Hear It From Who Matters Most
It's not enough to take our word for it when it's your business on the line.
Keeran Networks Client Testimonials
Watch all of the Keeran Networks Client Testimonials here
Legacy Mortgage Group
Customer Testimonial: 1 of 7
Murphy Battista LLP
Orchards Dental Clinic
Armour Insurance
Folkgraphis Frames
Dust Queen
Legacy Mortgage Group Testimonial Transcript
Derek Pluim
So for an intro here to kind of kick us off here, can you tell us a little about yourself and what the company does? Legacy murder?
Aly Remtulla
Absolutely. So my name is Ali Remtulla. I'm the operations manager with Legacy Mortgage Group and Legacy Mortgage Group is a full-service residential and commercial brokerage.
Umm, obviously dealing in in mortgages.
What made you realize that you need to go looking for somewhere to help you with your IT?
Well, I think given the nature of our business and that information is sensitive.
Umm, clients. Uh, personal information obviously needs to be. Umm, Confidential, secure, etcetera, etcetera. I think that's kind of what the starting point was to get Keeran involved with our business.
What has shown you that you made the right choice by picking Keeran Networks?
Seamless and smooth business operations for the past two years, we haven't had any privacy breaches or loss of information or anything like that. So I think that's probably a testament to that. We made the right choice by choosing Keeran.
This next one here is loosely a COVID question, but how has Keeran Networks impacted your business's ability to scale? And this is up and down in the office and out of office.
Uh, well, as a brokerage, we opened doors two years ago, right before the pandemic started, actually so.
I think Keeran has really given us the ability to grow our business through the pandemic.
Umm, we were able to bring on brokers onboard them, do everything virtually, and really not have to be in an actual office environment or setting so.
Uh, I think uh by them taking by you guys by hearing, taking on a lot of that tech side and support side for us. It allows us to grow our brokerage without having to put our own manpower into doing all the little things.
You stirred mentioned this earlier, but we'll come back to it now. How important is the security of your data and how does Keeran Networks make you feel comfortable that your data is secure?
Yeah. So the security of our data is absolutely critical. It's a requirement even to work with certain lenders and with credit adjudicators throughout the country, you need to have certain security levels. And so the security of our data is extremely important and we feel very comfortable especially knowing that Keeran even backs up our data every 20 minutes like we don't really lose information.
No. We have a wall that's up that nobody can actually get in. We haven't had any data breaches or anything like that. So we feel pretty comfortable that you guys have been doing an awesome job.
How does Keeran networks help you make smart decisions for your business?
Uh, you know, it's really nice to be able to reach out to someone at curing and we're very digital brokerage. We don't like paper and we want to do everything with the newest, best, latest technology it's really nice to be able to reach out to the Keeran team to help us with various tech side things as well. So maybe it's new devices for our brokers.
Uh, different types of programs that we can use to either automate or, UM, make our business more efficient. So I mean you guys really help us.
Umm. In those areas as well, not just managing IT but also how we can make smarter.
Digital decisions to have a more efficient, smoother business.
That's great. Thank you.
How would you describe the Keeran Networks communication style? Is it approachable and accessible?
Oh, absolutely approachable, accessible, efficient, and timely. Like, I mean when we need something, someone's always there to answer, whether it's by phone or using the Keeran assist app, or even through email. I mean, response times are always really fast and all of the team is very quick to resolve an issue and work with you. And they're flexible as well. Like if they call it a time when.
I'm in a meeting or someone's busy at the time. They always work around that and we'll follow up with the individual. So communications have been absolutely excellent.
Good to hear that.
If there's one word you could use, describe your experience with the team at care networks, what word would it be and why?
Ah, that's a hard one. Just one word. I feel like there are so many words.
Or phrase yeah.
Or phrase UM.
I would, I would have to say. Satisfied and secure. You know, like there's it's one of those things that we just don't have to think about.
We don't have to worry on the backside and it's just everything is just taking care of for us. So very satisfied and very secure with the services provided.
OK. So that concludes the first seven questions moving into the additional ones now.
So what problems were you trying to solve by hiring us?
So of course, like I said, uh data management, of course, data security. It was critical. Obviously setting up the network. Like I said, we're a digital brokerage. So we need everything to be digital and we need everything to work.
Umm, wherever, because not everyone is always in the office either so.
That there's that component and then really the onboarding component like when we have new brokers that we bring on, I'm getting them fully set up and running with all of our programs, our services, everything that we use on a daily basis, having you guys take over that from us and actually.
Onboard the client essentially for our sorry the broker for us has really taken a lot off of us.
Works well, so this next one here is how was the onboarding experience with Keeran Networks.
And you weren't there. They wouldn't. We. OK, so that's fair. And maybe just to rephrase that, when so it's mileage out of it. How is the onboarding experience with new brokers having care networks there?
It is so good and you know we've been developing over the past year. We keep changing a few things here and there and what you guys have been offering and doing and I think we've really hit kind of the sweet spot where when I send a request over to you guys saying we have a new broker coming on board.
Umm, I have the device with all of the appropriate programs.
Email addresses and all that. You're like all the small little nitty, gritty digital things that need to happen a full like a full desktop is ready for that employee the day they start so they can start doing business immediately. So it's really nice and you know there are times I really try to send the note to secure at least three weeks three or four weeks before the employee's start date so that there's enough time. But there are some situations where we had one on board literally confirmed last Thursday and we brought him on Monday.
Keeran had everything set up. The device is ready to go and that was like a super rush over the weekend, kind of a gig so.
Umm, it's nice that we're able to rely on you guys and you guys provide that level of service. It's like I said it's taking the weight off our shoulders and it makes us focus on our business as opposed to.
The things that are not really Building our business.
Good segue. What has your business been able to accomplish knowing your IT is looked after?
Yeah, exactly. And exactly that knowing that our IT is taken care of and all of our IT needs have been taken care of that allows us to focus our manpower and energy and actually developing business.
Getting getting in front of clients getting in front of partners growing the actual business and growing revenue so we can focus on that while you guys take care of all of the IT side.
What type of business or owner would you recommend Keeran networks to?
I would say any business or any owner that has any type of digital component. I feel like there's probably something even with the smallest of businesses that you guys could help.
Solve, alleviate, take some of the pressure off of that owner. So as long as it's some type of digital component, I think any business owner could benefit from what KEERAN offers.
What was one unexpected benefit you gained from using our service?
Well, for me personally, one of the unexpected benefits was, like I said, we're trying to automate a lot of our systems and become more efficient and try and link things together and stop having to manually enter small little things here and there. So, when I unexpected benefit was just being able to spitball ideas come up with solutions and.
I just picked the brain of your experts on your side about is there a program that's already included with our Microsoft suite of tools or is there already something that we have that we don't necessarily have to pay for that we could be utilized to make this problem solved or this?
This is less stressful, so I think that was a really unexpected benefit for me.
How is your business impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic and what role did Keeran Networks play in helping you get through it?
Yeah. So like I said, we opened the brokerage, and then one month after the brokerage opened, COVID hit, so life shut down, so.
There there was quite the shift where we had to get all of our employees now and staff set up with their own home stations. So that was the biggest part. I think that Keeran helped us through, like I said, we also opened during the pandemic essentially. So you guys have kind of been there the whole time.
Umm.
Building our business with us because we started from the ground up and you've been there right from the beginning, so.
Even though COVID didn't necessarily impact our business and our revenue per se, it obviously impacted our office situation and you guys were able to quickly make sure everyone was suited and well set up to operate from their own home offices.
How well does Keeran networks understand your business?
I'm going to say probably understand it pretty well, seeing that you guys are still our IT providers.
So yeah, I would say I understand our business really well and you've worked, like I said, you've worked with us to make sure we meet those requirements of different lenders and credit educators to make sure that whatever firewalls are needed, whatever security measures are needed, you took the time to understand that and make sure that we were able to check the boxes so we could start working with these partners.
Would you describe cure networks as focused more on your short-term tech needs or your long-term strategy?
I would say probably both.
Like I said, some of the short-term tech needs are always onboarding new employee tech support. If someone's having an issue with something so there's always a short-term need. But I think there is also that long-term strategy. Like I said when we're trying.
Automate things. Use new devices. Always get the newer, the better, the best thing that's out there. That's gonna make the job more efficient for future business. So I think it's, I think it's a combination of both.
How do you feel about the speed at which your issues get addressed?
There's nothing more to say other than the speed that they get addressed is great because I always get a response the same day if not within a couple of hours so.
Uh, fantastic.
Do you feel like you know who to talk to and you have a question or issue?
