Emerge IT Solutions achieves Cisco Master Service Provider Certification

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (November 18, 2013)

Emerge IT Solutions – Achieves Cisco Master Service Provider Certification

Erlanger, KY, November 18, 2013 - Emerge IT Solutions announced today that it has achieved the Cisco^® Master Service Provider Certification for cloud and managed services. This certification recognizes Emerge IT Solutions as having the capabilities to sell and deliver cloud and managed services to help accelerate time to market and time to revenue. Additionally, the certification rewards partners for their expertise and investments for creating, selling and delivering cloud and managed services with financial incentives and go-to-market benefits in all countries of legal presence.

“We are pleased to work with Cisco at the highest levels by achieving the Cloud and Managed Services Partnership.” Said Emerge Managing Partner Richard Brown.  “This partnership will open new opportunities for our customers allowing them to benefit from Emerge and Cisco Systems working collaboratively in their best interest.  Additionally this achievement strengthens our commitment to being a top tier supplier to the Cloud and Managed Services industry.  Emerge will be added to the Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Marketplace, in which other resellers can leverage our service and competency.”

The Cisco Master Service Provider Certification is part of the Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Program, focused on helping partners such as Emerge IT Solutions to envision, build, market, and sell cloud and managed services with business acceleration tools and services, sales training and the Cisco Cloud Marketplace to address the varied needs of its customers. As a Cisco Master Service Provider Certified Partner, Emerge IT Solutions will sell and deliver at least two Cisco Powered services (managed and/or cloud services with Cisco Powered services designations), built on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework, and provide enhanced management and stewardship practices to its customers.

Emerge is an organization that provides solutions which build technology infrastructure to advance business. We work with companies to develop fresh, progressive solutions that work. Emerge applies industry best practices to achieve customer business objectives or overcome challenges. From network infrastructure to audio visual and cloud IT services, Emerge provides a complete offering. Come and see where Emerge can take your business today.

Contact Information:

Emerge Marketing

859-746-1030 direct line

859-384-0649 fax

marketing@emergeits.com

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Emerge IT Solutions, LLC

Cincinnati | Indianapolis | Dayton | Louisville

IT Infrastructure | Voice | Audio Visual | Managed Services | Structured Cabling

Your 2014 IT Budget

As we prepare our 2014 IT budgets, the name of the game is VALUE.  Value for optimization, value for business process and most importantly value for containing costs.  Industry research experts; Computer World, Forester Research and Gartner all predict that IT budgets will increase in 2014, with an annual average increase of 2.9%.  Whether your business is seeing an increase or decrease in budget for 2014, there are many viable solutions to keep your IT investments intact and moving forward.  The most progressive and economical is through hosted services, and the first place savvy IT professionals are looking is the cloud.

 

In 2014, Emerge can help you in leveraging technology wisely and staying on trend and within budget.  Contact us today to start discussing your 2014 initiatives.  We will be certain to keep VALUE as a focal point throughout the process.

Emerge will be hosting an event focused on the 2014  IT budgeting trends on Wednesday, November 13th. Please click here for more information and to register.

3rd Year in a row! Emerge is named a finalist in the Cincinnati Business Courier's 2013 Best Places to Work.

For the third year running, Emerge Technologies, LLC has been named a finalist in the 2013 "Best Places To Work In Cincinnati" recognition from the Cincinnati Business Courier.  Emerge won the prestigious award in 2011.

To become a finalist, businesses compete through a web-based, anonymous employee survey designed to identify those companies with the greatest satisfaction among their employees.  Independent market research firm Quantum Workplace administers the survey and calculates results.  Finalists are placed in categories determined by company size.

Emerge is once again honored to be a finalist. "Our greatest asset is our people and our culture", Emerge Management Team. 

Emerge ranked on Inc. Magazine 500|5000 list

Emerge Managed Solutions and Technologies have ranked #1849 and #3207  on the 2013 Inc. 500|5000 with Three-Year Sales Growth of 207% and 101%.

Managing Partner Jesse Kegley stated the feelings of everyone in the Emerge family. “Emerge is honored to be recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Inc. Magazine. Our mission is to be a trusted advisor and invest in long term relationships with our clients. As we stay true to this, we anticipate continued growth. We would like to thank our exceptional employees, clients and partners.”

The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent entrepreneurs.

"Now, more than ever, we depend on Inc. 500/5000 companies to spur innovation, provide jobs, and drive the economy forward.  Growth companies, not large corporations, are where the action is,” says Inc. Editor Eric Schurenberg.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/5000.

Lunch & Learn with Cisco and Emerge

What's new in version 9.x of Cisco Unified Communications?

Join Emerge and Cisco at the 21C Museum and Hotel for an afternoon Lunch & Learn.

Experts from both Emerge and Cisco will be leading the discussion to enable you to leverage next generation Collaboration Experiences with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 9.1 or higher.

What?
Learn about Next Generation Collaboration Experience. Video, BYOD, B2B Mobility IM/Presence and Customer Collaboration. All while enjoying a lunch catered from the renowned Metropole Resturant.



