Story · Hospitality · Switching
They could not get into their own network, and their old IT company stopped answering.
The hotel came to us with a network in complete disarray and no way into it. Their former IT provider held every administrative credential and had stopped taking calls. Nobody at the property could log into the equipment their business ran on.
Every new client goes through the same sixty-day onboarding, each step its own ticket, most of it before the contract starts. Nobody wings it.
A first sixty days, ticket by ticket Gold Star survey"Always respond quickly and get it done ASAP."
Macy, law firmMore from the survey wallThe situation
This is the fear every owner has about changing IT companies, and here it had already happened. No passwords, no documentation, no diagram, and no one to ask.
What we found once we started looking was worse than the access problem. Network equipment stashed above drop ceiling tiles. Electrical work that should never have passed. Equipment that had already failed and been left in place. No redundancy anywhere, so any one failure took the property down.
Underneath it all were years of temporary fixes that had become permanent, each one compensating for the last, compounding into a system nobody could explain.
What we did
We broke it into three phases, because a project this size is unmanageable as one job and impossible to communicate as one job.
Phase one was discovery. Find and document everything that exists. Every switch, every access point, every cable run, including the ones above the ceiling. Until the inventory is real, every decision after it is a guess.
Phase two was gaining control. Tear out what could not be managed and replace it with equipment we could administer, monitor and hand over. At the end of phase two the hotel owned its own network again, credentials included.
Phase three was improvement. Pull off the band-aid fixes that had been left in place for years, undo the compounded errors, and resolve the long-standing problems that the first two phases had exposed but deliberately left alone.
"Breaking it into a long-term roadmap made it less overwhelming, and it made communication more effective, because each portion was contained."
Ryan Sanders, Partnership DirectorWhat changed
ResolvedThe property runs on equipment it can see, manage and hand to somebody else. Every credential is documented and held by the client as well as by us. The ceiling tiles hold ceiling tiles.
And the roadmap outlasted the crisis. Each phase had an end, which meant the owner always knew what was being worked on, what was coming next, and what had already been finished.
Order the internet circuit the week the lease is signed. Carriers take six to twelve weeks. Nothing else on a move fails as often.
The relocation checklist Did you knowA backup that has never been restored is a hope, not a plan. Ask for the date of the last tested restore.
What to actually testQuestions people ask about this
What if our current provider will not hand over our passwords?
It happens, and it is recoverable. We reset what we can reach, replace what we cannot, and document all of it as we go. You do not have to referee the conversation.
Do we have to replace everything at once?
No, and you usually should not. Discovery first, then control of what is critical, then improvement. Each phase is a decision point, not a commitment to the whole thing.
How long does a three-phase project like this take?
Months, and it should. The point of the phases is that the business keeps running through all of them.
"As always, efficient, non-intrusive and complete!"
Kurt, concrete supplierMore from the survey wall- A technician who knows your setup takes every request. Not a dispatcher, not a queue.
- Every closed ticket is surveyed and a partner reads every response.
- 99.5% of surveys come back positive.
- Family-owned since 2005. 21 years in the same corner of Wisconsin, not going anywhere.
"Thanks for the hard work. I was kept informed with regular updates until the concern was resolved."
Jeff, insurance brokerageInherited a network nobody can explain?
We will document what you actually have before anybody proposes anything.
Talk to a partnerTalk to a partner, not a sales script.
Tell us what is going on. A partner will call you back the same business day, look at what you have, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. No pricing pressure, no pitch deck.