Yeah, I've, I mean, if I don't, I just kind of quiz everyone. But we have some great contacts through Keeran and some great relationships that we built. So it's easy to just reach out to someone if you have a one-off or like I said, using the Keeran Assist app or even just picking up the phone and call.
Just call someone. Someone will get the answer for you.
Murphy Battista LLP Testimonial Transcript
Irena, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what your company does?
Irina Kordic
My name is Irina Kordic, and I'm the managing partner of Murphy Battista LLP, which is a boutique litigation law firm in Vancouver, and we specialize in various injury claims and cloth actions. We represent people from all walks of life in a variety of different claims such as slips and falls, bodily injury from assaults, professional negligence, sex assault, and, of course, glass actions of varying kinds.
What made you realize that you need to go looking for someone to help you with your IT?
That's a very good question. That's sort of easier to answer now that we're out of COVID. It was actually COVID I think that let us understand how much IT support we were lacking. We had also experienced a period of growth and we have a lot more staff than we used to. We are a firm of about 100 right now and we definitely needed strong IT support to help us through the COVID period where everybody was working from home and also to help us plan out a whole bunch of different projects that are going to make our business more successful.
You know, time and trust a trust has really developed over time. Keeran Networks has made a great deal of difference for us. We have a lot less complaints from our staff about any IT glitches or problems, but we also have seen a lot of more efficiencies in terms of a variety of different tasks come as well.
How has Keeran Networks impacted your business ability to scale?
Keeran Networks offers really good advice on a variety of different solutions, so since we may experience further growth, I want to make sure that whatever we are signing up for is something that's scalable. So Keeran Networks offers support on a per-user user basis and also all the solutions that they offer for our I team needs such as software or really anything that we need is also based on a per-user cost and is adapted to what we needed to be.
Moving to data now, how important is the security of your data, and as a follow-up, how does Keeran networks make you comfortable that your data is secure?
It has become very obvious and it's been in the media so much recently that cybercrime is on the rise it has become prevalent and all sorts of companies are hit. Many law firms have been hit, and very big companies in the states have been hit. It's everywhere. So the security of our data is paramount to us because we deal with a lot of very sensitive and private information as lawyers and Keeran Networks have worked very hard and I trust them completely to provide us with the best possible solutions that are the industry standard or above. So I'm very happy with what they have implemented for us and makes me sleep a lot better at night.
Keeran Networks. Uh meets with me. Uh, once every quarter to go over a variety of, you know, what has gone on in the previous quarter and to plan ahead and those meetings are very valuable to us because they help us understand what the problems have been in the past, how they have been resolved or how they need to be resolved in the future. And it also helps a lot with planning. I find that forward-thinking and planning is key to success in any kind of business.
And from the IT perspective, it's very important to have the infrastructure to support any kind of growth or expansion or change, and Keeran Networks has delivered on all of those.
How would you describe the Keeran communication style? Is it clear and understandable?
One of the things that I have always struggled with is actually understanding all the terminology around the IT world and myself being a lawyer, I know nothing. I use a lot of very big words, but I know none of the words that are used in the IT world. So the guys at Keeran Networks have been excellent in providing sort of layman's terms on how for me to understand what we're actually doing and what needs to be done. And it's not only that they're able to explain things, but they're very effective communicators, and they're very friendly people, so the communication style overall has been great.
If there's one word you could use to describe your experience with the team at Keeran Networks. What word or phrase would it be and why?
I would describe Keeran as quite exceptional. My over the years I have worked with a number of different companies who were providing IT services and I have found Keeran Networks to truly be exceptional. The team is very dedicated to excellence and they are very geared towards customer service. They go well beyond what is expected to make sure that we are a satisfied customer and I very much appreciate that I do that for my clients it's always nice to have that to be done for me when I'm somebody else's client.
What problems we're trying to solve by hiring cure it in the first place.
There was a lot of ad hoc and piecemeal IT that was happening and the firm was going through a process of growth. So while we had in place was simply not enough to support 100 people, we had expanded from maybe 20 to 100 in a relatively short time period and we needed a lot more support than could be afforded. But what we had in place, we were also looking for someone to have some sort of a centralized tracking system for all the tickets so that we can understand.
What problems were not just one user, but what more users were having, so that we could address the global kind of issue that would help solve problems for many so Keeran Networks is great because they have a ticketing system to centralized and that really helps, I think in terms of finding the right solutions for many.
How was the onboarding experience with Keeran Networks?
The onboarding experience. This can always be rough. And I have done. Our onboarding experience is not with IT companies per say, but with a variety of software. And when you, whenever you introduce something new into a climate that's not very open to change. And let's face it, law firms are very traditional and people are very invested in what they know as opposed to what new things they can learn. So the onboarding experience was actually really good.
It was done quite smoothly, I thought, and the team at Keeran Networks made it so that they were very approachable. They made sure to outline to everybody what the new procedure was for the ticketing system to make sure that everybody knows how to reach them and to make sure that everybody felt comfortable with embarking on a new adventure.
What is your business be able to accomplish knowing your IT is looked after?
Sleep better at night. That's for one thing. I'm going back to my answer on the security of data.
Uhm yeah, I think that there's also we are still exploring growth opportunities and that's something that Keeran is also providing us some comfort with because all of these services that they offer a scalable and they're also able to offer planning services in terms of future growth. So I feel very happy with what they're able to offer in terms of a changing climate.
What type of business or business owner would you recommend? Keeran Networks too?
Come. I think that pretty much any type of business needs IT support and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Keeran Networks to any business owner. I think law firms, in particular, can use a lot of IT support, and I definitely would not hesitate to recommend Keeran Networks to any of my competitors even.
I would say that I probably I'm really happy about the fact that now my staff is a lot more used to having one way to do things before Keeran we did not have anything that was uniform or centralized and there were a lot of things that people were doing on their own that we're just different than what their neighbor, you know, sitting in the next cubicle over was doing. And that's not a really efficient way to run things. So now that we have everything more integrated.
Everything has turned out to be much more efficient, and it also leads to a lot more employee satisfaction because they're not dealing with issues on their own and they know that they're being looked after.
How has your business impacted during COVID-19 pandemic and what role did Keeran Networks play in helping you get through it?
During the COVID-19 pandemic for almost the first year, uh, we had almost no staff in the office. Everybody was operating remotely and so IT support during that time was crucial.
Our business wasn't impacted as much as many others were, but the courts were closed for three months initially, and that kind of put things on the standstill. However, during that time we were able to focus more on what do we actually need to make this work. If we're going to have to be working remotely for a more extended period of time, which turned out to be a really good planning strategy because we are still working remotely to a significant degree.
Our staff are now, you may be 50/50 split between being in the office and working remotely. So the planning for the IT infrastructure and support has been crucial to support that and to make sure that the business continues to run.
They took the time to really get to know what we do and I feel like at every meeting they will ask questions. While regarding further clarification on what the needs are.
Or while they may not understand what legal concepts were dealing with, they understand fully what our client base is, what the needs of our users are, staff, what programs we use, and why we need them to work in a certain way. Because everything needs to be highly customized and adaptable to a variety of different situations. So that has been very good and helpful.
Would you describe your network as focused more on your short-term tech needs or your long-term strategy?
I would say that it's both up. I think that it's certainly helped in the short term a great deal, but I'm hopeful that it's going to be a part of the long-term strategy as well. I am currently in the process of planning for the next three to five years and the Keeran Network guys have been excellent in supporting me through that and offering me their expertise and opinions that are very well researched in terms of specific needs that we have.
That's always a very funny question. Sometimes I feel that my issues get addressed a lot faster than someone else is perhaps, but I have to say that overall, the speed of resolution of tickets has actually, I guess I should say decreased because the get tickets get resolved faster.
I feel like this might be a function of Keeran Networks learning our users and learning our business and learning more about all the different software and pieces that we have in place. So the speed of resolution has certainly increased over the number of months that initially might have been greater, but as time went on, the response time has been a lot faster and everybody is quite happy with how quickly they get answered.
Do you feel like you know who to talk to when you have a question or issue?
Yeah, I think that that's been very clear up there. Yeah, when we initially onboarded, there were a lot of email blasts about contact information. We also have the Keeran Assist application and all of our desktops. And I think everybody by now knows which email to use when they have a problem. So we certainly bug uh, they Kieran network guys as much as we possibly can via any means of contact be it the phone, email, or the app.
What value do you get out of your regular meetings of care networks? These are the QBR's or quarterly business reviews.
I get great value out of these meetings because UM, these guys have now become my trusted advisors in terms of very important business decisions, and the IT infrastructure.