Where?
21C Museum and Hotel
Located in the old 1924 landmark Metropole hotel, next the the Contemporary Art Center and across the street from th Aronoff Cnter for the Arts. The 21C hosts rotating exhibits and installations and has been voted among the top 10 hotels in the world by Condé Nast.

When?
Setember 4th at 12am
We plan to begin lunch from the Metropole resturant at 12:00 along with the presentations. Make sure to schedule time to walk through the galleries while you are there!

Space is limited for this unique venue, please register today!

Exceptional Service Levels!

NOC Manager Josh Lillard (before)

Emerge NOC manager Josh Lillard loves to reward his team for a job well done. And Josh gets this privilege quite often with his outstanding team at Emerge. On Monday August 4th, Josh rewarded an exceptional 98.03% SLA (Service Level Agreement) for his NOC engineers. Throughout the day, they were able to shave Josh's beard (however they saw fit), enjoy lunch together and smash a pie in Josh's face.

Q&A

What is SLA?  SLA stands for Service Level Agreement.  This is our agreement with our managed service customers for our responsiveness to their requests (service tickets).

Why is SLA important?  SLA is important to ensure we are providing customers with the best experience possible.  All or our customers have SLA criteria outlined in their contracts with Emerge and we manage our priorities around our customers SLA’s.

What was the goal?  Our internal SLA goal is 95%.

Half beard courtesy of Duane Tackett

How was this different from past goals?  In July we hit our highest SLA % ever, with an outstanding 98.03%.  Below is a chart that shows where we have been for all of 2013.

2013
Jan	95.08%
Feb	95.08%
Mar	95.07%
Apr	95.62%
May	95.73%
Jun	95.16%

NOC engineer Sarah Knapp

Have you done anything like this in the past with your team?  Everyone enjoys a fun atmosphere and I try to create that for my team here at Emerge.  In July I took them all to my gun club and let them each shoot 50 clay pigeons & had a fantastic lunch.  I think it was a great team building event & it allowed for my team to blow off some steam (literally).  This was just to thank them for the awesome job they do on a daily basis.  In the past I have ran contests with cash rewards & coupons for leaving 2 hours early etc. 

How many team members contributed to this success?  Our SLA is effected by all of our engineers.  So 18 people helped contribute to the success that we have seen with our SLA obtainment.

After the pie...

Is there a customer experience you are most proud of?  I’m very proud of my team, they do a fantastic job but that’s the norm here at Emerge.  So I would have to say that when a customer goes out of their way to deliver positive feedback on my team members is what I’m the most proud of.  Everyone knows that any negative experience is quickly brought up and discussed, but it really takes a positive experience for someone to go out of their way and provide that feedback & this is when you know that you’re doing something correctly.

Emerge and Nimbe Storage invite you to the premiere of Elysium

On Friday August 9th, Emerge along with Veeam and Nimble Storage will be hosting a premier showing of Elysium at Newport of the Levee. Please RSVP to join us for great information from Nimble and Veeam and this exciting premier!

http://goo.gl/ha0Vxh

Wireless Thoughts

by Bill Dunsing

If you haven’t noticed lately, wireless (WiFi) networks are almost everywhere! Just like common utilities such as water and electricity, consumers are demanding wifi wherever they are - hotels, restaurants, homes, workplaces, and even airplanes, buses and subways!  The ability to connect from any place, at any time, with any device is quickly becoming a necessity and a reality.

Anyone that knows me professionally knows the first two words out of my mouth when discussing any wireless opportunity are “Site Survey”.  A great end user experience comes from a well-designed network, which starts with a wireless survey.

An onsite wireless survey can be one of the most crucial elements of the deployment.  It’s during this phase that the engineer observes, tests and records RF behavior, coverage, and interference, then uses this information to determine AP placement. 

Additionally, the documentation created can serve as an inventory, technical and troubleshooting tool.

Why then, do customers “waive” this crucial component?  Beats me!  Yet many customers do.  

Part of the answer may lie in the cost of wireless surveys.  A customer may feel their small area should just need a couple of AP’s, and how hard can that be to figure out?  Why pay for something that should be very simple?  My answer is this: many small office deployments fall prey to the same RF issues and pitfalls as an enterprise deployment.  Interference from non-wifi devices, architectural elements of the building and capabilities of the devices that will be used on the network all need to be considered.  How do you know what to look for?  That’s where the engineer’s experience and talent come into play, and this is what you are paying for.

We recently worked with a customer that refused our design services up front, and after installing AP’s with their ‘educated guess’ method asked us to return onsite to correct all the issues they had.  Where a site survey and design would have cost them ‘x’ dollars up front, the proposed fix cost them ‘6x’ dollars!

A major trend in the wireless industry and business world is BYOD – Bring Your Own Device.  What was once an ancillary service – wireless networking – has now become a ‘must have’ technology as students, workers, and casual users look for the nearest on-ramp to the internet while using their personally owned devices.  Secure, reliable, speedy access is expected, and business owners are struggling to provide it.

We can make that struggle far less painful! Let us use our talent, experience and industry knowledge to DESIGN your next wireless network.  Avoid the problems on the back end, by investing in professional design on the front end.