The New Normal: COVID-19, Innovation, & Our Technology Partner – CIO Solutions: PART 2

The New Normal: COVID-19, Innovation, & Our Technology Partner - CIO Solutions: PART 2

Legacy Construction began a relationship with Tektegrity in 2016 as a small business client. At that time, we had 5 employees and they offered small business support that was a good fit for our needs at the time. As Legacy Construction grew from 5 employees to just under 40 by the beginning of 2020, our tech support needed to grow with us. TekTegrity and CIO Solutions merged in 2018, creating a larger network of support that continued to fit our growing need. CIO Solutions is Legacy Construction’s official IT partner today.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CIO Solutions shared that their technology-based internal processes were what helped them successfully transition to a work-from-home environment overnight. Upon hearing the rumors of COVID-19 reaching CA, CIO Solutions proactively tested a work from home model with key service teams. With these tests yielding no challenges to service, they migrated to that norm before the statewide mandate to close their offices.

 

One of their brand promises is Operational Efficiency, and that concept proved most valuable at the onset of the pandemic. Because their teams use technology-based systems and processes to work and communicate efficiently across their 4 locations, this translated easily to the work from home environment. Because this core focus laid the foundation for that transition, CIO Solutions was able to then prioritize information and knowledge sharing as a way to support their clients and their communities during the crisis. They began to release regular webinars to inform other companies on how to develop and improve their systems to support a dispersed workforce. CIO Solutions shared webinar resources covering best practices, helpful technology-based tools, and recommendations on the right technology solutions moving forward. They believe that education and resources were the most helpful way to support the community.

 

CIO Solutions has always prioritized building their team with competent, efficient, and passionate members. They have a Rapid Response team for standard technical issues dedicated to the goal of first-call resolution. They also have Dedicated Client Teams comprised of engineers, tech leads, supervisors, technicians, and onsite professionals. Due to this structure, when demand for work from home system assistance sharply increased, they were able to reallocate designated resources from these Dedicated Client Teams into a specialized team focused on these requests without compromising support for the rest of their clients. CIO Solutions worked to set up systems for the clients with the assets they already had, and found that the customers in the cloud computing environment transitioned to remote work most seamlessly.

 
Some of their clients found that their productivity was around 80% at the beginning of the work from home shift, and increased to 100% once they were able to receive the hardware needed to support the new systems. The scarcity of supplies was the roadblock to the goal of 100% operation. Monitors and PCs were incredibly difficult to source. The community was very understanding as CIO Solutions worked to procure the hardware that their customers needed. Once the initial craze and hardware shortage leveled off, CIO Solutions pivoted to helping customers develop and implement more strategic long-term processes to become less reactive when challenges arose.
 

Moving forward, one of the biggest challenges CIO Solutions has identified in this new normal is how it has compromised security for many businesses. When COVID precautions began, many businesses were focused on simply making it work. In this time, workflows changed quickly, and many companies had to compromise their security requirements for the sake of functionality. Unfortunately, changing workflows and increased uncertainty are ideal scenarios where hackers thrive. Now, companies may have many employees using personal computers and devices (which may or may not be secure), over connections that may or may not be secure, with altered communication patterns outside of the norm. With these changes, hacking is on the rise and tactics are becoming more creative. One of the best lines of defense in this new normal, is employee vigilance. Learn more about some suggestions for security best practices in CIO Solutions’ latest blog post.

 
Each of the techs that we work with from CIO Solutions is very patient, knowledgeable, and always takes extra time to find a solution. Our dedicated account managers take on the responsibility of monitoring and planning our company technology needs so that we are proactive and not reactive. We feel fully supported and secure by our partnership with CIO Solutions and credit them largely to our success in embracing innovation and transitioning to a work-from-home environment.