Paranet Managed Solutions Promotes Customer Service in Granite Properties' IT Environment

DALLAS, TX, March 06, 2011 (Press-News.org) As one of the larger commercial property owners and managers in the Sunbelt, Dallas-based Granite properties knows that the key to success in their industry is superior customer service - face-to-face as well as behind-the-scenes. "In this industry, tenants, vendors and even our own employees need to actually see us doing our jobs," says Clint Osteen, Director of Information Technology for Granite Properties. "By having Paranet Solutions manage our IT infrastructure; Granite is able to give the business and business technology the attention it needs."

The Challenge
Over the course of 10 years, Granite Properties brought more than a dozen properties into their portfolio. With each property came its own IT equipment, vendors and licensing agreements. Granite's IT infrastructure quickly became a 'hodge-podge' and IT resources were being stretched thin. The Company knew it either had to add staff or make significant changes to the infrastructure. Granite decided the latter option would be the smart and economical long-term solution.

The Solution
In 2008, Paranet Solutions was invited to perform as assessment of Granite's IT situation. They proposed an aggressive remediation plan that included ensuring the security of their network; standardization of the environment (upgrades and replacements of hardware, software and licenses), as well as their policies and procedures across all offices; management of Granite's help desk; and oversight of all day-to-day IT responsibilities.

"Improving Granite's network reliability and security had a tremendous effect on the company's productivity and its ability to provide superior customer service," says Doug Tassan, Vice President of Client Services for Paranet Solutions. "In addition to bringing all security patches and virus protection up to date, we limited the ability of employees to make changes without proper approvals. Not only does this policy change ensure consistency across the network, it also gives Granite peace-of-mind. They don't have to worry about the network going down or threats gaining access to the system - we're taking care of all that for them."

The Results
According to Osteen, all of the changes made by Paranet have been successful in stabilizing their environment. This allowed Granite to focus on their business and contributed to Granite Properties winning a "Digie" award at the Realcomm 2010 conference for Best Use of Automation by an Owner. This award recognizes commercial real estate firms that are in the forefront of thought leadership and innovation, and understand that it isn't technology that creates positive results, but rather a combination of different technologies that can facilitate automation.

But the most significant benefit Granite has realized by standardizing processes, ensuring security throughout the organization, and looking to Paranet to provide ongoing managed services is the ability to stop worrying about behind-the-scenes operations and start focusing on the business. "Granite is committed to doing the right things and the smart things to improve productivity and eventually lower costs," says Tassan. "These IT improvements give us the ability to do more for tenants and investors."

The partnership between Granite and Paranet is far from over. Plans are in place for future improvements such as upgrading voice connectivity, virtualization of the infrastructure and installation of wireless access points at remote locations. In addition, Paranet is providing managed IT services and help desk support for the foreseeable future. This commitment between client and vendor is unusual and is due to Paranet willingness to modify the typical managed services business model.

"I think a big reason why all of these changes have been so well received is because Paranet really understands the 'human' needs of our business, then adapts their managed services methodology to work for us," says Osteen. "We're very relationship-driven with our clients, employees and vendors. It's less about the technology and more about people. Paranet understands that it's critical to reach out to our employees - be a face and a person to them - rather than just a voice on the phone. That understanding is uncommon in a managed services provider."

For more information, visit http://www.paranet.com or call 972.759.0900.