Managed IT Services for Marketing Agency
“Their ability to stay ahead of what we need from them without losing the personal touch has been incredible.”
Project Summary
Teal provides ongoing IT support services to a direct-to-consumer mailing agency. Their work includes hardware setup, server maintenance and troubleshooting, and information security protocols.
Feedback Summary
The IT and security services delivered by Teal over the years have completely satisfied all project stakeholder requirements and expectations, growing with the client in their operations. Their team is extremely responsive and solutions-oriented when responding to all questions and requests.
Background
Please describe your company and your position there.
SeQuel Response is a direct response marketing agency focusing on direct mail to direct-to-consumer customers. I am the VP of Operations.
The Opportunity / Challenge
What challenge were you trying to address with Teal?
As a small agency, we didn’t have the ability to have an in-house IT service for the setting up and maintenance of our network and IT.
The Approach
What was the scope of their involvement?
They were recommended by a former colleague we had in common.
They manage everything in our company as it pertains to IT, including everything from remotely monitoring the health and uptime of our server and network to disaster recovery and backup plans in case we lose any data.
On all laptops and user machines, they handle orders for new employees, manage the setup process so that it has all of the technology we need directly installed, and provide support anytime a user has any issues with their machine throughout the entire lifecycle of our laptops.
Starting in 2020, we also hired them to help us improve our information security. They’ve helped to rewrite all of our policies and procedures, as well as respond to business risk requests. We’ve now mapped out a plan of what we need to do on a quarterly basis along with a plan for vulnerability testing and patches to the system when necessary.
What was the team composition?
I’m not sure of the exact number, but I do know the team is at least a little over ten people on the call center and then a few more who I interact with specifically on a regular basis.
How did you come to work with Teal?
Since they were brought on before my time at the company, I’m not sure what the original selection process was like, but I do know that I am constantly being pitched by other service providers and have never considered moving to any of them.
They have grown with our company, so they have been able to meet all of our needs as an organization while still maintaining the small company feel where I can recognize the voices of the people we call and can have regular communication with their owner and know that we are an important partner to him.
How much have you invested with them?
The cost of our engagement has grown significantly over the years as our team and processes have grown, to the point where we now spend an average of about $3,500–$4,000 a month with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
We first started working with them around July 2012 and have continued to partner together ever since.
The Outcome
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
The number one way we measure the success of the project is whether or not we are staying current with the technology needs of our clients. So if our clients send us their technology requirements from an infrastructure and information security standpoint, if we are consistently able to meet those, they are doing a good job in our eyes. Almost without fail, it has been the case that we are either ready to deliver on that need or can do so with only a small adjustment to one of our offerings.
On top of that, the accuracy of new account setups has been one of our biggest pain points in the past, where machines would come in and have a lot of different problems with the setup, and their team has been able to eliminate that problem completely.
How did Teal perform from a project management standpoint?
We have great access to their ticketing system so that I am always able to go in and look at the status of any ticket that we’ve submitted. The teammates will also send email updates to let us know that they are working on our issues rather than just sending a notification when it’s done, which I really appreciate.
Another metric I track is the frequency of recurring problems. We will never stop having any problems and not have to call their team, but if it’s the same issue happening over and over again, then that becomes a problem. Their team reacts quickly and thoroughly enough that we very rarely have anything come up twice.
What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?
As for what’s most impressive about them, I would have to go back to their growth with us that we’ve experienced. Their current capabilities are so far from what their capabilities were five years ago when I started working with them. Their ability to stay ahead of what we need from them without losing the personal touch has been incredible.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I think occasionally as employees are trained, there’s not always complete consistency in the procedures that they are following so we can run into issues there, but they do a great job of making sure that they shorten that onboarding window and get people fully up to speed as quickly as possible, so I don’t think there’s any more that they could be doing there that they aren’t already.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I think transparency is the biggest key to a successful relationship. Letting them know what I’m trying to solve for so that they can come up with solutions instead of me calling them and telling them how to fix it is a much more productive way to approach their team, and if you do that you’ll be very effective in your partnership.
Project Details
Category:
- Cybersecurity
- IT Managed Services
Length:
- July 2012 – Ongoing
Size:
- $200,000 to $999,999
The Client
Industry:
- Advertising & Marketing
Client size:
- 11-50 Employees
Location:
- Minnesota
The Reviewer
VP of Operations
Client Review
- Quality - 4.5
- Schedule - 5.0
- Cost - 5.0
- Willing to Refer - 5.0
