Why sixteen5hundred Chose Electric to Power Their IT

sixteen5hundred leans on Electric to save money and get time back

Case StudiesITOnboarding & Offboarding

Why sixteen5hundred Chose Electric to Power Their IT

sixteen5hundred leans on Electric to save money and get time back

Client Overview

Client Since: 2021
Industry: Lighting and Controls
Locations: CA
IT Situation Prior to Electric: In-house & MSP
Employees Supported: 67
Devices Supported: 73

In early 2020, lighting company sixteen5hundred, were handling IT with a small in-house team tackling most needs, and an MSP plugging any gaps. But when their IT lead decided to retire and their MSP began picking up more slack, Business Intelligence Engineer Kwame Amoako-Poku found that the current IT situation was becoming expensive and time consuming. “Our MSP charged by the hour, so when we’d get questions like ‘why isn’t my Wi-Fi working at home?’ we knew each of those questions were costing us.” As a result, they would try to handle most issues internally first, and funnel anything they couldn’t handle to the MSP.

While they were able to handle some requests without their MSP, the perfect storm of remote work, a scaling organization, and a modernizing tech stack led the request volume to skyrocket, leading to, on average, over 35 hours a month billed to their MSP. At this point, Kwame needed a solution that would lay the procedures that were quickly becoming necessary, as well as a resource for the whole team to direct any IT question to, no matter how small.

Once signing with sixteen5hundred, Electric provided this avenue of support, ranging from day-to-day issues to larger strategic projects. The support helped ease the strain falling on Kwame, allowing him to hand off 65-75% of IT requests a week. “Electric serves as a one-stop-shop for handling everything like password resets, email access – things that I could do, but I’d rather allocate my time effectively towards deeper, larger, and long term projects at the company.” The same time savings applied to device troubleshooting; “In the time it takes for me to call my team member and try to figure out what’s wrong, Electric can remote into their computers and get a clear understanding without needing to jump through hoops.”

Kwame also found he was able to leverage the expertise of a much larger company with Electric, while staying lean in-house. “Electric is a full company, and the people there have seen just about anything. So if questions pop up that I can’t answer, odds are, someone at Electric can.”

Along with putting in place a convenient avenue for support, Electric helped establish the processes that sixteen5hundred needed to run a more efficient organization, while still giving Kwame visibility in the Electric platform, Turbine. Whether it was establishing standardized on/offboarding procedures that took minutes to submit, or handling device management – Kwame could pass over the heavy lifting while still being able to track everything within Turbine. “I really love that Electric lets me have that viewpoint, so I can deep dive and get information if I need to.”

When signing on with Electric, Kwame knew he would be saving money by having a flat fee for unlimited support. But what he wasn’t expecting was a partner who would listen to his feedback and innovate with him. “I’m shocked at how quickly Electric is advancing – they’ve been transparent with me about the progress they’re making and receptive to my feedback. They’re actually listening to their customers, and it shows.”

Technology Supported

Electric supports sixteen5hundred’s tech stack and devices.

About sixteen5hundred: Sixteen5hundred has been representing the world’s leading lighting companies since 1998. With over 70 professionals across a wide range of experience and technical knowledge, they serve as a one-stop-shop for all lighting and lighting controls needs. They work with architects, lighting consultants, electrical engineers, contractors, interior space planners, facilities managers and electrical distributors to help clients develop total lighting systems that are functional, beautiful and energy-efficient.

CLIENT

Kwame Amoako-Poku

Business Intelligence Engineer / IT Manager

sixteen5hundred

Electric gives my team access to unlimited IT support for a flat rate, which has saved us money, and allowed me to allocate my time towards deeper, larger, and long term projects.

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