Case Study - Evolve Computers Limited

Company: Evolve Computers Limited
Location: London, United Kingdom
Product in use: GFI MAX RemoteManagement™

When Evolve Computers Ltd tasked service desk manager Lewis Sheridan with evaluating the right Managed Services platform to support the company’s plans for growth he found GFI MAX RemoteManagement ticked all the right boxes:

• GFI Software has a good reputation
• Excellent account management and responsive support
• Aggressive development plan and road map

Evaluating the big Managed Services Platforms

When I joined Evolve Computers I was tasked with building up the service desk and implementing a Managed Services platform to support our aggressive plans for growth and complement the operations of the service desk. I wanted something simple and easy for our engineers to use and it had to be reliable, fast, and meaningful by way of alerting. GFI MAX RemoteManagement, HoundDog Technology at that time, was currently in use but deemed to be a natural casualty given it lacked Remote Control, Patch Management and End Point Security.

I had come from a company with 5 engineers using Kaseya to support over 800 endpoints. It was a great product for remote control and extensive in its customizability. However, due to the significant time required to configure it, we had not really taken advantage of its more proactive features and my brief for Evolve Computers was to create something proactive quickly. Despite this we did include it in an extensive evaluation of all the main RMM Software vendors including Kaseya, N-Able and Zenith Infotech. We installed and configured tools, spoke with sales people and visited reference sites - but each product ruled itself out for different reasons – unresponsive sales people, poor remote control functionality, slow performance, too expensive.

GFI MAX RemoteManagement grows up

Parallel to this (July, 2009), GFI Software bought HoundDog Technology and rebranded it GFI MAX RemoteManagement. Our Account Manager, Keri, called to tell me about their aggressive product development schedule and roadmap, that Remote Control and Patch Management were on the way. Suddenly they had my attention.

While I knew HoundDog Technology to be a strong monitoring tool, I had never really considered it serious contender in the MSP arena. Now with the backing of GFI, I had a good feeling that GFI MAX RemoteManagement was going to grow-up into a hosted-Managed Services platform that could compete with the larger more complex offerings.

Another important factor in our decision was that we wanted a supplier that is more like a business partner, one that understands our needs as a Managed Services Provider, is flexible and has good levels of contact. Keri has been key in cementing our relationship and giving us the confidence to build our business and service desk around the GFI MAX offerings. Keri listens to our concerns and the support team responds with solutions.

With the responsibility of selecting the right product firmly on my shoulders, I chose GFI MAX RemoteManagement and we’ve never looked back. With a very rapid development schedule, features are happening on the right timescale and we’reparticularly impressed with the new Patch Management solution.

Building Evolve Computers with GFI MAX

GFI MAX RemoteManagement is running on over 350 endpoints and we plan to double in the next 12 to 18 months. GFI MAX will enable us to do that without increasing complexity. We are already reaping the rewards, delivering better service and being more responsive. GFI MAX RemoteManagement is a tool we can actually use and get value out of very quickly.

We get 'air time' with GFI and we value that a lot. With the ideas forums and channels we know we’re being heard and effecting change and we like being able to talk with a local support team.

The evaluation of Managed Services platforms for Evolve Computers was extensive. The competitors are pricy and/or really didn't have offerings compelling to us and our specific requirements. Our goal is to be GFI’s best user and derive as much value out of this tool as possible. We’re using GFI MAX RemoteManagement because:

• GFI Software has a good reputation
• IT provides excellent account management and responsive support
• The product has an aggressive development plan and road map

For more information about GFI MAX RemoteManagement visit http://www.gfi.com/it-managed-services-software. Download your free trial version of the software http://www.gfi.com/app/max/max-trial/en/.

^{January 2011}