“Outsourcing Server Administration To Cloud400 Helped Us Better Focus On Our Growing Business Without Adding New People. Now My Staff Helps In Other Parts Of Our Business Including Credit, Collection And Customer Service.”
Background
Zieger & Sons, Inc. Wholesale Florists is a Philadelphia, PA based distributor of fresh flowers. Since 1910, Zieger & Sons has been a premier provider of wholesale floral supplies and fresh flowers to professional florists in the tristate area, including Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.
30 Users, 2 Locations On 8202-E4B With Custom Software
Zieger & Sons supports its 30 users in 2 locations on an 8202-E4B with a combination of custom software, Appian truck routing, Broderick software and Curbstone for credit card processing.
The Zieger operation starts as early as 3:00 am getting trucks out to deliver flowers and stays open as late as 7:00 pm taking orders.
Heavy Dependence On System – No Time For Downtime
President Stephen Zieger explains, “We are very dependent on our system. I was very concerned about what might happen if we had a disaster and our system was down for days.”
Stephen continues, “We import flowers, mostly from Columbia and Ecuador. Our inventory is perishable in 7-10 days. So, we have to sell it quickly so we don’t have to dump it. Our system provides my 10 salespeople advance notice of our imports so we can presell our in-transit inventory before receipt. We are almost 100% dependent on our system. When my salesmen are not on the system for 5 minutes, they are all crying that they are losing money.”
Perishable Inventory Needs 100% Uptime
“We really rely on our system to be able to see what is coming in. A lot of the time our inventory that is in transit is already sold. Our system allows us to do that. This information is available to our salespeople and our customers who can see it on our website.
“When you are turning your inventory so quickly, if you lose your system for a few hours here and there, you’re dead. If we lost our system for a few days we would be in real trouble.”
DR Plan Keeps Focus On Business, Not Recovery
“I started to think about a disaster plan in case something happened here at our office. I thought if I could have our system offsite then I could focus on getting our business back up and not worry about recovering our system.
“My sales team would be unable to process orders until we could recover. It is a hardship when we are down just for a few hours. Recovery in a day or two is unthinkable.”
Hosting With Built-In DR Makes Sense
“The more I thought about hosting with built-in disaster recovery, the more it made sense to me. We could outsource our server support and get the disaster recovery I want, so I can focus on the business.”
Received SDP Newsletter And Cloud400 Info For Several Years
Stephen goes on, “We had been getting the Source Data Products Cloud400 newsletter for several years. Our programmer was familiar with Cloud400. We knew Cloud400 was in Minnesota, close to IBM Rochester, so we figured the technical team was very knowledgeable about IBM i. I was comfortable with the Cloud400 platform. So I decided to try the 60-day free trial.”
Easy Cloud400 60 Day Free Trial
“The Cloud400 test was easy. The experience has been good. We sent a complete system save and the Cloud400 technical team restored it on one of the data center production servers. We got up and running quickly.
“Cloud400 connectivity engineer Alan simplified and streamlined our firewall connectivity. We had new and separate point-to-point connections between Cloud400 and our Philadelphia and Harrisburg offices.”
New Setup Simple, Safer AND Less Expensive
“The new setup was simple and safer than our current system because if we lost our production server or internet connection, our entire operation was down. Now, with the new setup, if either location is affected we can continue to operate. This made things much easier for me.
“Even better, the new web connectivity is less expensive that what we had in place. This connectivity cost-savings was an unexpected bonus.”
Expert Cloud400 Team Very Accommodating
“Our Cloud400 project leader Brett was very easy to work with and very accommodating. I was impressed with his expertise. He was easy to talk to. When we scheduled to go live, we had to reschedule due to unexpected weather delays. Brett moved his schedule around to accommodate us. It was a wonderful experience working with him and his team. I was never concerned that we would never go live.”
No More Server Management Issues With Cloud400
Stephen adds, “Now that we are on Cloud400, I like that we do not have deal with server management issues. My people do not have to deal with console error messages, applying IBM PTFs and software patches, conducting regular full system backups, or managing backup tapes. We no longer have to deal with IBM hardware maintenance (HWMA) or software maintenance (SWMA) fees.”
Cloud400 Puts Zieger Focus On Growing Business
“Outsourcing server administration to Cloud400 has helped us to better focus on our growing business without adding new people.
“Now that my staff is freed from IBM server administration, they have been able to help in other parts of our business, including credit, collection and customer service.”
Stephen Zieger Recommends Cloud400
“If you are considering hosting your IBM i applications in the cloud, Cloud400 is top-notch and will seamlessly get it done for you.
“I am very pleased with Cloud400. I was comfortable from the start. I am very glad that we did it.”