Cooper Carry
National Architecture Firm based in Atlanta

About the Company:
For 40 years, Cooper Carry, an award-winning Atlanta-based firm with a satellite office serving the New York area, has created spaces for commerce, education, health care, and living. They have dozens of architects, each with a support staff, and all of the technology required to combine multiple architectural disciplines in one practice. Given the integral role technology plays in modern architecture, computer downtime comes at a significant cost.

The Challenge:
In 2000, recognizing that the New York office could not be supported fully by a remote IT department, Cooper Carry’s New York Branch Manager contacted Streeter Technologies. With only six employees in the New York office, it would have been wasteful for Cooper Carry to hire and manage a full-time support technician. However, the technology needs of the 5 architects here were high, and the cost of unproductive time even higher.

The business of architecture requires high-end, graphics-intensive computing capabilities. The applications are specialized, require a robust and speedy network, and demand top printing capabilities. System speed and stability, along with server and network uptime are critical. Cooper Carry needed timely, top quality support to match the high-end quality of their architectural designs.

Cooper Carry had hired another computer support firm for this purpose, but they were dissatisfied with the results. The systems were simply not up to the architects’ high standards. Also critical to the support process was a strong, friendly relationship between a support company and the Director of MIS and the IT team in Atlanta, and Streeter Technologies made this relationship the centerpiece of its support.

The Solution:
Streeter Technologies ensures compliance with Cooper Carry’s standards, maintains software licensing, and monitors connectivity with the Atlanta network. By allowing the central IT staff to focus on the needs in Atlanta, we help make them more effective. At the same time, they are kept informed about activities in the New York Satellite office.

At the outset, Streeter Technologies evaluated the technical environment at Cooper Carry and drafted a proposal to bring the systems up to our network standards. This project involved upgrading storage and memory on the server, including a RAID as a fail-safe to the storage system. This type of setup is critical to prevent downtime and can be costly to implement. However Streeter Technologies was able to work with existing equipment to stay within a limited budget and still achieve the desired results. 

Once the initial upgrade was complete, Cooper Carry asked Streeter Technologies to provide ongoing support, and the relationship has continued through 2003. As with many of our clients, we schedule bi-weekly appointments to check the systems and head off crises. The teamwork between the central IT staff at Carry Cooper and Streeter Technologies has resulted in better systems, less downtime, and reliable performance for the New York office.

“Streeter is great at supporting the NY office -- they make things work when they need to work... they've taken a load off me by providing the local support that the satellite office needs.”
Atlanta office IT Manager