Feature Story

December 11, 2003

Jarvis Networks is an Internet technology and entertainment holding company with interests in Web hosting, virtual reality, networking, and information technology. Located just outside San Antonio, Texas, the company teamed up with two different government agencies to learn more about potential office space in a building with a fascinating history. During the 1970s, the office building, which originally served as the headquarters for an oil company, was retrofitted to provide a safe haven in the case of a nuclear attack. Later, the United States ambassador to China was searching for asylum and found it in this building: a 100,000 square foot cement fortress that is completely bullet-proof, and includes a 40,000 square foot underground bunker. John Jarvis, president and CEO of Jarvis Networks, turned to trusted Cisco© Premier Certified Partner DataVox to help him convert the former nuclear fallout shelter into a state-of-the-art network operating center.

A Unique Renovation

Jarvis Networks was searching for office space that would enable superior disaster recovery and high-end data availability for Jarvis clients who would be leasing space and conducting business from the building. The design of the former fallout shelter was intriguing - it had digital surveillance and high security, but its thick cement walls didn't offer much flexibility in terms of access for cabling.

"Our big question was, can this building be engineered as a data facility and turned into a high tech center?" says Jarvis. "Our goal was to create the end-all phone system with the highest technology available, and in a building that had just come out of abatement and was the worst of all situations." Jarvis detailed just a few of building's issues: it had gone unused for more than10 years, it had been pre-wired in 1980, its four floors were constructed out of solid concrete with no beams or crawl-spaces, and its underground bunker went 75 feet deep underground.

"Clearly, there was no point in pursuing a traditional phone system, so we decided on IP telephony," said Jarvis. "We sat down with vendors and system integrators of all different sizes and capabilities." Jarvis and his team looked carefully at price, engineering capability and revenue capability. "The DataVox team came in with Cisco and gave a million-dollar presentation, and that was it," Jarvis says.

You Get What You Pay For

DataVox started as a family company and has been in the business of deploying phone systems for 15 years. For the last three years, DataVox has built a stable of successful IP telephony design and implementation solutions that meet and often exceed customer requirements.

Jarvis is quick to point out that there are less expensive solutions than the one DataVox and Cisco brought to the table. "I hear the complaints about other systems every single day. Money is a primary concern for everyone, but those who go with a less expensive solution end up losing more money in the long run - because of unreliability and poor service - by not going with a solid Cisco solution" With his solid system in place, Jarvis calls the revenue dollars "unbelievable." "The system is starting to pay for itself. I cannot say enough good things about Cisco equipment and the DataVox engineering," he says.

"Some may see our small size as a disadvantage because we're local and don't have a lot of offices," says Greg Smith, a communications consultant for DataVox. "However, it really is an advantage because we can be very flexible and present for the whole process. If John has an issue, he can talk to someone at DataVox and get an answer immediately."

Complex Systems Demand Expertise

Jarvis believes that the system he needed for this new data center had not been created before. "This was a very difficult project with high expectations. We were all under tremendous pressure from the government and from clients waiting to move into the building," he says. "Both DataVox and Cisco made it very clear that whatever problem came up, one of them could address it."

For this unique multi-tenant project, Jarvis Networks wanted a facility with all of the advantages of the latest technology that would attract other businesses into the offices of the building. The company needed the flexibility to move people within the building without relying on outside vendors for moves, adds, and changes. It also needed to provide its clients with long distance functionality, local dial tone that is statewide to all major cities, outside services for international traffic and outside-United States services, and bandwidth, as well as the ability to measure and charge each individual business for all of these services.

"We have experience with customers wanting to take ownership of a building and offer executive suite types of space," says Steve Ferguson, vice president of DataVox. "There are many challenges t and we have a lot of history, combined with Cisco technology, to draw upon in order to formulate solutions.

For this particular deployment, the project's success hinged on DataVox's ability to design the right wiring solution. Smith and the DataVox team agree that the Cisco architecture saves money on extensive wiring projects because fewer cables are needed.

"The Cisco technology really addresses what businesses want to do today, and our Cisco IP Telephony Specialization has served us well," says Smith. DataVox is currently a successful IP telephony dealer in the Houston area and is in the process of becoming a Cisco Silver Certified Partner.

Commitment to Customer's Business Spells Success

It is this expertise and commitment that won DataVox the Jarvis Networks business.

"If we have a question or a problem, DataVox will tell us right away if it can be handled over the phone, and if it can't someone is on-site immediately," says Jarvis. "If we have problems with our call center technology, or our billing server with separate country codes and separate billing partners and two different carriers - this can be really complex." Jarvis also attributes this level of service to getting his new data center up and running quickly and improving his company's overall profitability.

"We try to gain a better understanding of a client's business model and see what we can find in each specific environment," says Smith. "We have experience in providing solutions for revenue-generating applications and for Jarvis Networks, the billing model required charging back for services and this was crucial."

Jarvis decided to use Cisco equipment from the beginning, so the subsequent presentations and reviews were to decide who would sell it to them. Jarvis selected DataVox because, "at the end of the day, they really cared about us about what our goals were," says Jarvis.

As a result of its extensive experience, dedication, loyalty, and strategic partnerships, DataVox is continuing to ring up big successes with its experience in data centers and multi-company buildings.