects to its customers in a variety of different technology areas.

THE CUSTOMER VIEW
Sirius was able to utilize hardware that the customer, Waterbury Companies, already owned to create a backup solution and protecting data while keeping costs down.

VENDORS REPRESENTED
AS/400 520 server from IBM, Armonk, N.Y.; and Mimix backup and recovery software from Lakeview Technology, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.