Case

Study
IT Services

Product Sign Supplies

Product Sign Supplies Modernizes its IT Network
and Alleviates Growing Security Threats

Contracting with Ricoh IT

Services was the best decision
weve ever made. Their staff is
so knowledgeable, pleasant and
reassuring.
Chief Financial Officer
Product Sign Supplies

ABOUT THE CUSTOMER

Product Sign Supplies is a privately held manufacturer and full-service distributor of raw
materials for sign production with facilities in Sacramento and San Jose, California. The
company serves very diverse industriesfrom the traditional sign painter to large format
digital output shops. It also produces banners, mills custom-sized substrates and recently
added digital print and finishing services. Having perfected its business model over the
course of three decades, Product Sign Supplies decided to bring its vastly outdated IT
network up to speed by partnering with Ricoh IT Services.

CHALLENGE
Ricoh IT Services was brought in to Product Sign Supplies at a very vulnerable time.
The companys internal IT staff member, responsible for supporting and maintaining the
workstations and servers for its 40 employees, had recently been let go. With its busy
season quickly approaching, the company needed an outsourced partner that could not
only keep its network up and running but also provide the level of expertise needed to
bring its entire IT network up to date.
In the past, the network had been attacked by viruses and its websitean e-commerce
site responsible for a large share of the companys revenuehad been disabled due to
spam. Additionally, the companys email had been hacked multiple times which resulted
in it becoming blacklisted.

Challenge
Major security threats
Out-of-date technology
Reluctance to outsource

SOLUTION
Ricoh Network Healthcheck
Proactive Select IT Services plan
Managed Services HelpDesk

RESULTS
Enhanced network security
Updated technology
Solid outsource partnership

Case
Study
Solution

Amid all of these network issues, the chief financial officer

(CFO) at Product Sign Supplies had a meeting with its
Ricoh account rep to discuss the soon-to-expire contract
on its Ricoh MFP installed at the San Jose location. During
this meeting, the Ricoh rep asked the CFO about the
companys business priorities for the coming year and the
challenges it faced. The CFO relayed that finding support
for its 30 workstations and three servers was its topand
immediatepriority.
Ive used outside consultants before but we always had
issues and typically, we had to wait about a month until
we could get a meeting, said the CFO. But within one
week, the whole Ricoh IT Services team was in my office.
The team immediately impressed the CEO and CFO with its
extensive knowledge spanning network security, hardware,
software, backup and disaster recovery, bandwidth
solutions and server room organization. Ricohs access to
a litany of third party service providers for services such as
email and telecommunications was very attractive.
The following week, the Ricoh team was brought back in
to conduct a Ricoh Network Healthcheck. The network
monitoring and reporting tool produced a D-rating
confirming the controllers fears about the network and
prompting an immediate decision to sign on with Ricoh.

Product Sign Supplies chose Ricohs Proactive Select IT

Services plan to modernize its network and help alleviate
its many IT issues. The plan consisted of solutions to
improve the networks security including a new state-ofthe-art SonicWALL firewall, antivirus software, malware,
Windows server updates and patches. It also included
new SonicWALL CDP backup and disaster recovery
hardware, re-cabling the companys entire network and
racking the server room for infrastructure stabilization.
In addition, the plan included scheduled maintenance and
updates as well as domain administration through the
24/7, 365-day-a-year Ricoh Managed Services HelpDesk.
To address future email hacking and blacklisting issues,
Ricoh recommended a trusted third party email host to
handle email security and spam filtering.
For large file transfer and storage, the Ricoh team
recommended partnering with the companys
telecommunications provider to increase bandwidth
without impacting other network operations. This solution
provides the scalability and flexibility needed to increase or
decrease bandwidth as the companys needs change.
Within six months, all the work was finished and
everything was running nicely, said the companys CFO.
Contracting with Ricoh IT Services was the best decision
weve ever made. Their staff is so knowledgeable, pleasant
and reassuring.
Ricoh kept the company informed throughout the
conversion, ensuring there was always a high level of
comfort with each step. Prior to the implementation,
the Ricoh team provided a detailed migration plan with
timelines associated with each milestone and a clear
delineation of all duties and responsibilities. The team
also granted the company anytime access to its network
performance reports and data between more formalized,
face-to-face quarterly reviews.

Case
Study

RESULTS
After a full year of working with Ricoh IT Services and the
Ricoh Managed Services HelpDesk, Product Sign Supplies is
more than satisfied. When issues arise at the company, the
CFO simply calls Ricoh and they are addressed quickly and
thoroughly. If new workstations are needed, Ricoh presents
detailed product and cost comparisons and makes sure
everything is properly documented.
The companys network security has also been greatly
enhanced. Ricoh provides scheduled maintenance and
updates to the companys antivirus software, workstations,
and server updates and patches. The Ricoh HelpDesk also
provides domain administration including but not limited
to adding/removing user accounts or changing permission
levels of users.

Next, Ricoh IT services will transition the company to a

new telecommunications provider to potentially lower
its monthly costs as well as upgrade the workstations to
Window 7 and 8 platforms to replace unsupported XP
systems. As soon as the telecommunications system is in
place, Ricoh will help the company further lower its costs
by installing the state-of-the-art SonicWALL firewall that is
currently being managed and maintained by a third party
vendor. Another big shift in process is Multiprotocol Label
Switching (MPLS), which Ricoh is implementing to increase
the companys bandwidth.
It makes so much sense for an organization to outsource
IT services. Its much better than having to pay someone
internally who doesnt have all the licenses, certifications
or knowledge that is needed, said the company CFO.
Weve seen the value it bringsit removes a lot of the
headaches and we can now focus on how we operate
our business.

Being able to pick up the phone and get your engineer

right away is a substantial benefit, said the CFO. I always
tell them, change whatever you need to, but dont change
my engineer!

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