TWO MEN AND A TRUCK plans to leverage technology to increase the number of franchises and improve its franchises’ productivity. To accomplish these goals, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK will implement a new centralized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to serve its franchises. Unlike some in-house ERP systems, the new system must be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to serve their 200 franchises in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. When they looked at their onsite data center management and internal technology resources, they realized they could not reliably meet the 7X24X365 uptime and service requirements.
“While many start-ups and development teams are testing ‘a slice in the cloud’, most mid-size businesses need to run their production and customer-facing systems with the security and reliability of hardware dedicated to their systems,” said Mike Klein, President of Online Tech. “Managed VMware hosting lets them turn their managed servers into a fully managed private cloud – with the flexibility that virtualization offers, on a secure hardware platform that is 100% dedicated to their applications.”
According to Barb Dawson, Vice President of Information Technology at TWO MEN AND A TRUCK, “We are not in the data center management business. It made much more sense for us to find a strategic partner to help manage our IT infrastructure and data center services.”
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK required a data center operator that provided enterprise-level power delivery and back-up, Internet connectivity, offsite IT disaster recovery, and on-site staff to support its server infrastructure. The managed data center had to deliver more than basic colocation; it had to have processes and procedures to ensure data security and meet requirements of TWO MEN AND A TRUCK’s global structure. Beyond the technical requirements, the leadership looked for a managed data center company to partner with whom they could build a long-term trusting relationship.
After a lengthy interview process to select the managed data center partner, they selected Online Tech because of its solid data center infrastructure, top-notch facilities, process and procedures and overall professionalism. Online Tech offers managed colocation and managed dedicated servers making it easy for companies like TWO MEN AND A TRUCK to outsource as little, or as much of their day-to-day data center and server management as they would like.
With managed colocation at Online Tech, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK was able to upgrade to a Tier 3 managed data center with a fully redundant power and network infrastructure. TWO MEN AND A TRUCK chose Online Tech’s high availability power and network solutions with no single point of failure in the power or network delivery – assuring a very high level of server uptime. From a technical perspective, Online Tech’s SAS 70 certification showed that they had all the processes and procedures in place that TWO MEN AND A TRUCK required.
“When a company outsources something critical to a business like data, it has to be done right. If it is not done right, it could ruin our business,” said Greg Young, IT Project and Operations Manager for TWO MEN AND A TRUCK. “Online Tech demonstrated it can get it done right - from the quality of their managed data centers to the professionalism of their staff. They have a good understanding of our type of company and our IT services and support functions. Their technical staff was very responsive with answers to our questions. Quite frankly, Online Tech has met and exceeded all of our expectations.”
About Online Tech
Online Tech (www.OnlineTech.com) is the leader in secure and compliant hosting services including private cloud hosting, managed cloud hosting, hybrid cloud hosting, managed dedicated servers, disaster recovery and offsite backup services, and Michigan colocation. Online Tech’s legacy of independent HIPAA, PCI, SAS 70 Type II, SSAE 16 Type II (SOC 1), SOC 2, and SOC 3 audits and reports ensures the security, privacy, and availability expected of a trusted service organization. For more information, call (877) 740-5028 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
About TWO MEN AND A TRUCK
TWO MEN AND A TRUCK® is the largest franchised moving company in the U.S. with more than 200 locations. The company started in the early 1980s in Okemos, Mich., as a way for two brothers in high school to earn extra money. It now has franchises worldwide and more than 1,200 trucks on the road. In addition to moving services, franchises offer packing services and sell boxes and packing supplies. Visit www.twomenandatruck.com for more information about services and products and available franchise opportunities.
