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Habitat for Humanity St. Louis discovered its not-for-profit organization in a difficult situation: computers and printers began failing at an alarming rate. Calls to their IT vendor went unanswered. The 30+ employee organization quickly found itself being ‘held hostage’ to a one-sided contract with little recourse for resolution except through legal action.

Challenges:

• Secure the network from unauthorized access
• Return working environment to a point of stability
• Prepare the organization for a significant increase in build rate for the next seven years through the implementation of a technology refresh project

Solution:

Sextant Technolgoy Partners provided subject matter expertise to lock down the existing network environment from outside intrusion. Before making a decision on next steps, Habitat's CEO, Kimberly McKinney, saw value in Sextant's recommendation to assess the organization's use of technology through one-on-one interviews with key team members. These findings formed the basis for a short-term transitional plan and long-term strategic direction for the organization's technology platform.

Impact:

• Secured the network from unauthorized access and restored productivity to organization
• Increased system availability by almost 100%
• Reduced technical support requests from daily to only once or twice a month