Excuse me to support this many people and a changing business model is very expensive and it's very important to make the right decisions at the right time. So the quarterly meetings are very valuable because I can get some advice on where am I going next from simple things like which printer should I get to be able to print a, you know, maybe 3000 pages in an afternoon to uh, how many servers do we have to replace? Can we go on the cloud?
What's compatible with what and how much? Is it all going to cost and what's better and you know, we should we not cheap out on this and should we go, go do a big spend on that and why it's a very, very valuable advice that I don't think that I could get elsewhere and I certainly haven't had previous experiences like that with IT companies where they definitely take the time every quarter to review everything retrospectively. But to also look at perspective projects.
And I have to say that the projects that we have had with Keeran have also been very successful. They have been planned out and executed very well. And even when the project time has come to an end, we have received additional support to ensure that our projects are supported and implemented very, very well in successfully.
YWCA Testimonial Transcript
And so just start off with it. Could you please tell us a little bit about yourselves and what the YWCA does?
Katherine O'Neill
So my name is Katherine O'Neill and I'm the CEO for YWCA Edmonton, and I joined YWCA Edmonton on March 16th, 2020, so that was the first day of basically the pandemic in Canada.
So as for the YWCA Edmonton, We've been in our community since 1907, so we have seen many crises like these before. We've been around since World War One World War Two, the Great Depression, lots of ups and downs in this province, and now we're navigating through COVID-19. And what our organization does. We have a Northstar and it's we believe deeply and gender equity in our community. So we have many programs and services that help reach that goal.
Including affordable counseling help, and counseling services for women fleeing domestic violence. We have an outdoor education facility where we teach young people leadership skills and ways to be better citizens in our community.
We also have a disability sector, so we have clients who are both children and adults, and our providers work with them in the Community to make sure that they can live a full life and a life and make sure that they're able to do as much as possible in our community when and when and when they want, when.
We also do advocacy work we talk to governments about ways that they can better set up rules and systems within our communities to allow more women to be at decision-making tables or to create laws that help prevent something like gender-based violence. So overall, we do a lot in our community and we have like I said been here since 1907.
But we always have that North Star and that's that gender equity lens that we put on. Everything we do in our community.
What made you realize that you need to go looking for some help with your IT?
You know, there are a lot of things on the hardware side. We knew that the equipment that we had in our office was not a modern office and because we have, you know, staff all over our city because of COVID and with the lockdown and many people working from home, we needed to make sure that we had the right hardware, but also the right software and that we had systems in place that could just pull everything together and help our staff do their jobs in a way that's.
That's leading-edge, often not for profits don't invest in this type of thing, and it's too bad because I think that by being able to pull this together and have a really good strategy around IT, software, hardware, I think that you're going to get left behind and you're not going to be capitalizing as much on all of those. You know, really sacred donor dollars. Dollars that we get from our donors.
So that we can ensure that our services and our programs are just at the top of and be top of the line top, using all of the best practices in our community.
What has shown you they made the right choice by picking Keeran Networks specifically?
You know, Keeran has just been an incredible partner. That's how I would describe them. We came to them letting them know where history has been, particularly with IT. We've drafted a short term plan and a long term plan and I feel that anytime we have a challenge or there's a roadblock, they're always there to help us and kind of take it, take it back and help us figure out, OK, what are the best drugs you moving forward. They're also teachers, their educators. You know, I think our staff really needed to understand how to use the technology.
That we brought her or the hardware and you know, we've had lunch and learns and things like that. So they've always just been really there to not only teach but also find solutions to challenges we might have and you know in this online zoom Microsoft team world that we are now living in there's a lot of change happening and it's really overwhelming for staff so to be able to have a tech partner that act salute Lee understands that but then also brings these really incredible solutions to the table.
I just feel really blessed and we've really been excited about this partnership and I'm really looking forward to the future working with Keeran.
How has Keeran Networks impacted your organization's ability to scale?
You know, but the fact that we've been able to go right back to brass tacks, to the foundation to really figure out again how what is our hardware looks like? What do we need to do to improve there? We've worked with them to make sure that we have the right equipment and then that software piece. So just bringing those pieces together, as I said earlier, they've been able to bring together all of the pieces. But in a way that makes sense to our teams because we were starting out from a staff that might not always want change.
The change, or nervous about the change or not understanding what benefits that we could have from the change. So having them at the table to help guide all of our staff has been really incredible and there are lots of people who are really excited by change and that's great. You have that on every team, but you always have folks that might not understand and we've been able to bring everyone along. And I really do attribute that to Keeran being so patient and being so thoughtful in how they approach us as a client and always being there with solutions.
Every company organization uses data. How important is the security of your data? What does it mean to your organization?
Data is really important and definitely privacy because we have clients that definitely privacy is really essential when it counseling services, clients or disability services clients. So that's always in every conversation that we do have with Keeran. They're always talking about cybersecurity, things like that. What are our long-term strategies, making sure that we're thinking about those big-picture things that are happening in the world? We don't feel like we're being told after the fact. We feel like we were being brought in on the overall strategy.
And again, those are the kind of things that we see this as a really just a partnership because we're not just being treated like I will tell you when you need to know where, where they're at the table, understanding that what's happening in the world, what might need to be done and again data privacy, all of those things are really essential that we are always thinking ahead because we know that this is a field where things change quite quickly. And even though we're not for profit and often not for profit scenes is seen as antiquated or a little bit behind the curve.
I don't feel like that when we have someone like Keeran, who's our partner in this overall IT journey.
Building on that, how does Keeran Networks help you make smart decisions for your business?
Now it goes back to that foundational those first meetings we told you they really drilled down a lot on what the needs were. So they came in and did a lot of research. They asked a lot of questions and then we were able to build out that short and long-term plan. So I think that was really essential to build starting this off on the right foot. They are also always open to feedback when we have a question, you know our director, finance and operations will be on the phone or I can be on the phone.
And they welcome questions all the time. So you feel like it is a two-way street and that you can if there are questions that come and arise it that they're more than welcome and that people will walk you through and not talk over you 'cause. I'm not a tech person at all. And I feel that the language that we speak is I understand what's happening and that's often not always the kind of service you can sometimes get with a tech company so that really helps and I think it goes back to that education peak piece they are teachers and always open to feedback and honest feedback about how things are going.
How would you describe the Keeran Networks, complete communication style?
Well, they're, they're open. They're honest. They want transparency. Everyone knows what's going on. They speak in plain language, even though they have a high level of expertise in this area. And again, as a client, that's just so welcoming because you really do feel that you understand what's happening, what you need to do as a client to be a good client. Because we know that there's it's a two-way street and there are lots of things that we need to do on our end. And I think overall, particularly with their frontline staff.
They feel that this is a great partnership because again when we have questions about new software or do changes, they're always open to come in and do a lunch and learn or help educate folks on how to best utilize this technology. Because if you don't use the technology, it's not worth anything. And if people don't understand what that, you know, it's it's just a waste of money. And again, we wanna make sure that all of our dollars go a long way and every investment we make on IT is used as well as we can.
If there's one word you could use, describe your experience with the team at Keeran Networks, what word would it be and why?
Just positive, you know, it's been a very positive experience and there are not those like put beating your head on a table moments when in because often you can get frustrated with technology. We really do feel again that like I said, if questions arise that we can go and they're very prompt, they're very thorough. They're always giving us research back on, on, on their response times. We don't have to go hunting for that information. They're very, very proactive in getting a set of information and also helping us.
Analyze how things are going, where we can help speed up response times, how they can help. Speed up response times as well. And you know if they're always are going to be hiccups along the way. There have been, but they've always been approached in a very professional, very open, and thoughtful way. And we've always been able to get over any hurdle that we've we've reached along the way.
What problems we're trying to solve by hiring care networks in the first place?
You know, I think moving into this new hybrid world, we did understand that we need it to invest more in this side of our operations because before we had that nine to five office very paper-heavy, we have goals to go paperless by 2023 within the entire organization. And so to be able to reach those goals, those goals we had to have a partnership like this to help us and to help us walk through those again short term and long term goals to get there.
And so we just got through a process of establishing a digital payroll system called Ceridian. Anytime we have a question about these new technology solutions, they help us walk us through what is the best way to do it, the rollout, how things are working. We also just moved our office, our physical office, they've been able to help with that. You know, all of those things that go along with removing a physical office, we were able to dismantle our server, which was so antiquated and really a liability for the organization.
So again, there were big things, but then there have been these small things along the way and again, it just we can't thank them enough.
We had a long way to go and I feel like even in the short time we've been in this partnership, we've come a long way and I'm really excited about that long term. Where are we going to be? Because we're a not-for-profit. I'd like to lead our sector in being very, very savvy when it comes to your IT or hardware in your software to make sure that we are leading edge and that we're making the right investments when we look back they all were part of a very strategic well thought through plan.
