Success Story: Communications Company Keeps Efficiencies High, Costs Low with ITS-Hosted Network and Custom Application

Background
Drakontas (www.Drakontas.com) was founded in 2004 by entrepreneurs and researchers affiliated with Drexel University to transition technologies developed at the Applied Communications and Information Networking (ACIN) Center for the Department of Defense to commercial, civilian and homeland security uses. Since its founding, the company has developed DragonForce™, a situation awareness tool architected for deployments on MANETs and other wireless networks for law enforcement and security personnel. In 2007, the company leveraged its experience in the administration of research and development programs, and was awarded a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice (NIJ) to establish the NLECTC-Communications Technologies Center of Excellence (COE) for the purpose of supporting NIJ’s RDT&E activities within the Communications Technologies portfolio by: identifying technology requirements, supporting NIJ’s research and development programs; testing, evaluating and demonstrating technologies; supporting the adoption of new technology; developing technology guidelines; and providing specialized technology assistance and support to State and local criminal justice agencies on a national basis.

The Challenge
Until the establishment of the COE last fall, Drakontas, whose staff grew threefold from 5 to 15 as a result, relied primarily on internally developed, detailed Excel spreadsheets to track the company’s projects and related data. The company’s network was maintained by internal staff proficient with technology but not dedicated to support.

Anticipating rapid growth, Drakontas executives knew they needed a more robust project management solution that could grow with the company and could be easily adapted. Also, internal staff would be needed more than ever to oversee projects and keep core workflow operating at full capacity without the distractions of day-to-day support for PCs and servers. So, decision-makers began searching for consultants that could provide outsourced IT services for small and mid-sized companies.

The Solution
Drakontas was referred to ITS by a long-time client with mutual ties. While the driving force behind the decision was IT Solutions’ extensive experience with similar custom databases, it quickly became apparent that Drakontas could further improve efficiencies by leveraging ITS’s offsite server hosting services as well. By choosing to host the data-base and server at the secure co-location facility, Drakontas was able to outsource all of its internal technology support to a single vendor for significantly less than the costs associated with an internal IT department.

Highlights of the project management software:

• Customized in FileMaker so new features and modules can be rapidly added without affecting the underlying structure or existing data;
• Dashboard views for ease of reporting and business intelligence;
• Integrated with Microsoft SharePoint for easier project-related document management; and
• Integrated with QuickBooks accounting for batch submission of expense details.

Highlights of the hosted server plan:

• FileMaker and other mission-critical applications are securely stored, backed up, and monitored 24x7;
• Upkeep and management of the server and the local workstations are all managed remotely by the ITS SharedVision team;
• One vendor to call and no vendor “blame game” when there’s an IT issue of any kind; and
• No more servers to buy or manage, backups to maintain, or IT staff to oversee and motivate.

The Return
With the FileMaker solution, Drakontas has a single, comprehensive data repository that is much easier to use and maintain than various Excel spreadsheets. The custom platform and rapid development nature of FileMaker provides a level of flexibility with the software not found in most other workgroup-style systems. With the company’s server and network support services in the highly capable hands of IT Solutions’ SharedVision team, the Drakontas team can focus on the growth and success of their company’s products and services.