Executive Summary: By Updating Key Technologies, Ciracom Cloud Modernized K & R Branding Solutions’ Workplace and Secured their Crucial Data-Sharing Processes
About K & R Branding Solutions
Established in 1981, K & R Branding Solutions was born with a fierce focus on creativity and exceptional customer service. K & R ranks nationally in the Top 50 Promotion Products Distributors for their sales and customer-focused initiatives. Offering a vast number of innovative services, K & R Branding Solutions takes their customers’ dreams of promotional gifts and provides a full service with custom branding, product design, and E-commerce development.
Customer Issues
Prior to engaging Ciracom Cloud, K & R Branding Solutions made use of on-premises servers and hosted email. They also needed to review security policies and create a long-term roadmap to address the growth of their business and the pace of changing technologies. After engaging with Ciracom Cloud in 2012, K & R was provided a digital transformation plan and project management support to achieve their goals within 36 months.
Solutions
To best support K & R Branding Solutions, Ciracom Cloud actioned the following:
- Updated K & R employees’ workstations and devices, and modernized their business network
- Deployed Microsoft 365 Business Standard, Exchange Online, Office 365 E3, Azure Active Directory, Microsoft Defender for Office 365, and more licenses for improved business continuity
- Migrated K & R to Dell PowerEdge servers, and also upgraded their disaster recovery measures
- Put Vonage Business Communications voicer IP into place, and installed a secure wireless network via Cisco Meraki
“We essentially have to go looking for problems if we want to stump Ciracom Cloud. Ciracom Cloud is full of forward-thinkers. They set up ease-of-use processes for us whenever we’ve needed them, and they’re extremely reliable. They get the right equipment and the right people with the right technical knowledge to get the job done the first time, every time.” - Alan Brown: K & R’s former Chief Financial Officer
Devices and Network
To kick off K & R’s transformation plan, Ciracom Cloud began with their workstations. K & R had a network of workstations set up to redirect everything to one on-premises folder; the downside to this was if the file server was ever turned off or if a device was removed from the network, K & R’s employees couldn’t access necessary work files. Thus, designing a modern network with updated technologies was the first priority for transformation.
Microsoft 365, Microsoft Exchange, and Office 365
At the time Ciracom Cloud began supporting K & R Branding Solutions, they were hosting their email in-house. To increase security and improve all-around performance, Ciracom Cloud migrated the company to Microsoft 365. This step enabled more services such as Exchange Online Archiving and additional benefits via Office 365, which improved record retention for the company.
Microsoft Azure Active Directory
The next step in K & R’s transformation was to configure their Microsoft Azure virtual domain controller. In doing so, Ciracom Cloud was able to help the company save costs by eliminating their need to invest more capital for on-premises equipment. K & R now experiences more benefits with Azure and has reinforced critical services, such as the aforementioned disaster recovery and business continuity.
Dell PowerEdge
Ciracom Cloud migrated K & R Branding Solutions’ critical applications to more powerful Dell PowerEdge servers, implementing faster drive technologies and a disaster recovery and business continuity plan. This implementation made K & R’s infrastructure much faster and more secure.
Vonage Business Communications
Ciracom Cloud deployed voiceover IP with their partner, Vonage Business Communications. K & R Branding Solutions had been encountering lost voicemails and hiccups in call quality, resulting in poor experiences. Ciracom Cloud effectively stepped in with Vonage Business Communications’ services and configured an enterprise-class solution. (This also benefited K & R when March of 2020 arrived; they were able to easily pivot to remote work with seldom issue.)
Outcomes/Impact
Forward-Thinking || Customer-Driven
With more than 2,000 clients and a well-trained staff, K & R Branding Solutions continues to offer their highly-creative branding opportunities. With the guidance and professional services team from Ciracom Cloud, K & R became more well-equipped technologically, and their core collaboration and communications platforms were transformed. Their security risks were also significantly reduced, and their policies were redesigned to consistently secure remote work, and minimize gaps and vulnerabilities.
All in all, Ciracom Cloud’s cloud-first approach and 24x7x365 managed services helped K & R Branding Solutions simplify operations, harness the cloud, and pave the way for future growth.
Interested in updating your business’s Microsoft technologies and migrating to the cloud? Book a free, 15-minute appointment with one of Ciracom Cloud’s experts here!