What else has your business been able to accomplish knowing that your IT is looked after?
I'm trying to think that maybe I'll ask Jamie that one, 'cause she's more specific. What works beyond Ceridian? What were some other projects basically, is that your question, 'cause, Jaime, their keeper of all projects?
We did Microsoft Office 365. Well, yeah, and that's how basic it was. We did a Microsoft Office 365 which again doesn't sound complicated, but for organization, we were not. We were, we were, Oh my gosh. We started on 07 and so there were just a lot of security issues around that. There was just like a lot of like we've come a long way and we weren't really getting bang for Buck for what you know our staff are really working on systems equipment and software that just has like stuck in another decade like literally stuck in another decade. So just those baby steps and being able to build up and.
And the goal to go paperless is really aggressive. 2023 is soon and we do a lot of particularly in one of our departments, disability services, we have a lot of paper but by setting that and Keeran understanding that we need to to bring him more software solutions to help us get there. It's building that building block and that long term like let's keep building on what we're doing and on on the on that change management because again we came from a, we came from a past where folks saw technology is like scary sometimes.
Or not quite sure why it's useful. And again I think Keeran's just done a beautiful job on being able to show that bigger picture and also.
Bring along the strategies to help us implement them and make sure people are using them and by all accounts, folks are really excited. We are going to keep a hybrid office, even post-pandemic because it's really shown it's been really from a gender equity lens. It's really great. A lot of particularly female employees are excited. It just frees up their day quite a bit. But you have to have the right technology to do that and that's why investments like these are just so important in a partnership like this, we could not do this alone.
Any profit not for profit or for profit, business or government needs to really think ahead. I think this has been the silver lining of COVID. It is it's forced everyone to rethink everything they do including the technology that they use. And if you didn't take a step back and say that like what can we take the good things that have come out of this and I think and I think some companies are saying I don't know about hybrid. I wanna see bums in seats etc. But we don't see that. And like I said, there's a gender equity.
The advantage to this is that you will if you were trying to keep your staff happy and also engaged. This is something that no matter who you are, no matter what employer private or public, you need to look at this and you can't do this without having the proper technology. And that's why again having the right software solutions having the right hardware is essential. So we're excited 'cause I feel that we are.
Particularly in the not-for-profit sector, not everyone sold that this is the way to go, but we're willing to like really be out there and showing folks the benefits of this. And again by having this investment that's really very focused investment on our side.
We wouldn't be able to be doing this kind of work, not being able. We wouldn't be able to be showing others how it's how you can do it and we're not going to be perfect. This is going to take everybody needs to test and take risks. But I'm excited by that. And I think again knowing that we have Keeran who's been able to help us with that huge piece of like how do you do this without having bums in seats every day? We couldn't have done it. And yeah, works, you know, and the investments, if they understand we have limited.
We have limited funds, we don't have a bottomless pit of money. So they're really when they come with solutions or also always keeping in mind that we're not for profit client.
They're great corporate citizens. They have a very thoughtful long-term plan of how we can get there. And I really again really approach really appreciate that as the leader of the YWCA, because I feel like again it's a true partnership and that they see us as a long-term partner throughout this.
How was the YWCA impacted by Covid and what role did Keeran Networks play in helping you get through it?
You know, it was dramatic. You know, as soon as March 16th rolled around, we shut down our office. We moved 100% to remote counseling. Before that, it was 100% in person. So we have, you know, a combination of Tele-health, phone or Internet counseling. That's huge. That was a huge overnight change. And we moved to Karen about halfway, I think through the pandemic. And we knew as we were trying to establish A lot of these online services we didn't have the right IT support that was going to be able to help us succeed when we were doing a lot of these new, like, very dramatic changes within our services and operations. So it was just a light bulb moment that we need it to again invest more in this area and also find that partner that understood that we were starting from a not a great place that we had under-invested for many years and now we were having to play catch up.
Not only playing catch up but during a pandemic, so they have been like I said, when we arrived, did that thorough look at what we need? It came up with a good plan and is always tweaking and coming back and reassessing like is this working? Is this working? So we have the monthly check-ins as far as we have a report that's delivered to us about. We can see how we're doing. You know, we can set up phone calls if we want. We have just incredible customer service when things aren't going well.
And when there are big projects to there's that project manager there help that we can always go-to for just pressing questions. So there's just some very clear established line of communication. And again it goes back to that great positive communication where there's a project setup. That's the person we're dealing with and it's easy and it's well, it's not always it can be frustrating at points 'cause when you need an email you need an email, but we know that we're going to get a solution pretty quickly and that somebody is going to be on it.
Incredible again, and it speaks to and we've had other providers in the past and there's some good and bad to all of them. But I think what sets Keeran apart is, is its promptness, its customer service, the fact that we know a lot of the folks you get used to who you're you're talking with. So there are the same folks that you're talking with so that they'll have an answer, like OK, yeah, you had that problem three months ago. There's a relationship that's built with these folks and we know them by name, many of them. So it just feels good because we feel that they know.
We're not just another name as a client that people know who we are. They understand the business we're doing. They understand if we're particularly from like for example of our one of our counselors gets ahold of them and she's going into a session, a counseling session, they'll know there's an urgency there. They know what we do. They know this is the business that we do and that the fact that we're helping very vulnerable clients. So again, it's just feeling like we're not just a number, they really treat us with so much professionalism that and again goes back to that partner piece that they have set out very clear expectations of what they want to.
They know what the benchmarks they wanna hit and there are always, you know, checking in with us to see. OK. Are you happy? And if you're not happy, how do we get there?
Like they are really good. Like, I feel like I made the more we're talking with Jaime listening to me. They're really good. They're really good.
'cause, we've had not, and I'm new to the why. So is Jamie. But I know that the constant criticism going into this change was that we hadn't been able to find an IT provider that just could fit that.
There just always was a problem, like there were always issues and this is not where we are right now. This is one of those things.
This is one of our partners that we work with where we feel like there's just a really healthy productive professional relationship and that that's really, particularly during COVID you couldn't ask for anything more.
Orchards Dental Clinic Testimonial Transcript
To begin, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what your company does?
Dennis Anithottam
My name is Doctor Dennis George Anithottam. I have a clinic here in Edmonton. It is called the Orchards Dental Clinic. I bought the practice in 2018 and we've been practicing here since then. And Keeran Networks have been helping us since about that time.
What made you realize you needed to go looking for someone to help you with your IT?
Well, you know we are a digital office. We are a paperless office that involves a lot of computers and a lot of software which involves dentistry as well.
And I realized pretty soon that I needed someone who is who I can call and rely on to get things to work so that I can do my dentistry while somebody else helps me with my computers.
I believe it was the right choice because I've had many, many times when I needed help urgently, especially when I know the X-ray machine that has a software issue that needs to be updated on the server has some problems and things like that, and they've been very prompt with their help and I appreciate that.
So you have a dental practice and we're coming off of two very unusual years with COVID. During that time, how has Keeran Networks impacted your business' ability to scale and to survive the COVID crisis?
Well, I know COVID that was a very interesting time. It was a trying time. I'm pretty sure for everybody.
During COVID we were allowed to do emergency practice, so I did not shut down my clinic. I was open pretty much the whole time. So we were seeing emergencies and there were the times when we have to have things work and Keeran Networks was able to help me out to make sure that it was. So we were well supported so that I did not have any issues at that time and we grew as a practice during that time because. So that was a big challenge and we were ready for it.
Moving into data now every business deals with data on some level. How important is the security of your data and how does Keeran Networks make you feel confident that your data is secure?
Or it is extremely important in this day and age because we are a dental clinic, so we have access to patients, personal records which we have to and we have to make sure that they stay secure and like here networks has helped me you know, maintain that by providing me security from my network and also backup services so that I can be protected and the data of my the information from my patients are safe.
Well, you know there are many things that I would say have helped me. You know, one of the main things I would say is so when I set up my Home Office so that I don't have to come into the clinic on my off days to do administrative work. Dentistry is not just treating patients, but a lot of administrative work which I could do remotely because of that. And I'm very thankful that they were able to help me find a way to spend a little bit more time at home.
With technology, there's a lot of terminology and terms. How would you describe the Keeran Networks communication style? Is it approachable and understandable?
So absolutely they won't is being very approachable and very, very helpful. And I understand that the odd time and they are very busy helping other clients suit, but they've always been there to help me out when they need and therefore they can't remote in to do that they will somebody else send somebody to on-site to the clinic to help figure things out and that's great.
