Succession Planning Prompted Reorganization of Family Business and Need for New, Upgraded Services
Cincinnati, OH, January 29, 2015—Advanced Technology Consulting (ATC) recently completed work for Mike’s Carwash, totally re-working the company’s voice and data services while facilitating a wholesale move to the cloud. Spawned by the reorganization of the family-owned business, ATC was engaged to handle the Cincinnati ownership’s network services.
Mike’s Carwash, locally owned by Mike Dahm, currently operates 15 locations—seven in greater Cincinnati. It is now headquartered in a recently renovated facility in Loveland, OH, a suburb of Cincinnati. Dahm’s brother, Bill, operates 26 car wash locations now under the name Crew Carwash, located in central Indiana with headquarters in Indianapolis. The original company for Mike’s and Crew was formed in 1948 by their father, Joe Dahm, in Ft. Wayne, Ind.
Prior to the reorganization into two companies, which was done for succession planning purposes for both brother’s respective families, all locations were tied to the original headquarters in Indianapolis via a Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network. The network was provided by a major national carrier. ATC worked to bring the new Mike’s Carwash and its 15 locations and two support offices onto a new telephony and service platform.
Mike’s Carwash went with a hosted VoIP phone system with MPLS connectivity between all locations. After reviewing alternative solutions, Mike’s Carwash chose Cincinnati Bell Technology Solutions (CBTS) for the MPLS network and the CBTS Emerge hosted VoIP telephony solution.
Mike’s Moves to the Cloud
In addition to the hosted phone system, ATC partner, Nexigen, deployed a cloud-based server platform for all locations in a centralized data center. Nexigen provides ongoing IT services and an extended-hours help desk for Mike’s Carwash. The help desk not only mitigates IT issues, but all operational issues with all Mike’s locations. The help desk can open a ticket and quickly forward to the appropriate Mike’s Carwash department.
As part of the migration to the cloud, Nexigen also upgraded each location with premium-grade routers and switches. As part of the initiative, each site received new locking cabinets and battery backup, providing remote access and power management from the Loveland headquarters. Centralized administration functionalities eliminate the need for any on-site management, while increasing security.
Coordination Key to Successful October 4, 2014 Launch
A move to the cloud, new VoIP, new connectivity, and an upgraded Local Area Network (LAN) for each location required well-planned, staged coordination by ATC, Nexigen, CBTS and Mike’s Carwash’s IT personnel. Add the opening of the company’s new headquarters to the mix as well as a support office in Ft. Wayne, IN, and you have a monumental project management task with tight deadlines.
“It was very important to engage the best partners to identify the right services and, ultimately, bring everything up and on to the new platform seamlessly,” said Jamie Pierce, Mike’s Carwash Director of IT. “Migrating onto a new geographically distributed network is never an easy task even without a hard deadline. ATC and Nexigen did a great job of successfully coordinating all the moving parts prior to our launch on October 4.”
New Headquarters Opens in Loveland
Mike’s Carwash simultaneously opened new headquarters in Loveland, OH, located at 100 Northeast Drive. The facility has office space for staff, a training center, and manufacturing and storage space, in addition to the brand new hosted VoIP phone system from CBTS.
The new system consists of approximately 85 handsets across the entire VoIP platform, which includes all retail locations. Voice and data service for the Cincinnati support office runs over a single fiber circuit provided by CBTS. The phone system provides customized call flow and extension dialing between all locations. Incoming calls can also be easily transferred to any other location.
For more information, contact Advanced Technology Consulting at 513-323-1131, or visit insights.4atc.com.
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