When a small employee benefits and HR services firm’s email, calendaring, and cloud storage systems went awry, Cole Informatics applied the long-term care to cure what ailed
Benefits First, LLC, is a Tennessee-based, full-service employee benefits and human resources brokerage firm specializing in partnering with companies to provide cost-effective services including health and wellness benefits, payroll, and human resources information systems.
A small firm with only eight full-time employees, Benefits First was grappling with its IT infrastructure and was experiencing problems with its Internet service provider’s (ISP) email, and cloud-based storage systems.
“We don’t have our own in-house IT team or person to diagnose and fix problems as they arise,” said Allison Jones, Office Manager at Benefits First. “It’s required by law for our firm to be HIPAA-compliant. That means health insurance providers like Benefits First have to ensure we have secure, private electronic healthcare systems in place. We needed someone with the expertise to come in and assess what was going on with our systems, tell us what kind of equipment we needed, and to bring our technology infrastructure up to acceptable standards.”
The situation: Benefits First’s ISP-hosted email exchange service, cloud-based storage, and domain name system was not performing optimally.
“We met with Cole Informatics’ Terry Cole and we hit it off. He’s very knowledgeable, he knew right away what we needed to do to be HIPAA-compliant, and to resolve our technology problems,” she said. “He and his team keep us inline with where we need to be.”
The Cole Informatics solution: Established cloud-based email and calendaring using PartnerWorks Hosted Exchange and email security, as well as encryption and archiving. PartnerSAFE Files was deployed for offsite backup protection.
“We needed the ability to encrypt our emails given the nature of our clients’ sensitive information we deal with on a daily basis,” she continued. “With the programs Cole Informatics implemented for us, we don’t have any email-related problems anymore, and we don’t have any concerns whatsoever about the security and integrity of our clients’ private healthcare information.”
Now, Cole Informatics is Benefits First’s IT support team, providing ongoing cloud services management, reactive break/fix support on-demand, and consultative services for Benefits First’s line-of-sight business applications.
“The Cole Informatics team is always very prompt responding to our inquiries. We have an excellent rapport with them, their response times are excellent, and if we have an immediate need they’re on our doorstep right away,” she added. “I would recommend Cole Informatics to any company. The depth of their collective IT knowledge is truly impressive.”
Is your business plagued by IT challenges? We can help. Cole Informatics is West Tennessee’s premier IT services and support team. Tell us how we can help you. Call us now at 731-249-5700 or email us directly at info@coleinformatics.com.