If there's one word you could use to describe your experience with the team at Keeran Networks, what word or phrase would it be and why?
Excellent and dependable.
So going back to the beginning here, what problems we're trying to solve by hiring Keeran Networks.
One of the main issues I had was that you know, it was a new clinic and there were a lot of things I did not know about the software and many of it was not set up properly. And by hiring Keeran Networks, they sort of made things more streamlined and systematic and made sure that everything was working properly there were a few things that need to be fixed and they help me do that.
Not. And that's the prompt support that I was getting in case I needed help.
It was great. It was. Their technicians were very helpful and knowledgeable and they understood that you know, I'm a dentist saying my knowledge of computers is not that great. So they were willing to help me patiently. I appreciate that.
Would you describe Keeran Networks as focused more on your short-term tech needs or your long-term strategy?
I believe they've helped me in the long term so far, and I and they've provided me guidelines as to how we can make things better and I appreciate that.
Usually, they're managed very well and pretty fast so.
No, no, no issues, no concerns and I'm happy.
Yeah, more or less. And I know I usually deal with Fareed when I have to do some issues and he's being very helpful and he coordinates quarterbacks things so that things get done. I appreciate that.
This is my final question today. And again, I appreciate your time. So much. What value do you get out of your regular meetings with Keeran Networks? These are the QBRs or the quarterly business reviews?
I think they give me an idea about how things have been going so far and what are the future options. And one of the outcomes of that was that we got a new server which has helped us with getting to the next level of data management. So that's very good and we applying to do some more upgrades with our computers so that we are up to date with everything and do work more faster and efficiently.
Armour Insurance Testimonial Transcript
Here, can you tell us a little about yourselves and what your company does?
Rob Stevenson
Uh, yeah. So my name is Rob Stevenson. I'm the marketing director here at Armored Surance. We are an insurance broker licensed in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, and we have four locations across Alberta.
So what made you realize you needed to go looking for someone to help you with your IT?
We had an internal IT person for some time. We were running everything internally. We had IT servers in-house which we were maintaining and one full-time person servicing our four different locations across Alberta and it just became a bit more of a job than a single person could handle and so we started looking for a managed service provider.
Here come kind of around. Gee, I think it was a question about five years ago, something like that. We started looking for a managed service provider and I guess we were just looking at a.
Some of the benefits that we thought we might get out of it were a more structured, more structured method of handling its requests.
And it's just a better way of organizing how the critical requests get handled. I think they are better able to handle the many users that we have.
It's a very comprehensive answer. Appreciate that. The second question here, I think if I touched on a bit is what has shown you that you made the right choice by picking Keeran Networks?
Yeah, some of the benefits that we've seen since starting up with Keeran is, is it's really the structure and organization of handling the ticket requests.
Uh, me, and ensuring that that you know, these the request get that they all get handled. You know that things don't fall by the wayside. And one of the things that we were we were a little bit worried about is not having somebody actually on-site to you know handle the hands-on type of things that, you know, they need to that need to be done. But we were actually pleasantly surprised when those things came up and most of them were able to be handled either remotely or through it through a technician coming out. And then I guess the, you know, we were worried about the timing on to on having technicians having to come out, but it hasn't, it hasn't been in has been that bad at all.
So that's a good segue there. You mentioned off-site and remote workers and we're coming off a couple of very unusual years here. Now, this is a Covid question. How has Keeran Networks impacted your business's ability to scale and cope with this crisis?
So about a year before COVID started. Uh, you know, our Rep at Keeran started talking to us about some of the benefits of moving our internal systems outside and putting them on, you know, putting them on an external network.
So so in those talks about it was about four months before, you know, people started to have to go home. We completed the project of moving all of our internal server stuff to the cloud.
And so because of that, when COVID came up, we were actually we, you know, we got ahold of Keeran and from a security standpoint they were saying look, the best thing, the best thing to do is to have staff bring their hardware home and plug it in. And because we had completed this project of you know, moving onto cloud networks we had literally zero downtime. We were able to you know, tell the staff one day, OK, we're going to move to working from home.
Take your computers, plug them into your plugin monitor, and Internet, and boot them up. And we had people answering the phones at 8:30 am the next morning.
That's textbook.
OK, moving into data, so Armour Insurance deals with data — very sensitive data. How important is the security of your data and how does Keeran Networks make you feel comfortable that your data is secure?
Yeah. So I said, when you're dealing with a lot of personal client information, there's always, there's always a risk that there may be a cyber exposure there.
We've put a number of things in place at the suggestion of Keeran Networks that have kind of eased our minds on that. We were able to put in a, you know, two-factor authentication for all of our users.
And in moving to remote servers, I think it has. I think it has increased our security by quite a bit.
Yeah, you know one thing that I really like about working with you guys is that this is, there's this level of transparency in the relationship that I find pretty valuable, so we will do will in our quarterly business reviews.
We sit down and go through, go through what's going on with each of our organizations so that you guys know what's going on with us. We know what's going on with you and uh and go through, you know, go through some of the things that the projects that we were completing from last year, you know they have from an IT perspective and some of the things that that we wanna look at for next year and some of the things that that you know you guys are suggesting that we take a closer look at our plans for next year and it's nice having a bit of a structured plan that way that we don't necessarily have to develop ourselves.
So when making these plans, are they clear? How would you describe the Keeran Networks communication style? Is it approachable and accessible?
Yeah, you know, I would say with the reps that we deal with we're definitely able to communicate alright with them as we need to. In my position, I'm a bit of a liaison with the larger issues, the more global things that come up. So I do a lot of communications with the project leaders and things like that and you know it's pretty easy I think to get on the same page as definitely an understanding of the business problems that we're experiencing?
What has your business been able to accomplish knowing your IT is now looked after?
One of the things that actually one of the big wins for us over the over even the last couple months is we have like we've you had mentioned earlier, we deal with a lot of personal, a lot of personal data and it's very important to us that this data is secure and it's also very important to our partners at this data remains secure and some of our vendors. So as part of some of our contracts were subject to occasional audits on, privacy and security from a cyber perspective so.
Well, just a couple of months ago, we went through an audit with one of our vendors on this and I was able to speak with Richard and the team over there, and they were, you know, they were sympathetic to our plight because going through an audit isn't always isn't always easy, especially when you don't understand all of the things that they're asking. And they were, they were turning around information and proof for me, you know, within a matter of hours on things. And I was actually able to come out and and and say that, well, we're already exceeding these certain expectations.
That were required by the auditors and you know, as a result of you know some of the things we've been putting in place that Karen suggested.
Yeah, I think that the type of business that might that would fit well or that type of owner, they might enjoy the vendor relationship you get with Keeran. It would be a relationship-minded owner or leadership team.
The whole point of this is not to be hands-on with it, but uh, but you still need to. You still need to know what's going on and that your data is safe and that you are, you know, your staff are going to be able to perform their jobs without having to struggle with issues.
So it's for me. It's, you know, the relationship has been really good and the level transparency we were able to see where we're able to have, you know those important discussions and there's a level of trust that they're between both parties. So you know, I guess it, I guess what I'm saying is somebody who really values the vendor relationship.
As an insurance broker, I think that our business is a is as got a few complexities, then maybe some other businesses, don't. I think that Keeran understands those very well. I know that the uh, I know that the Armour Insurance documentation is quite robust on you know there are more documentation is maybe a little bit bigger than some of the other documentation that you guys have.
Some of the proprietary software and systems that we use I think.
We called up to speak with the tech and they and they're familiar with it.
Keeran is definitely more focused on the, yeah, I guess, I don't want to say more focused, but Keeran is definitely focused on long-term strategy. You see that the in the QBR is that we have in the annual planning that we do kind of wanted that's kind of one of the things I didn't expect from MSP relationship is the annual planning. But of course that you know you need to do that.
There's licenses that come up. There's expenses that you need to plan for and knowing about them, you know, a year ahead of time is better than finding out to month before the license is up.
Some issues are addressed very, very quickly. I know that in the past when there have been issues with the timeliness of things getting addressed, I've spoken to you know, the owners and to and to the team leads over there. And you know, if they're very transparent about what the reasons are if there's staff turnover if there's this or that's going on. So that's great.
OK. Final question here is, what value do you get out of your regular meetings with Keeran networks? You mentioned the QBRs earlier.
Yeah. Right. I think the regular meetings offer tremendous value for us. It's all about being able to plan. To plan things in advance. If we weren't having those regular meetings with Keeran, we wouldn't have undertaken the project to move away from local hosting and it would have. It wouldn't have enabled us to transition to working from home during COVID as easily as we did.
