Rackspace Puts Out Email Fires for A & A Fire and Security

Microsoft Exchange, Professional Services, 10-50

Since 1980, A&A Fire and Security has provided integrated protection solutions to the life safety, security, and healthcare communications markets.

• Challenge
  Evaluating alternatives to their on-premises Microsoft^® Exchange server.
• Solution
  Hosted Microsoft Exchange service backed by Fanatical Support^®
• Results
  Eliminated the need for a costly, time-consuming Exchange upgrade

Seeking Alternatives to On-premises Exchange Maintenance

A large number of Wisconsin businesses rely on A & A Fire and Security for fire alarm, security, and access control systems. Running their email off the Microsoft^® Exchange Server 2000 was becoming a challenge for Hakeem Shagosh, Design Engineer and IT manager for A&A Fire and Security. “Maintaining and configuring an Exchange server, with my limited knowledge, was hard,” he says. His users save most of their messages and their Exchange server was running out of space. With customer communications dependent on email, they needed stable email service.

While they wanted Microsoft Exchange functionality, they didn’t have the dedicated expertise to manage it. Hakeem admits spending more than a few weekends troubleshooting and working on their email server. As a growing business, Hakeem’s technical acumen could be put to more revenue-generating tasks, such as his main job as fire alarm engineer, if he wasn’t spending so much time maintaining the email server.

When the time came to replace or upgrade their email server, Hakeem decided it was time to explore business email hosting.

Finds Relief from a Referral

Acting on a customer referral, he explored Rackspace. “I looked it up on the Internet, talked to the sales team, and here we are. The process was so easy,” says Hakeem. He was immediately touched by Fanatical Support^® during setup. Hakeem recalls, “One of your engineers helped me through it. I was even able to call him at home, and he worked with me at 11:00 p.m. on a weekend!” That’s the Fanatical Support difference.

Instead of spending his weekends struggling with an Exchange server, he uses the intuitive Control Panel to handle most tasks, like mailbox creation and spam filtering. If he needs assistance with more complex tasks, he can tap our Fanatical Support team for assistance via live chat, phone, or email around the clock. “The Control Panel was easy to figure out and every time I call, I honestly feel like I’m calling the help desk next door,” he says.

Rackspace’s Microsoft Exchange hosting service is more than just the server; it includes premium spam and virus protection, daily backups, and eliminates future email server upgrades.

Rackspace Makes Email Easier

Thanks to Rackspace, “I have a lot more time to do other things that are important to our actual business,” according to Hakeem. By moving from an in-house Exchange server to hosted email service with Rackspace, Hakeem can rely on email to work without investing an exorbitant amount of time or money. “I recommend Rackspace to anyone I can. Normally, I’m a hard person to please, but you guys earn the recommendation,” he explains.

He appreciates the value of Fanatical Support even more after his days of hosting email on premises. “I love speaking with the support team. Everyone there is so down to earth. There aren’t many companies like that,” he says. Part of Fanatical Support is giving customers options to access the help they need. That’s why we offer a library of Support Site documentation online, live chat, phone, or email options for support needs. “If I need an immediate answer, I’ll call; but I usually use the email ticket system.”

Hakeem says it all with regard to his satisfaction with Rackspace when he declares, “Rackspace made my life a lot easier.”