January 8, 2007

The founder of HRworks wanted to build a new kind of recruitment firm. Rather than simply filling individual positions, they strived to become strategic partners with their clients, helping them build business by becoming an extension of the client's brand. HRworks began in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1997, and today the company is an industry leader in the growing recruitment industry. Its nearly 200 recruiters are based in Atlanta, recruiting and placing employees at Fortune 1000-sized companies throughout North America.

HRworks has experienced phenomenal growth, doubling in size every 13 months since its inception. As with many rapidly growing small and medium-sized businesses, HRworks added technology as needed without much regard to future expansion. It started with a small network of hubs and cables on the floor. Data backups went onto small tapes, and as the company grew, more cable would go down on the floor. The company soon found itself with a jumble of diverse network hubs and switches, daisy-chained together as needed. It was, in the words of its president, "chaos."

"As our network grew in complexity, we lacked the resources to devote to troubleshooting," says Kurt Ronn, president of HRworks. "Our network is mission-critical to us, and we were spending an enormous amount of money with network solution providers simply on repairs and maintenance of our network."

HRworks operates on a professional services model, billing its clients an hourly rate for its services. When their network fails, the company's recruiters cannot recruit; thus, every minute of network downtime translated into lost revenue. Additionally, in order to service large businesses, HRworks needed to demonstrate that it had a network flexible and secure enough to meet the needs of potential large customers. To support and facilitate company growth, HRworks concluded it was time to invest in a solid, reliable network. As president of an outsourcing company, Ronn is an advocate and supporter of outsourcing relationships, so he initiated a search for the right systems' integrator with whom to partner.

"We do not have a core competency in technology as that is not our business," he says, "So we transferred all network issues and technology goals to Vertisys."

Vertisys Corporation, located in nearby Marietta, Georgia, is a Cisco Premier Certified Partner and Cisco SMB Select Partner that has been providing Atlanta-area businesses with IT solutions for more than 12 years. It attributes its longevity in the business to its philosophy of providing simple solutions to complex IT problems.

"Our beliefs and methodology revolve around three core values," says Mitry Deeb, service manager for Vertisys. "Trust, integrity, and consistency. We work as a partner with our clients to provide best-of-class technology. We believe that consistency in both products and services enables our solutions to be more reliable, which in turn reduces overall cost to our clients." Deeb and the Vertisys team met with HRworks to fully understand its business processes as well as its technology and business goals.

"When we began working together, HRworks had fewer than 10 recruiters, but they desired a network infrastructure that would work for 250 or more recruiters," says Deeb. "They recognized that a stable, scalable network architecture would facilitate company growth, and eliminate the necessity for multiple technology upgrades within a short time frame."

Ronn agrees. "We wanted to think exponentially, and build our network infrastructure to support a large organization with multiple locations. We've learned that if you hesitate and implement technology after the need, it will be too late."

Via a thorough review of HRworks' overall technology needs, Ronn and his team wanted to plan ahead of current needs, committing to a technology architecture that would enable growth, not just keep up with it. They also needed a network that could adapt to HRworks' customer's technology.

"Many of our clients are market leaders with well known recognizable brands," says Ronn. "To be successful in this space, we must have the same level or reliability, availability, and security as the clients we serve. In addition, we need flexibility in our own technology in order to adapt to a variety of client needs and expectations." Ronn's direct challenge to Vertisys was to think of HRworks not as a small business, but as an extension of its large-business clients.

Vertisys recommended and deployed for HRworks an end-to-end Cisco® solution including numerous stackable Cisco switches, mostly Cisco 3750 series, Cisco Aironet® 1200 access points, a Cisco router for Internet connectivity, and the Cisco ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance) 5510 for network security. Due to the sensitive nature of client data, HRworks maintains a tightly sealed network; only internal laptop users have wireless access.

With the new system fully deployed, HRworks is now in the best position possible to serve its large clients.

"The new network enables HRworks to match the extensive security practices of our biggest clients," says Ronn. "By offering a highly robust, secure network, we are essentially an extension of our clients' recruitment departments. We can go in behind their firewall and be part of the recruitment team. If our network goes down or suffers a security breach, it affects more than our recruiters. Such an event could be perceived as an internal outage at our client's business. That is high pressure, underscoring the importance of a secure network that will withstand the highest level of scrutiny."

Ronn goes on to say that when HRworks customers hear that his company's network is Cisco, they are satisfied that the level of availability and security that they expect is there.

As HRworks' client list grows, the company will add additional network capabilities appropriate for that client base. The company has developed custom applications, such as metrics and reporting systems, and is considering the addition of an application for document management.

"The network is highly flexible and scalable on demand to fit any client needs, two points critical to HRworks' business," says Deeb. "Any extra applications needed are easily added onto the network without a redesign or the reinvestment of additional technology." Deeb and the Vertisys team continue to work closely with HRworks, keeping the company apprised of new products appropriate for future business enhancement.

"Our deep level of trust has been key to the project's success," says Ronn. "To maintain our industry edge, we strive to be an early adopter of technology. Therefore, I place enormous confidence in Mitry's recommendations for our network, which has contributed greatly to the continuing success of the network as well as the achievements of HRworks."