Seamless IT and Infrastructure Transition for a Large Car Dealership
In late October 2015, Toyota of Louisville was in the midst of corporate restructuring, and was informed by their parent company that their IT systems would no longer be supported…in 5 weeks. The popular Dixie Highway dealership had to rush to secure a new IT services provider that would be able to quickly assess their current and future technology requirements and provide solutions to address several immediate needs, including a new phone system, servers, domain and ongoing support and maintenance.
The Technology Assessment
Understanding the level of urgency and rapid response time needed, Centrality sprang into action with a thorough assessment of the dealership’s current voice and data infrastructure. The discovery process uncovered that their current infrastructure was unusable. Led by Centrality’s Mike Tucker, the team put a plan together that would make them independent going forward with a mix of premise- and cloud-based solutions.
Custom-Tailored Solutions
Centrality set forth to implement a new system that would address all of their current needs and remain usable for years to come. Centrality technicians installed an independent and exclusive local area network infrastructure, complete with internet connectivity and a new Microsoft domain. Securing a new internet server in a short amount of time was no easy feat. But within a week’s time, Centrality was also able to provide a new, reliable business-class server, with peripherals, to reside on-premise.
In addition, Centrality provided Toyota of Louisville with an industry leading Mitel MiVoice Office Communications platform for all of their telecommunication needs. MiVoice Office delivers as standard applications including: Unified Voice Messaging with Automated Attendant, Meet-Me Conferencing, Automatic Call Distribution, Hot Desking, Twinning, Mobile Hand-Off, Teleworking and Reporting. For email, Centrality recommended and set up a cloud-based email platform. This helped Toyota of Louisville to achieve a very cost-effective op-ex IT resource model.
To meet their on-going support needs, Centrality established a support model to provide desktop assistance to Toyota of Louisville’s back office, service department and sales user communities. The support model includes help-desk, wireless, server, voice, desktop and other ongoing proactive maintenance protocols that are designed to maintain system health-uptime, security and business continuity.
Impactful Results
Though the project timeline was very aggressive, Centrality was able to get Toyota of Louisville up and running within about 6 weeks. The dealership expects to reap the benefits of the reduced costs and enhanced productivity that their new telecommunication platform provides, which includes a suite of new, out-of-the-box business productivity applications.
Toyota of Louisville’s Parts and Service Director, Scott Manning, is not only impressed with Centrality’s high-level knowledge, but also their expedient and responsive service.
“We are very pleased with their forethought. They are very proactive and put a lot of time and effort into making sure they have all their bases covered. They answered all of our questions in a very timely manner, whether on the phone, email or in-person. Their service approach resulted in seamless transition from our old IT system to the new one, and we look forward to a continued relationship that keeps adding value to our organization.”
The Future is Bright
To continue proactive advisement of Toyota of Louisville and stay ahead of any potential issues, Centrality serves as a virtual CIO. They regularly hosts scheduled technology committee meetings to collaborate with dealership staff and assist them with optimal utilization of IT resources and future planning and budgeting.
Working as a cohesive team, Toyota of Louisville and Centrality will continue streamlining and enhancing the technology systems.
