Ongoing since 2020
99.5% uptime, then a five-year renewal
A major New York City university ended its contract with a reactive managed services provider and chose Preeminent Solutions after a competitive evaluation. We took over its infrastructure, help desk, and security.
- 99.5%system uptime across academic and administrative systems
- 30%fewer IT incidents
- 40%faster help desk response
- 25%lower infrastructure cost
- Client
- Major New York City university
- Size
- Students, faculty, and staff across academic and administrative systems
- Industry
- Higher Education
- Year
- 2020
- Duration
- Initial three-year term, then renewed
- Area of expertise
- Services
The challenge
Under its previous provider, the university’s student portals, collaboration tools, and email went down often. Support requests took too long. Security was reactive, there was no plan for growth, and costs kept rising without results.
Three years into that engagement, the university decided not to renew with its provider. It wanted the outages to stop and a plan for growth.
What we did
Assess:A full assessment first
We assessed all of the on-premises and cloud infrastructure before changing anything.
Design:A fully managed model
On the infrastructure side, one model covers servers and storage, Active Directory and Entra ID, security and patching, and disaster recovery. For users, it covers collaboration and unified communications, the help desk, and virtual desktops for remote users.
Develop:Stabilize
Critical workloads moved to Azure. Monitoring that catches problems early, together with the removal of single points of failure, cut downtime by 60%. Outdated hardware and software were upgraded.
Implement:Run and improve
We run a 24x7 remote help desk with ServiceNow ticketing and a self-service knowledge base. MFA is enforced, Secure Score is tracked, and security audits are regular. We consolidated vendors and keep a technology roadmap, with training for the internal IT team.
“Partnering with Preeminent Solutions has transformed the University’s IT operations. Their expertise in Microsoft technologies and managed services ensures the stability, security, and efficiency of our infrastructure, allowing us to focus on delivering a world-class educational experience.”
Results
Fewer outages
Student portals, collaboration tools, and email go down less often.
Problems found earlier
Monitoring finds problems before users report them.
Faster help desk response
For students, faculty, and staff.
Lower infrastructure cost
Through vendor consolidation and right-sized cloud resources.
Renewed when the first term ended
With zero major security breaches under our management.
Read about the service: 24x7 Help DeskManaged SecurityManaged Azure and Microsoft 365Monitoring, Patching, and ChangeManaged Backup and RecoveryHardware Lifecycle and IT Roadmap