It was, where that particular project was introduced. In those meetings, I remember two separate meetings where the Keeran crew really pushed for us to do it. They thought it was very important for us to do it and were able to communicate to us that it was important and that's why we decided to do it and that's what enabled us to transition so quickly when we had to move people home.
Folkgraphis Frames Testimonial Transcript
To begin here, Terry, can you tell us a little about yourself and what your company does?
Terry Dabbagh
Yeah, so we're a manufacturer, slash wholesaler, or distributor for the picture frame art industry. So we basically have a couple of locations in Canada with Vancouver and Edmonton and we just review molding and supplies for the art world across Canada.
So yeah, we're a lot of logistics and lots of moving parts like 15,000 views of stuff to manage.
That's incredible. That's a big operation. What made you realize that you need to go looking for someone to help you with your IT?
Ah, well, we've been with carrying a long time, so we in 2000, I think it was seven or 2008 maybe we opened when we opened our Vancouver location and we started expanding across the country. We started having, IT issues with having, you know, being able to log in remotely, being on the road, and being able to access our information through our ERP.
I mean we did what most small companies do, I guess before they kind of get big we spent as little as possible on it because it was like, oh, let's do. All you need is a computer, and as long as the computer works, it works. But it wasn't the case once we kinda started to grow, we had to have that ease of being able to access our server.
Perfect. And since then, what has shown me that you made the right choice by picking Keeran Networks?
Well, I mean, we're still with Keeran. So it's been, you know, 13 or 14 years or something. But I mean the biggest thing is I mean, there's always going to be hiccups. There's always, you know, something that doesn't work, something that you know, updates with Microsoft, you know, Internet changes, downtime on, on different things. Like when you're on the road, you know, you need information, you can't be down. So, being able to make that phone call or that email putting a ticket in, and then getting it resolved in a timely manner is huge for us. Yeah.
We've had a couple of strange years here recently and with technology, how has Keeran networks impacted your business ability to scale? This is a COVID question obviously.
Yep, Yep. I would say I mean.
The beauty of it, I mean, I mean, obviously cold is bad, but the beauty of it is we were able to just flip a switch and we were all able to work from home, work from remote locations with these, you know, we moved a few computers around. We separated people and our network was already good to go. We didn't have to scramble to get anything set up. We didn't have to, you know, find alternative ways to do to run our business. We just flipped the switch and kept on going.
That's great. How does Keeran networks help you make smart decisions for your business?
I mean, it's been a learning curve I think on both parties, you know, with, with Keeran, learning kind of what we do and how we operate, you know with volumes with like call center volumes slash, you know how much order entry we do.
Uhm, it's been good 'cause they just we've grown together and we've learned how to handle different situations and different ways and Keeran has always put kind of the options on the table you know which server to use, which computers to set up in a certain way.
They, you know, even specific to individual employees where you know, someone does a lot more. Or some numbers and excel spreadsheets and they need more power on the computer or more RAM versus, you know, someone who travels like me and having something that's a little bit more mobile. And so it's been good. You know, they've, they've there have been lots of options where things were presented to fix issues and process flow. We've had, you know, scanners put into place where we're not printing hundreds of pieces of paper every week. It's just it's a scan through and it's saved on our servers and it's safe. So we can always go back and access that data.
How would you describe the Keeran Networks communication style?
I mean it's obviously progressed or 14 years, but it's been, it's been great. I mean, Keeran is always shown us that they're taking the next steps in buying the newest software and having the latest greatest, you know, communication portals, you know, email or slash ticket, you know, processing things we've it's been super helpful.
If there's one word you could use to describe your experience with the team here networks. What word would it be and why?
One phrase I would say is "fair." I don't feel like the cost of doing business with Keeran has been a cost. It's been an Asset.
So going kind of way back to the beginning here, what problems we're trying to solve by hiring Keeran? Do you remember? It's a long time ago now.
Yeah, I do remember. It was, it was the server. And like we basically had a computer in Vancouver that had a VPN and tunnel in some way or I don't even know if it was a VPN. I think it was through RDP and operating in Vancouver was like close to impossible like it would take forever to load anything or to do anything so. The big thing was to just not be down and try to find someone who can help us.
When you started with Keeran Networks, how was the onboarding experience?
Ah, it was bumpy. I'll be honest. I mean, it was. It was bumpy in the sense that, you know, we had someone, you know, come in and do an assessment on you know what server we should put in place and what you know, the hardware we should have. And there was a little bit of an underestimation. In some ways, you know, like here and didn't think we did the volumes that we do and the process flow.
But the reason we're still with Keeran is 'cause, they fixed it. You know they got on it and you know Rishi came into play and they made adjustments and we got you to replace a few things and it wasn't all on us. It was a "partnership" more so, and it helped.
I like that word "partnership."
So since those early days, what has your business been able to accomplish knowing that your IT is looked after?
Yeah. I mean, beyond Peace of Mind. It's like when we add like we just launched a whole new ERP in 2019.
A man that was huge, you know, having Keeran on board and having Keeran involved actually in the two years prior, you know the process of picking the ERP that we were gonna put in place and how we rolled it out and having the ERP company working with Keeran with you know accessibility two different things on our server and all of that. I mean that was huge. I don't know how we would have done it without them.
How well does Keeran Networks understand your business specifically?
Awesome. Fairly well, I mean to the point where Keeran is able to like actually load our ERP, they're able to load third-party software onto our computers and make sure that all of the settings are set up correctly. So that when we get a new onboarded like a new employee, for instance, there's all the things that that specific position might require. Keeran's got that in place before we even have that employee come in and go well like I can't access this or that they have, they have access.
What type of business or owner would you recommend to Keeran Networks to or industry?
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think nowadays it could be any industry.
Uhm, business-wise I mean.
Once you get to a certain point of like, you know, 5,6,8, ten, whatever employees, and then you keep going up, you know, in the multiples I'd say you can't manage, you can't manage it all on your own. As an owner, you can't manage everyone's computers and you know have to. So it's nice to have that reliance on any one of my employees slash managers can just contact Karen say hey my phones not working or hey my access to my software is not all opening and.
You don't have that stress as an owner to deal with it.
Do you feel like you know who to talk to and had a question or issue?
Yeah, I mean, depending on the level of priority, I mean it's been good. You know it's the same, you know going up the ladder at Keeran, they mean there's, you know, a simple ticket like an email issue. It's just a simple ticket and you know you get your level one tech and then when there are bigger issues like networking and other things like server problems, yeah, the Keeran got that different levels within their own company.
OK, good and how do you feel about the speed at which your issues get dressed?
Good. Yeah. No, absolutely good. I mean, there's been a few that are long-term. More so because of you know third party ERP saying well it's this and Keeran stepped up to the plate where they're like well if it's that then let's let's figure it out and they've gone in and they've created.
I'm not sure what it's called. Basically like they've monitored the issues that we were having and they were able to find the issue and where that issue was kind of coming from and they've been able to fix it or address it. And then the ERP or the third-party software can fix it.
I've got two more questions here. So would you describe Keeran Networks as focused more on your short-term needs or your long-term strategy?
Yeah, no, definitely. I mean for us long-term 100%, I mean we're a growing company similar to Keeran, I think we've both grown equally and in the years and definitely long term.
You have a lot of history at this point.
Final question, Terry, what value do you get out of your regular meetings with Keeran Networks? These are the QBR meetings or the quarterly business reviews?
Uh-huh. Yeah, it's good 'cause it gives you kind of a heads up I mean they come you know no I don't owner wants to hear all you gotta upgrade this soon 'cause it's gonna be it's gonna you know die or it needs to do maintenance or whatever but. On the good side is that you're able to budget, you're able to look at what computers might need.
Upgrading down the road a year from now or six months from now, what's not working or what critical issues are happening on a regular basis that you know we're having issues with regularly and how we can fix them.
Immediately come. So yeah, it's both short-term and long term but.
It's good to have that, yeah.
Dust Queen Testimonial Transcript
OK, so just as an introduction here, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and what your company Dust Queen does?
Bill Barless
Well, I'm you know, myself I've been with the Dust Queen Group, since and, you caught me off guard with this one here.
Because I'm not the principle. That's the Shelly Shelly Barless. She's the owner of the company I joined in... when she was really beginning to expand and uh, and it, you know, I and my previous life I was involved in selling engineered packages compressor packages and a vertical turbine pump packages to the oil, gas, and petrol chemical industry.
So you know also to keep me in town at the expansion that she was growing on at that point. Which was perfect. So I joined the company and like I said in and you know, and we're just so, you know, it's still going strong.
