5-Step Process

At Connecting Point, we understand that every business is unique. Therefore, the technology needs and demands will also be specific to each organization. However, we believe that every network should align with certain standards and best practices, so we have a process to align our clients’ IT environments to our best practices. Part of our process for engaging with potential clients is understanding where they are in the spectrum of adherence to core IT standards. Part of our engagement process includes one-on-one discussions to define business goals and objectives. But we also run a series of network tools to allow us to see a more complete picture of the network. We like to see the devices on the network, age of systems, applications in use, server types/roles, versions of operating systems, amount and type of data, security tools and protocols in place, bandwidth speeds and several other items. We also evaluate each client to determine their “readiness” for the cloud. We believe it’s our job to simplify each network to allow technology to operate more efficiently and more securely whether that's on premise or in the cloud. Our business discovery process shows us where we need to start and helps us identify any potential problems.

The second step in our engagement process is pulling together the data and information that was gathered in the discovery process. We then meet internally to review those findings to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the of the network. It’s also important to apply existing knowledge about that business and their industry to develop a strategy moving forward. As we seek to prepare a formal proposal, we identify any red flags so that we can avoid surprises and unexpected IT costs should we engage with that client. One of our core philosophies at Connecting Point is that the IT initiative for each client should revolve around a written IT roadmap that we create in concert with the client. This process allows us to avoid unexpected IT expenses and helps our client properly prioritize IT investments and implementations. One of the end results of the environment review process is the identification of items that require planning or budgeting. We may also uncover certain challenges that need to be addressed and implemented prior to onboarding.

Once we’ve worked through the initial discovery and environment review, we can prepare formal proposals to present to the client. Our written proposals outline our engagement process, support methodology, growth strategies and pricing estimates. Even though we leverage the same support structure for all clients, we build a very specific strategy for each organization. Our goal in each engagement is to address specific risk factors, performance needs and functionality requirements. By addressing each of those areas, we can lay the foundation for a predictable IT spending structure and a great partnership. All our relationships use a fixed fee support structure that leverage an “all you can eat” approach. Our proposals reflect that approach.

When a client chooses Connecting Point and we start a relationship, we employ a formal onboarding process to bring a client onto our managed services platform. We believe that starting strong is a huge indicator for long-term success and so we treat every onboarding as a standalone project. We have a dedicated process and a dedicated team to work through the onboarding and we only schedule one project at a time to ensure a clear, focused engagement. During this process, we offboard any legacy tools or services (sometimes in conjunction with a previous person or provider), install our tools, create baseline documentation and provide end user training. Although the onboarding process creates a firm foundation to grow the partnership, this process truly takes 60-90 days to produce core results.

Once the onboarding process is complete, Connecting Point is built to provide a robust IT management, support and consulting engagement that simply delivers better end results. Our core support model is built around an ever-expanding suite of IT managed services, responsive technical support (both remotely and onsite), dedicated resources to provide proactive IT administration and implementation of best practices, and dedicated resources for business consulting and IT planning. Our model is built to deliver a more stable environment which reduces network issues while building an IT environment around standards and metrics. With less IT “noise”, we can spend more time designing a specific plan to implement technology that will help you achieve your business initiatives. We believe that our approach will deliver a lower overall cost of IT and will help your organization face the challenges of today’s marketplace. Increasing security threats, expanding options for cloud services and bandwidth requirements, exponential data growth (and the importance of protecting that data), compliance needs, remote access, mobile device sprawl and many other challenges require every business to have a partner and strategy. We believe that we are the partner to help your business build a successful IT initiative while establishing a long-term partnership you can rely on to help you grow and build your business.