Water Agency Looked for a Right-sized IT Company and Found an IT Business Partner

Relying on One-Person IT Support Put Them in a Precarious Position

“We rely on technology on a day to day basis. When you come to work, you expect that your desktop or your laptop is going to work, your printers are going to work, and your network is up,” said Joe. “When they didn’t work, that bounced back on my desk with the expectation that I would fix the problems.”

Joe’s efforts to help his staff were slowed by the response time of their one-person IT support provider and he was concerned that relying on a single person put their organization in a precarious position. He thought going to a bigger IT company would help, but the situation with response time didn’t improve. Instead of having access to more IT capacity, it was apparent that Chino Basin Watermaster wasn’t as important as their big corporate clients and their requests for support still lagged on for days. 

Finally Found an IT Company Who Understood Them

When Joe started looking for a local company, his search turned up VC3. As he talked with colleagues at other water agencies in Southern California he discovered that both Three Valleys Municipal Water District and Western Municipal Water Districts were very satisfied VC3 clients. Joe’s research convinced him that VC3 was the best choice.

“The one thing that impressed me the most about VC3 happened in the first couple of meetings,” said Joe. “They were actually more concerned about understanding how Watermaster operates and learning about the functionalities that Watermaster needs than talking about themselves.” 

Priority Initiatives Quickly Improved Their Situation

As they began working together, the VC3 team identified and prioritized initiatives that were needed to build a reliable information technology foundation and a plan for future improvements. These included establishing a reliable backup system, improving wireless connectivity at their location, new firewall technology, VPN connections, and more secure data storage.

“VC3’s philosophy was, look we want to be your business partner and here are the things that we see that you need to do so that we can support you properly,” said Joe. “We listened, we agreed, and we spent the money. And now we’re in a much better situation not having as many service calls because we’ve upgraded the equipment and VC3 knows the type of equipment that we have here.” 

New, Reliable Equipment Makes Staff Happy

Replacing staff computers and putting them on a regular replacement schedule has made the staff extremely happy. Previously, everyone kept their computers until they broke which stalled their work at unpredictable moments and tanked their productivity. Now they know that their technology is not going to let them down and that the VC3 helpdesk will respond within minutes when an issue does arise.

“I could understand their frustration,” said Joe. “And now when they have issues they don’t run to Joe. They see the value of having someone who can respond to a phone call or an email, or worst case come over to the office which is just five minutes away.”

Best Vendor Relationship They Ever Had

Joe says that they have made more progress with IT in six to seven months with VC3 than they did in the previous 10 years. He appreciates the knowledge and expertise that the VC3 team brings to help him become aware of all his options and guide him in decision making about IT investments.

“To me, this has been one of the best relationships with a vendor that I’ve ever had. I don’t really consider VC3 being a vendor. I consider them as my business partner. If I go back and look at all of the things we have done in the last year, it truly is a business partner relationship,” said Joe. “On a scale of 1 to 10. I’m a 12 when it comes to VC3. I’m definitely a fan.”

Learn more about Managed IT Services and Consulting for Water Agencies »