Make Room for Growth

Stories from the GoComputek Team

CM Testimonial Photo
Chris McDonald, Senior Manager, Information Technology and Business Systems - SIW Solutions
Having worked with GoComputek for over 14 years, there are few technological sticky situations that we have not faced together. The speed with which such matters are resolved, and the depth of technical acuity displayed by GoComputek's technicians during those moments, never ceases to impress me.

Most recently, GoComputek helped us update and completely revamp our IT systems and network infrastructure in preparation for a large corporate acquisition. The acquisition meant an important aggressive corporate expansion across two locations and included the setup of an entirely new manufacturing plant. It also meant the preparation of a new SaaS manufacturing system and the migration of our existing legacy network into a cloud-ready enterprise-class network. Despite the short notice, many challenges and hard deadlines of the project, the execution went off without a hitch. I would not trust just any IT team to make such an expansion possible but GoComputek certainly proved once more that they have the knowledge, determination and resources to make it happen.

Category:

Rebuild

Industry:

Manufacturing

Title:

Make Room for Growth

SIW Warehouse Room for Growth

SIW Solutions is one of South Florida’s premier manufacturers of Impact Windows and Doors. Over the last 15 years, their brand has become synonymous with high-quality and innovative products in the impact windows and doors business. It is not uncommon to see home owners, contractors, dealers, competitors and suppliers from all throughout the state, other parts of the country and even outside of the US visiting their 5,000 square foot state-of-the-art showroom in Delray, Florida. With such a strong reputation for making some of the finest high-impact products in the industry, SIW’s commitment to quality and customer service is not optional. They need a strong technology partner to ensure operations and manufacturing go uninterrupted. For the last 15 years, we’ve been proud to be that technology partner.

When Abe at SIW asked us to make the necessary provisions to prepare the system for an acquisition by Marvin Windows, one of America’s most prestigious and largest windows companies, we weren’t surprised that he would entrust this great task to our care. It’s not everyday that a small IT firm is asked to prepare a network for a billion dollar company such as Marvin Windows, but Abe was intimately familiar with our work and trusted in our ability to make it happen. Still, it was quite the endorsement and a great opportunity to show what we could do. What Abe didn’t know was that we were in the middle of doing a much larger scale system upgrade for a healthcare company which required us to be familiar with the latest trends in security, server architecture and enterprise networking. This meant that we were absolutely well-positioned to make this project a reality. Start to finish the project would take almost 11 months to complete, but the end result was an enterprise system that even Marvin Windows could be proud of.

Q&A
with the GoComputek Team

What is unique about the customer relationship with SIW Solutions?
Because SIW is a manufacturing company, every second counts. They are also located 50 miles north of our headquarters. Meaning if their system goes down it's going to be an hour before we can make it out there, leaving us very little margin of error. Building an enterprise-class network on top of a small business network requires a significant amount of planning and coordination to get it right. The real challenge, however, is not only to get it right, but to make it seamless. There were even more challenges to overcome in this process. Not only was SIW in need of building an enterprise class network to replace their current network, they also needed a new 150,000-square-foot facility ready to move their window product lines into, and they needed it fully operational in two months. This meant internet, cabling, networking and infrastructure, encrypted interoperability with our main facility, wireless coverage, cameras and security and so much more. If we had little margin for error before, now we had none.

Meanwhile, back at the main facility, we began an office expansion which would turn out to be even more intricate than that of the second facility installation in terms of scope and complexity. This part of the project involved building out new offices to accommodate new hires and the necessary positions created after the acquisition that would help bring SIW in-line and up-to-date with all of the Marvin standards. Five new employees turned into thirty, and a corporate transformation unlike anything we  had ever seen ensued. The transition was lead by a team of incredible management-level staff members who are simply impressive to watch in action. We're very fortunate to have had this experience, and we're proud to say we delivered on time and on budget.
What industry-specific solutions has GoComputek brought to SIW Solutions?
Given many of the industry-specific challenges faced by manufacturing companies, GoComputek played a crucial role in the upgrade, expansion and migration of their existing systems to an enterprise-class system that was ready for exponential business growth. Making sure SIW's existing IT systems never suffered disruption was our top priority. Strategic redundancies were put in place to avoid disruption along any step of the systems upgrade and expansion process. Beginning with hardware, we made strategic purchases to ensure an excellent value proposition to the company, prioritizing productivity, quality and longevity of life. We focused on system security, redundancy and a strong network infrastructure at the factory floor level so that SIW's manufacturing computers would be protected in the event of a breach or infection. Lastly, we dedicated an extraordinary amount of time to the training and setting up of new hires.  We trained them on how to use SIW's systems and made them feel welcomed and appreciated. The training and welcoming of new employees was truly one of our greatest contributions to this project.
What is on the horizon for SIW Solutions?
SIW has always been a forward thinking company. Now that they are a part of the Marvin family of companies they undoubtedly have a lot of great and exciting things prepared for this year and beyond. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot more we can tell you on the subject. We can say that we're excited to be partnered with SIW during this exciting time and we look forward to the many great things to come as we build on our over 15-year relationship of trust and mutual appreciation.

If your business is in need of a technological makeover which will allow you to be more competitive and productive, don't wait any longer. Contact us right away for a free quote. Together we can come up with a technological roadmap that will help you accomplish all of your IT goals!

Experience the full weight and expertise
of a highly specialized IT company
watching your back.

About GoComputek

GoComputek was founded in January of 2005 with a long-term vision of being a new kind of IT company. A company ready to meet the new and complex technological challenges of our era. A company with a strong commitment to customer service, transparency, innovation and technological excellence. A company who 16 years later is still living up to that vision every day in a bold way. Since then our commitment to IT excellence has only grown in size and scope and so has our company. Over the years, GoComputek has slowly grown to what it is today–a fully mature managed services and cloud services provider that services over 300 endpoints and growing.

For more than 16 years now, GoComputek has been meeting and exceeding customer expectations, in both large and small business environments alike, across all of South Florida. With a special focus on security, efficiency and reliability, we have worked hard to be the best at what we do so that our customers can be the best at what they do. Perhaps what distinguishes us the most from our competition is our ability to adapt to less than ideal circumstances while maintaining a strong commitment to our customers’ success. When failure is not an option, ingenuity is key and our team is up to the challenge.