The Challenge

American Chemet (Chemet) is a 200-employee manufacturer and marketer of metal-based chemicals. The firm is based in Helena and has four offices across the United States. With an internal IT department and outside help as needed, the business was handling IT concerns; however, with constantly changing IT systems, Chemet hired HEO Tech as an outside source to handle the IP phone system and network infrastructure.

The Solution

With a business model that is driven by the market and the constantly changing information technology environment, it was hard to create an internal plan for network

security and disaster recovery planning; overall smoothing out of the internal IT department. After consultation and assessment, HEO Tech designed network security upgrades and a scalable plan for the future. HEO Tech designed Server High Availability, Disaster Recovery Planning, Network Infrastructure Design and upgraded to a Cisco Meeting Server. The Server High Availability design planned for preventing loss of service by decreasing failures and reducing planned downtime. Disaster Recovery Planning created redundancy so that in the case of a disaster (manmade or natural) the business has the ability to be back to running as quickly as possible. Proper Network Infrastructure design helped to bring a cohesive infrastructure that is safe, secure and aligns properly, making things work at optimal levels. The Cisco Meeting Server brought video, audio, and web communication together so that not only can the four offices communicate freely, but American Chemet employees are able to conduct high quality meetings with clients around the world.

The Results

All of these upgrades have been costly; however, with over a five-year usable lifespan, they allow American Chemet to scale the business as the market takes them. In the past, this has been a difficult endeavor because of the nature of the market, it is tough to set forth a goal when the goal posts are always changing. The most obvious and visible improvements have been the ability to scale to future growth and ability to better react to the changing market. Having everything operate properly long-term and the associated savings with significantly less downtime is an added bonus. In addition, when Covid hit, due to the security and infrastructure upgrades, American Chemet was able to send employees home to work and were up and running within three days. This would not have happened if Chemet had not implemented the changes suggested and facilitated by HEO Tech. American Chemet feels that the solutions were well worth the price and will continue to use HEO Tech into the future.