Call 214.630.3100
Call 214.630.3100
"Our entire business is data driven," says Barbara Morris, founder and president of Dallas-based direct marketing and document management company Laser Image. "Uptime is critical." Founded in 1989, Laser Image Inc. provides personalized printing and fulfillment services. It also develops, programs and maintains Web-based applications used for relational databases and one-to-one marketing programs.
Laser Image's national and regional clients include such industry leaders as Southwest Airlines, USAA, Londen Insurance, TXU Electric, and Bennigan's. For one of its clients, Laser Image consolidates consumer requests for information from various media, such as television and magazine ads. It captures these requests electronically, then uses a proprietary application to create and distribute leads by zip code for the sales force to follow up.
In 2003, recognizing the liability associated with capturing, hosting, manipulating and archiving clients' data and applications, Morris knew they needed to outsource the management of their internal and customer-facing servers. "Our client has 10,000 to 15,000 agents on one server taxing one application. If it goes down, the agents don't have their leads and can't make any sales calls. The cost is huge and we're responsible," Morris explained.
So she and her IT staff started seriously researching colocation providers, focusing on regional players. Ultimately, Laser Image selected Colo4 because they were competitive on pricing, and had the competence and the capabilities to deliver.
"My IT group and I felt really assured that we had found a state-of-the-art, fully powered, secure facility that would keep everything up," Morris said. "When I met with Paul and the staff, they knew our large server, our open source Linux platform and our Unix platform, so they could converse with our IT guys," Morris said. "And they went beyond the scope of what they needed to do."
Two years after moving to Colo4, a toppled telephone pole revealed the wisdom of their decision. One of Laser Image's main telephone poles had rotted out at the bottom. The pole fell over onto their building, causing a massive power loss and taking out two of their T1 lines. Had they not moved their servers to the Colo4 facility, it would have been a disaster: It took three to four days to restore power, telephone service and the company's T1 backbone.
However, because all of their client servers and T1 line were at Colo4, business continued uninterrupted. Employees were able to work from home in a secure network environment; no data was corrupted or lost. And, their clients never felt any effects.
"From their perspective, all was good at Laser Image," Morris said. "That's why you position your servers remotely.” In the years since making that decision, Laser Image has remained satisfied with Colo4. "We've worked with them at all times of the day and night, and we now know, without a doubt, that we have chosen our partner wisely," Morris said. "They have never failed on any commitment they have made to us - in solving errors, on promises of uptime, or responding to a request within the time allotted."
She also cites the Colo4 "clean" approach to pricing and billing, compared to competitors who might start you at a lower price point, then send you a bill each month "that looks like what you get with your land line, with all these hidden and miscellaneous charges."
"It comes from the top - it's the culture: the people at the top level," Morris asserts. "They're straightforward, ethical and honest, with no hidden agendas. What a concept!"