With 24-hour emergency service
year round, Scott Robinson needs to maintain an effective,
reliable computer system. His computers store information
from the nature of a customer's problem and directions
to the house to special instructions such as avoid the
family dog! The information can be sent directly from
the computer to the technician's pager, which cuts down
on two-way radio communications. Before computers, the
exchanging of information was done over the radios,
which meant lost time because sometimes two or three
people had to wait their turns to talk. In addition
to the emergency service, Apple Heating has energy-saving
agreements. Under these, they will check a customer's
heating and cooling equipment twice a year, and all
repairs are discounted. Customers entering into the
energy-saving agreements are priority, which is quite
convenient when the weather is too hot or too cold.
These advantages are another
way Apple Heating fulfills its unique philosophy: Win,
Win, Win. The first to win are the customers, who are
treated well and with integrity. The second part focuses
on the co-workers, making sure they are adequately compensated
for their work. The third win is for the stockholders
and owners, so that they get fair returns on their investments.
With so much focus on the customers, it is easy to see
why Apple Heating turns to GB Consulting for its computer
needs.
Information about the customers
must be available at all times, and it must be quickly
retrieved. GB Consulting has an excellent response time
for emergency situations. Once, when data was erased
from a hard drive, Scott got a "virtually immediate"
response. GB Consulting had the situation resolved that
same day. Another time, in 1996 while Scott was on vacation,
the hard drive went down on the UNIX Sever. GB Consulting
had the hard drive in three hours later.
Another advantage to using
GB Consulting is that there are several ways
to get in touch with Greg. He has a home phone line,
a cellular phone, a pager, and an e-mail account. If
for some reason one still can't reach him, there is
a Cleveland company that will step in and work on the
problems. This company is also an SBT re-seller. In
the years since GB Consulting has worked with Apple
Heating (since 1992), however, GB Consulting has never
had to call on this company. And how well do the computer
systems run since Apple Heating has worked with GB Consulting?
"The Windows server I don't think it's gone down
twice in the last three years," says Scott. As
to long-term network problems, he says they are mostly
because of changes to the system. "The problems
we have had have always been a result of trying to improve
the network." Other than that, the network is basically
stable. It is very rare for it to go down as a result
of crashing the operating system.
Remote computing is another
advantage to using GB Consulting. Greg can, from his
office, tap into Scott's computers to determine and
fix problems. He also set it up so Scott can do the
same from his home. When asked if GB Consulting handles
all Apple Heating's computer needs, Scott says they're
capable of it. Apple Heating relies on a Florida-based
seller for the UNIX support, but GB Consulting does
the Windows and Network side. Because of his flexibility,
Greg has even been able to solve some UNIX problems.
This is because he'll try new things and keeps abreast
of changes in the computer world. A couple of the other
problems solved since Apple Heating began working with
GB Consulting are the speed of the software and switching
to a more satisfactory network system. Now the software
runs faster and Apple Heating has changed from LANtastic
to a mix of WIN95 and Windows NT.
