Shooting Gallery Saves $200,000 With Mi8's Netsourcing

Mi8 Corporation New York City, Shooting Galley provides content, services and infrastructure in the converging media marketplace. The firm, which began with 15 employees and has grown to more than 120 people in just seven months, provides original content and third party productions for film, TV, commercial production, music, broadband and Internet—all under one roof.

Already recognized as a leader and innovator, Shooting Gallery boasts numerous awards, including an Academy Award, for such work as 24 Hour Woman and Free Tibet. With its rapid growth and busy project schedule, Shooting Gallery realized in early 2000 that it did not have the time or resources available to build and maintain a sophisticated communications infrastructure. Adding to their problems was their older building's power surges, which occurred almost daily. According to Network Administrator George Zura, "Our power kept going up and down, resulting in significant equipment problems. It was getting to where I'd come in each morning holding my breath until I had made sure our servers were up and running." Zura also realized that to keep up with demand, he would need to hire a full-time Exchange specialist – in a very tight labor market.

After looking at the costs of keeping the server in-house, Shooting Gallery decided to outsource this part of their corporate infrastructure.

Transition made in less than a day.
After looking at three other companies, Zura and his team turned to <%=company%>, a company that provides an outsourced Exchange service delivered over the Internet – a service the company calls "Netsourcing." With just one telephone call, Mi8 had Shooting Gallery's first 15 users up and running in a few hours. The biggest obstacle in the transition process was the data migration from the existing Shooting Gallery server to Mi8's, which was handled flawlessly within a few days of signup.With the Exchange server, Shooting Gallery team members have access to other team members' schedules and calendars, contacts, and tasks lists, enabling them to schedule meetings, assign conference rooms, and share contact information.

Netsourcing to Mi8 offered one added benefit: Mi8 offers the Blackberry wireless device as an enhancement to Outlook & Exchange, enabling mobile employees to send and receive email anywhere, at any time. Several Shooting Gallery employees began carrying and using the Blackberry (the size of a pager) after the transition to Mi8's service.

By offloading the maintenance of the Exchange server, Shooting Gallery is free to concentrate on their core business operations while receiving the highest quality of service available, including virus scanning, nightly backups, and toll free access to a 24/7 help desk – a level of service usually seen only at Fortune 1000 companies.

Mi8 makes life easier
Outsourcing their server requirements to Mi8 has made life easier for Shooting Gallery. The firm no longer suffers lost productivity and frustration due to equipment failures, nor do they need to spend time finding consultants help them deal with their technology problems. And adding the 120 new employees to the system has been easy with Mi8's Web-based company self-administration module.

According to Zura, the firm has saved over $200,000 by using Mi8 as their ASP. This amount includes equipment, salaries, and licensing. "And we plan on hiring another 150 people by the end of the year," comments Zura.

"Doing business with Mi8 has been great," he continues. "They've grown right along with us and have staffed up to meet demands. We've never lost an e-mail message. Any problems we've encountered have been small—and Mi8 has taken care of them right away."