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Case Studies
Boston Ballet
Background:
Boston Ballet remains a renowned repertory ballet company that harbors a host of talents, second to none. And, although they create and provide artistic entertainment for us to enjoy, they also operate as a business. And as such, they need to provide an enriching and profitable experience -- both on stage, on line, and on the books… They needed to be completely user friendly, security driven, and be enabled to provide information via interactive means for their audiences and staff.
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The Challenge:
Boston Ballet has always enjoyed their reputation for being pioneering… Our process initiated for them to step back and focus on what they wanted to accomplish rather than they "just need new computers…"
They housed a network that was teetering on the point of being functionally inept. Their problem was definitely major and of a significant magnitude… entire sections of their facility in Boston would drop off the network for hours, and sometimes-even days at a time. This situation brought workflow and productivity to an immediate halt -- not a good thing...
Then came the issues of security and lack of connectivity. No longer was on-line ticketing and vendor access to servers optional - it was a requirement for doing business. Connectivity issues, to enhance overall communications and efficiency, has become a paradigm needed for today's reality, in which they were woefully limping along.
Boston Ballet discovered the down time that their staff was experiencing waiting for computers to reboot, trouble-shooting glitches, and hoping to be able to recover lost information from crashes -- it was just too much for an organization to chance.
The reality hit home that it was just costing Boston Ballet more money in wasting valuable staff time to not address these issues. When Boston Ballet evaluated their funding issues, this prompted them to call upon Guardian to formulate a strategy that their board would approve of, and they did…
The Solution:
We launched an organizational strategic planning process that embraced their technology issues. We know organizations, non-profit and not. The planning process began with an assessment and inventory of Boston Ballet, conducted by our technology team and the key executives… Ultimately, we were responsible for the implementation of the master plan. Guardian proposed and executed a fully interwoven networking solution.
Armed with assessment tools provided throughout our program, the Guardian Team completed an inventory of Boston Ballet's information systems, internal/external communication flow, connectivity, staffing, and training. At the first level we needed to introduce a new architecture that was stable. Their current cabling plant was an issue, so we installed a complete Cat5 compliant cable plant. Guardian put the cabling plant to the test from day one, when they successfully moved all Boston Ballet's users off their network, without any interruption to the staff. The cabling plant was the underlying foundation from which we could productively build upon.
Guardian solved the manageability of Boston Ballet's network. We upgraded and installed Hewlett Packard switches and Cisco routers, allowing for increased bandwidth and remote access. Guardian modified the settings of their Checkpoint Firewall (one of the foremost security devices) curtailing implementation times with extremely reasonable costs. Through our analytical analysis, Guardian enabled Boston Ballet to receive approval for their new cable plant -- based upon the fact that they will not have to incur any capital expenditure expense. And, as we look down the road, we're continuing with the planning and deployment of the complete data/voice cable plant in their new facility, along with an established WAN connection -- to enable remote user access between their multiple locations.
But the piece de resistance is further complemented with Guardian's remote monitoring service. Our flagship service monitors Boston Ballet's network… anywhere, at any time. By putting Guardian's proprietary solution into place, we are able to help Boston Ballet control their maintenance costs, while guarding their network's overall performance.
The Result:
Today, the results of our efforts are simple but quantifiable. It's what we planned for; it's what we worked for; it's what we achieved. The bonus: Boston Ballet is now making demonstrable inroads into providing their audiences and staff with the ultimate experiences. And three plus years later, Guardian is still helping them by continuing to pave the way. Oops, imagine that!
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