Well, a few years back we had a relationship for a number of years, so a fairly long relationship with another IT company and yeah, we knew some of the issues that we were having. We were on a server and we were having difficulties. We knew that the server was getting old and we needed upgrades So obviously we went to them first and we asked and we asked them to put together a package of what we're going to need to upgrade and replace And they came back, they probably answered the questions exactly the way to my questions. OK. And it had this big price tag.
And it was at the point, you know, and it was to replace the server and everything else and it left a couple of questions in my mind and I believe I was talking to another business associate and you know they said to me, you know, have I tried talking to Keeran. And so I said, well, I'm gonna look into it. So anyway, we did, we had Keeran come in and Rishi came up, you know that the first couple of meetings and but we said to him I said the very same thing I said we understand that our server is getting old and we wanna replace it so you know are you able to, you know, put something together that's going to take us forward for the next years anyway And and from that meeting, he said Uh, he said Well, he said "Can I ask why? Why do you think you need a server?"
Well, it's all of a sudden You know, we're now we're really quite surprised as oh, wow, Gee, that's like, you know, we've been told for all these years we need a server and then as this one became the one we have is becoming antiquated We need to upgrade it and we'll have to replace it And he said well look at let me look into this But he said I think with your business and we could put it you know put it up in the cloud and you wouldn't need to have a server on-site.
So, so that was, you know like that was like a breath of fresh air And so anyway, after them doing, uh, like let's say, like a needs analysis, that customer needs analysis They came back and said, I don't think you're going to need a server You know, we're gonna, we're gonna put together a package that's going to make a number of recommendations and we'll go from there. So they, uh, they did. And they actually did an outstanding job because calling it a presentation. Call it what you will, it all came down to a strategy and it was like an uh project strategy and they were going to they turn around and they laid it out or they did up a drawing for us.
You know, it took everything into consideration firewalls, the type of products we need to do to go to and how it would be set up And it was, it was, it was like an organizational chart of execution strategy And so we were, we were convinced at that point and what they told us was we do not need to have an on-site server And so that was great now.
Do we have a server in the cloud? Yes, we do. Yeah. And, it's a no muss, no fuss thing for us. And you know, whenever there have been online issues that we have that, you know Keeran Support group, they respond they get the job done and you know I don't believe that in the last few years that whenever I've had to send in a help request to the service department.
I don't think there's ever been an unhappy moment where you know it, it didn't get done You know, their Technical Support people are very good at what they do.
Is there anything else that has shown you made the right choice by picking Keeran Networks?
Well, the right choice. Yes, absolutely I mean, you know I I come to work every day I'm not thinking about whether I'm going to be offline and if for some reason something happens with one of our software packages and we are offline, I've got all the confidence in the world that I'm going to be back online You know, with it within the within less than an hour because I reach out to Keeran support and somebody gets back to me right away.
You know, if I don't phone, I just send in a ticket and automatically online and somebody gets back to me right away and they are able to dial into our computers. And you know they've, as a matter of fact, we bought all our hardware, we upgraded everything. You know, we decided to upgrade all our hardware, so everybody here got new computers and Keeran is got them all marked and identified. It's you know, like in the old days where when I say the old days, uh, using current predecessor they would be like "OK what computer are you on?"
"I'm on mine."
"OK Yeah."
Like there was nothing identified like now.
Now, this is all you know it it's very smooth We've, you know, we've got the identification right on her computer or just, you know, turn around and say, you know, I'm on such and such. And that's and they're able to dial in right away and fix the issue. And like I said it all comes down I've got confidence and Peace of Mind. I guess it is probably a wonderful phrase in our relationship with Keeran.
We're coming off some tough years here, right? With COVID and with your industry going into customers' homes. How has Keeran Networks impacted your business abilities to scale throughout COVID?
Wow. You know, like I'm trying to think how I would respond to that, Derek, the impact our business like they've been there for us. Yeah, I understand that during the last two years at COVID we're, you know...
We're known as an essential l business and Keeran is known as an essential business to us.
And so our people were still coming to work every day And I do, I understand that a lot of Keeran support crews, they were, they were working from home and whatnot. But again if there is never an issue I was because you know, yes we've had we have different Internet-based software programs that we work with and sometimes they go down, you know. It's not a Keeran issue, but what happens is we turn to Keeran first.
You know our accounting or accounting package. But yeah, they deal directly with the, you know what the manufacturer of the product and you know so all I have to do is tell them that this is an issue that we're having I don't know if it's your responsibility or somebody I think just said leave it with me or get out, you know we'll get into it and you know invariably I get a call back within the hour and say OK, look at, we've been able to do this, that and the other and they may require a password from me for the other software, and they take care of it. So you know again it just comes down to Peace of Mind.
And another issue that we had during these past Covid years as we had a small fire in, in our office and it was in, in the storage room and fire damage with very limited, it was only $2500 of fire damage, but we had $350,000 of water damage from sprinkler systems and the computers, all the computers that we had we had used Keeran to acquire for us, you know, back in January of 2020 and they were all destroyed.
But we told them what we needed. And out of their hands was the supply chain issues because a lot of these manufacturing facilities were down.
That's where they brought me a loaner like I, I mean, they brought up loaners here so that we had to, you know, we weren't missing a beat and we were working, you know, right back up and working the next day And and they got her equipment on order They took care of it, then went all the equipment, came in, they brought it all down and got everything all hooked up And so it really it's like you wouldn't even know that we had had an issue from any water damage on our computers because we were never we weren't ever offline. Let's put it that way.
And so, you know, yeah, that's what they did to help us keep us going and in business. You know, so it was during the COVID years, but it was for an unrelated matter.
How important is the security of your data as a business?
It's very, very, very important, I mean. You know, like I said, it's I'm not a technical person And especially with the computers like that, the whole idea is I come in, in the morning and I turn it on. And this is my tool. You know, and I do when something's not working. It's like, you know, and what do I do? And you know so whenever in doubt I call Keeran.
What is it about Keeran Networks that makes you comfortable today that your data is secure? How do they report back to you that your data is being taken care of?
Yeah. Every month they send a report, you know
Report on her equipment, as a matter of fact, it's taking in a number of different areas it talks about the condition, it talks about. The agent talks about life expectancy. So yeah, you know, and they're upgrading or they're always upgrading, as a matter of fact, I do know that cyber theft is, really getting to be big. I'd had a conversation. They got ahold of me a number of months ago to tell me that they were going to be upgrading their system for the cyber technology that they needed to make their system that much more stronger and powerful against any type of an attack. And you know, and at the same time, I took that lead, I went back to our insurance company to find out what type of coverage we had insurance coverage for you know for any type of cyber theft and you know what it was, it was nominal was it was a very, very small amount, I think like $10,000, and really $10,000, is nothing And so you know with our you know we add her insurance company, put an underwriter in for increased Cybertechnology insurance, you know.
Again, I'm not a technical person and can't really speak intelligently on it, but I listen to what Keeran has been telling me. And, you know, I'm not skeptical of it I just believe it. And so I see what they're doing and what they're doing is to protect my interest as well so that does it get provides a lot of confidence.
Smart decisions for our business,
You know, just reiterating again their increased cybersecurity is a smart decision for our business as well, you know.
And you know, and there have been times that we find that there is software, you know, various types of inquiries, phishing expeditions.
You know, whenever that's become apparent that we're, we're seeing that I do I contact Keeran and say can we not prevent this? Absolutely that you know they're able to fine-tune the system so that we don't have to be exposed to these types of phishing exercises and then when I say phishing, uh, you know, it's with a pH and it's like they're trying to get into You know, they want to try and secure your banking information. They want to secure your, you know, access to your emails and your contact list so you know So we, you know, we're pretty firm around here about what we open, what we don't, you know. So but again You know we do We go back to, we go back to Keeran and we often say is this, you know, can you tell me if this is legitimate?
And they'll say no, it says phishing You know, we've, we've blocked that You know, you won't get anything like that again. And you know, so it's a good partnership that really is.
So much of IT security comes down to the education component. How would you describe the Keeran Networks communication style?
Yeah, you know, like I have the six or seven of us that are here in the office I think we're all pretty much in the same boat we're, you know, we're not, we're not very technically savvy when it comes to you know, it comes to the computer, computer software, the inner workings of it, but everybody here feels the very same that if there is an issue at all, they know, they just go to support and it gets resolved.
If there's one word you could use to describe your experience with the team at Keetan Networks What word or phrase would it be and why?
Confidence, you know, for one word or phrase again, Peace of Mind that's huge, you know? And I'm sure that would be huge with anybody that runs their business on their computer.
