Bratskeir
and Company
New York-based Public Relations Firm
About the Client Company:
Bratskeir and Company is a New York based public relations firm with
three dozen employees. They represent a select list of top national companies
including: Burger King, Chiquita, Hasbro, Hebrew National Foods, 1-800
Flowers.com, Bristol Myers Squib, Maybelline, Phillips Petroleum, Savin Corp,
and Sports Channel/Fox Sportsnet. Public relations is a Macintosh dominated
field, and the employees demand user-friendly technology. Many computer users
in a company like Bratskeir and Company have backgrounds in the arts, and
they need to be able to think of technology as a simple tool, not a complex
computing device.
The Challenge:
In 1997, Bratskeir and Company, rapidly outgrowing their
office, decided to couple office expansion with the development of a
long-term technology strategy. They needed a more robust network
infrastructure, which would be a step up from their peer-to-peer Appletalk
Network.
At Bratskeir and Company staff members often took on multiple roles. A PR professional had been taking time away from her duties to act as the computer guru on site and take care of problems as they arose. The same staff member was responsible for managing the technology aspects of the move. With all the issues she was juggling to ensure that the move would be smooth and not interrupt operations, she decided to call on Streeter Technologies.
Since the new
office space was being remodeled from scratch, there was no existing cabling
and the network infrastructure had to be designed and installed from the
bottom up. Then all of the existing Macintosh computers had to be moved and
brought online over a weekend so that on Monday morning the company could hit
the ground running.
The Solution:
Streeter Technologies decided to move Bratskeir and Company from a
peer-to-peer to a client-server network. We also implemented high-speed
internet access and created backup and antivirus regimens for data
protection.
During this first phase, Streeter Technologies took advantage of the architecture of the Macintosh operating system to run the standard office programs from the server. In this way, Bratskeir and Company could vastly expand the software they were using without having to spend money on 20 new computers.
In another stage of upgrades several years later, Streeter Technologies supervised a move from Macintosh Quadras to iMACs. The server implemented at the outset of the expansion was set up to be highly scaleable, enabling the company to continue growing with the same system to more than double their original size.
Over the last six years, Streeter Technologies has provided ongoing training and support, ultimately helping Bratskeir and Company absorb PC networks, integrate with other IT staff standards, and support their organic as well as acquired growth. Now, in 2003, Bratskeir and Company has grown to have a full-time internal IT staff. Streeter Technologies continues to supplement their staff with occasional assistance as needed.
“Streeter
Technologies brought us from the dark ages into the modern age -- they
are very smart, patient, and fair.
As a client, you always feel that they are working in partnership with
you…They have a long term view of customer relationships..”
Rob Bratskeir
