By Leslie Benson, Marketing Communication Group > With 11 disciplines at American Structurepoint, opportunities for cross-selling our services are abundant. The Architecture Group, led by Practice Leader Kyle St. Peter, with guidance from Vice President Jack Lashenik, principal and partner, has landed several design jobs in the past year with growing development company Mainstreet Property Group for the design of its state-of-the-art senior assisted living and rehabilitation facilities across Indiana. As a result of that relationship, the architects brought our Information Technology Group into the mix to conduct an assessment of Mainstreet’s technology infrastructure for ways to improve its system.
“They’re a thriving, growing company with people scattered remotely across the country, and their business processes are suffering because of the lack of an adequate IT infrastructure to support a mobile workforce,” says Tony Valasek, executive IT director. “They are quickly outpacing their own technology and need a new way of thinking.”
By interviewing Mainstreet’s leaders and employees to find out the issues they are having, what they’re trying to achieve, and their future IT needs, such as mobile workforce technology and field-based collaboration, Team Leader Andrew Everhart, in collaboration with the IT Group, produced a customized business-focused technology plan.
“That led to us designing a highly available, scalable, flexible, reliable, and efficient network and server system,” Valasek says. “It was a significant investment for them, but they were able to see the business value and how it would help. They took the leap, and now we’re earning the privilege to become their trusted technology advisors.”
Valasek says the IT Group should have Mainstreet transitioned to its new technology system by the end of August. “At that point, we will take over all their day-to-day IT operations, maintain what they have, and have a high presence inside their business. One of the key things that helped us is that we don’t sell software or hardware. We recommend solutions based on what we know works and what has been proven in our own unique high-demand IT infrastructure environment here at American Structurepoint.”
“The Architecture Group funneled us the lead and funded the assessment for us to deliver,” continues Valasek. “Thanks to Jack and Kyle for doing that; it meant a lot. Thanks also to Andrew Everhart, Robbie Kibler, Adam Martin, Chris Bonanne, Jason Ward, Ed Valasek, and the entire IT Group for its efforts. We all pitched in, shared knowledge, and helped each other through the process. It took a little more work up front, but Mainstreet liked our methodology and our proposal. We invested time listening to them, understanding their problems, and recognizing the type of business they’re in and the challenges they see near and long term. Over a 5-year period, this work is potentially worth about a half a million dollars in additional revenue.”
...to the Point 