Yeah I know, when I say there might be one person having a hitch with software or something like that, we go to Keeran and they fix it 'cause I know that they've done a lot for me You know, like where I've had a specific issue and but we are business, everybody has access to the software. It's not like we gotta hitch here and it affects everybody and all. Everybody is able to carry on, do their own jobs and Keeran addresses the issues. They really follow up and do that. So we're not left hanging for anything you know.
If you could, how was the onboarding experience with cured networks? What was it like starting with them?
Oh yeah, it was It was very good. We, you know, they had us, they had us come down to their offices and we met in the boardroom in they put our execution plan I guess they're the proposal which was the strategy and on what they were going to do for us. You know, they had it up on the screen and they went through it so that we were, you know, we were completely comfortable with what they were going to do with the timelines that were going to be done.
You know, it was that type of proposal that I was like I was completely sold on it my, you know, having had a background in the In my past life where you know you're working with not so much the owners, but certainly like senior managers and things like that of a company. And they had laid, you know, and you're dealing and large numbers of dollars. So you're doing a very professional presentation now our project wasn't anywhere near that big. But I believe that we got we received every bit as professional a presentation, as they would have made too an IBM, you know or Apple. Let's put it that way. Yeah so I, you know, I didn't once feel like, oh yeah, here we can do this for you. You know, it's just a real quick, fast and down and dirty thing. No there was it was very professional structured that I knew what dates this was gonna be done That was going to be done. And you know when the whole project was going to be completed So yeah, we, you know, we were very happy with it.
Overall, how well does Keeran Networks understand your business?
Well, I think I think they really understand it well because they do know that we, you know, we're not in a position to be offline for any, any, any period of time. You know, our business in the cleaning industry, we have the Dust Queen Group comprises of the residential cleaning division and a commercial cleaning division And within those two divisions, we have a carpet cleaning division.
Our business is let's say as like a daily business, especially on the residential side, you know customers calling, wanting to book, everybody's got an emergency. "Can you do it today" and then we have our regularly scheduled customers that are weeks in advance. We know what days we're going out on. But when the system, if the system goes down you know we're blind. You know we're getting telephone calls and everything has to go manual because the software we have, we get, you know, our phones ring and you know it considerably all day long for people looking for quotes and you know it can I get a quote to have a bedroom house, square foot, all four bathrooms cleaned and our software program that we have you know, the staff was able to talk to a customer and their entering it in online and it comes down and provides a price for the based on the information they gave us provides a price for them for this so that they know how much it's going to cost to have us come in and clean. Well, if that system goes down or you know, we have a doesn't matter if we have a problem with the computer if we have a problem with the CRM transfer, whatever it is, if we don't have access to that software then you know like people are looking for fast and fast and furious quotes like they call they, they want a price.
They don't want you to say, can I call you back in a couple of days or can I call you back tomorrow? And that's not our business, you know, it's the same as in the cleaning industry You know, we're at that size we have you know we have people call us and say yeah, search up I'm looking for a price I've had a cleaning person for the last five years, but I'm tired of them not showing up or they're not feeling well or they're, you know.
We don't get sick You know, we're not on vacation Where? And the reason I say that is because our staff, everybody is trained the same way And you know if a team that a customer likes is for some reason is on vacation, we have another team that knows exactly how to clean the very same way and nothing changes for the customer other than the faces.
So you know and you know it's if we do lose control of the software, then we're blind and we can't provide any service back.
Bill, this is my final question here, and thank you for that one.
What type of business or owner would you recommend? Keeran Networks too?
You know, from everything I've seen with Keeran, I think Keeran is capable of handling just about any business, any sized business. Well, they have access to the technology they know the technology they have a very responsive talented customer service team.
Anybody that's on you know like got a server or they're operating in the cloud, they've got, you know, computer technology that they're working within their business, which I think has to be 99 to 100% of all businesses today There's no limitation on the size I don't believe I the principles of this company, I find know their stuff better than anyone and you know and like I said, we've been in business 33 years. When small business was having computers we had and you know and it's been you know and then we realized then that we need to do is align ourselves with somebody that knows how to fix these things and that's going back a long, long time. And I think one of the best moves we ever made was when we started to build a relationship with Keeran.
Why Keeran Networks?
We want you to WANT us.
Too many people feel stuck with their current IT provider. We want to build a relationship with your business, not lock you down based on a punitive contract or fear of being locked out of your own network. We have no long-term contracts to sign and rigorous documentation means you'll always retain the keys to your castle.
Read the stories of businesses in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver below to understand why they choose Keeran Networks month after month.
An expertly drawn map to take us forward
Hiring Keeran Networks gives us confidence back in our IT. We know it is being handled by experts, so we don't waste time second-guessing about whether our network is secure and backed up. Now we build and follow an IT roadmap, rather than making decisions on an ad hoc basis. Does your IT support help you plan for the future? Our quarterly meetings with Keeran Networks do just that for our technology.
James Samaroden
Partner, Barrister, Solicitor, & Notary Public
Bruyer & Mackay LLP
Transparency in their organization gives us insight into our own
As insurance brokers, we have a unique combination of software and hardware that had proved difficult to support. Keeran Networks impressed us with their ability to understand our complex environment of third-party systems and internal procedures. They did extensive documentation to ensure that any staff member can handle our request, resulting in quicker resolution times. The Keeran One app allows us to have a formal method to request and track the opening and closing of tickets. It also allows some of the members of our team to view all tickets across the entire organization.
If I was to describe Keeran Networks with one word it would be "Transparency". The owners and staff of Keeran Networks are always straightforward and to the point. When we ask for an opinion on the right way to handle an issue, we get the advice we need. We regularly review ticket counts, SLA and resolution times and survey results from our staff which helps us to identify ongoing issues and better ways to do what we do.
Director of Strategic Marketing
Armour Insurance Group Ltd.
Service that makes you feel like a name, not a number
We recently moved offices and were concerned about what it might mean for our network. Keeran Networks went the extra mile to make sure our specific challenges were met throughout. As a non-profit, we appreciate how hard Keeran worked to make sure we were happy. It feels like we have a real relationship with them. We're not just another number, not just another dollar sign. That means when an issue arises, we know Keeran will always have an effective resolution to keep us on track.
Jennifer Martin
Junior Achievement, North Alberta & NWT
There for us day in, day out
With Keeran we have regular weekly site visits to take care of any IT needs as they arise. The regular onsite technicians are familiar with our team, our software and on-going needs which makes for quick issue resolution. Further, should an IT issue arise throughout the week, we are able to request support on demand which may be handled remotely or on site if required. Keeran also meets formally with us each quarter to discuss planning for future needs and address any questions or concerns we may have. Keeran provides exceptional service levels as they arise but are also proactive as they regularly plan for our future and manage our software and hardware to prevent issues from arising.
Nancy Beauchemin
CPA, CA, Partner
SVS Group LLP
Keeran Networks has provided our company with IT infrastructure planning and maintenance for the past 8 years. Technology is an ongoing overhead expense. Keeran's long-term perspective has allowed us to buy hardware and software with long-term value for cost and performance. Their maintenance, monitoring and update and backup services have allowed us to operate with absolutely minimal downtime.
Keeran Networks is an integral partner to our firms strategic and operational growth, providing excellent value.
Douglas Sollows
Douglas Sollows Architect Inc.
Keeran listens…and then acts!
Keeran Networks not only listens to our concerns, they address them in a timely fashion. Their dedication to Quarterly Business Reviews is a big benefit for us in planning our IT growth and maintenance. It is easy to work with their expert and personable team to build our customized plan and even better is knowing we can rely on them to carry it out with precision. The tech support is reliably kind and approachable addressing our challenges quickly and efficiently to get us back to business with minimal delay.
Linda Wells
Business Manager, RDH
Wells & Associates
Got our IT in shape
Since Keeran Networks began managing our technology, there has been a significant reduction in server downtime resulting in increased productivity and enhanced efficiency. The professionals at Keeran Networks really understood the needs of our firm and created effective solutions to improve our overall network. Thanks to KeeranCare, our IT is now working the way it should be.
Paul Swekla
Sharek Logan van Leenan
Using them for years
It was difficult to find an IT service provider for our unique business but well worth the wait. We've worked with Keeran Networks now for several years and trust their team to meet our IT needs. Throughout their time with us Keeran Networks has provided consistent quality solutions and service, helping our business to move forward.
Arlene Brown
A-Star Tours Ltd.
Unique business needs
The professionals at Keeran Networks really took the time to understand our business and its unique IT needs. KeeranComplete helped streamline our business processes and prepare us for the future. We really appreciate the time they dedicated to helping our company move forward.
Noorudin Jiwani
Aliyas Foods Limited