Many businesses are using this time to re-evaluate their business needs and consider their costs and objectives. For some, that means pivoting their business strategy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. One such company is Josmo Shoes; an international wholesaler for men’s and women’s footwear. Josmo’s actions mirror that of millions of companies around the world who have also taken action to revise their IT strategy to fit the needs of their new business model and infrastructure.
We wanted to get a closer look at what this looks like for our client companies so we sat down with Sammy Esquenazi, the President of Josmo Shoes, to learn more about his business and IT set-up both before and after the COVID pandemic occurred.
Q. Hi Sammy, it’s a pleasure to speak with you today. Could you please give me a little background on your company?
- We are a wholesale shoe company located in New York. Right now we have 60 employees working with us.
Q. On a scale of 1-10, how tech-savvy is your staff and what technology and/ or software were they primarily leveraging?
- There's a range but for most of our staff I would rate us at about a 2 on the tech-savvy scale. The technology which they were using previously consisted mainly of the basics Office Suite, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, Microsoft Excel, etc.
Q. Was RCS able to help your staff become more efficient and if so, was any technology added to do so?
- RCS got us stable servers and better workstations. Before RCS, we had 6 or 7 servers with no information on what they did or even the passwords to get into them, and your Engineer, Ralph, eliminated that. He is gold. Other than that, no new technology was added, as you guys were able to fix the equipment which we already had.
Q. Were you offered suggestions to help you streamline what you do?
- Yes
Q. Prior to RCS being your provider, did you have all of your IT info (logins/passwords) logged somewhere where you could get to it and do you feel more or less secure about that now?
- Louis, our prior IT employee, kept all of our information. He was with us for 25 years before he passed suddenly of COVID unfortunately. But no, I wouldn’t say we had easy access to all of our information. I feel much more secure knowing it is being logged and updated regularly as well as managed by you now.
Q. Did you know how the server/workstations were being maintained/updated prior to this?
- No to the server, we did not know how that was being maintained. As for the workstations, there were many issues and a lot of suffering because we only had one person to do everything. When he was able to, it would never be fixed 100% and then it would break. There was lots of frustration.
Q. Are you equipped to be virtual?
- A lot of people were and some still are, but now many of us are entirely remote with the COVID environment.
Q. Has anything changed for you since using RCS and if so, what?
- I think that the employees are happier with their machines; they are feeling like everything is running properly, and they have become more efficient overall.
Q. We won't be asking you for an increase but how much value, in terms of dollars, would you put on what you now have vs. what you didn’t have before?
- A million dollars. It's a big difference. You guys have the infrastructure and you have people.
Q. Had you ever considered bringing in an external IT team previously and if so, why did you not decide to do so until now?
- I wanted to get Louis help, but he wouldn't accept it. The guy was just with us for so long.
Q. What can we tell future clients in the same position who may be considering investing in out-sourced IT?
- They should definitely do it... and definitely call RCS!
Q. What do you like most about your experience w/ RCS thus far? What do you like least?
- Ralph, your Engineer, has been the best part of my experience with RCS. So for the least, there is nothing. But if I had to say something, it would be the days that Ralph is not in my office.
Q. Anything else you’d like to share with us?
- I love that Jeff, your President, calls me every week with an update and to ask how I’m doing. I feel that your team is in it for the clients and their best interests and that is a really satisfying experience.
While changes continue to occur all around due to COVID-19, businesses like Josmo Shoes are making the decision to move forward with external IT providers in order to ease the shift to virtual work-spaces as well as to support their security and efficiency.
Sammy, we thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us. We are lucky to have you as a client!
For more information regarding RCS and the benefits an outsourced IT provider can have on your company, please contact us at: info@rcsprofessional.com