And The Winner Is….

The winners (we couldn’t pick just one) are Palm Beach School for Autism and Palm Beach Chiropractic and Sports Medicine. Both will have complete network makeovers.

Xtreme Network Makeover

DedicatedIT, formerly Steinhoff Consulting, Inc., wanted to do something that would introduce our new name and, at the same time, do something for the community.

We joined with some of our business partners (Microsoft, Citrix, Jade Communications, PAETEC and MX Logic) to provide an Xtreme Network Makeover to help a company or organization that was providing a valuable service, but who could be more effective if they had better tools.

Doing Good with Very Little

The two-month process of finding just the right organization was an eye-opener for us. The entries we received gave us a better understanding of the technology needs of small businesses, schools and social safety-net organizations in our area. Most of the entries came from schools, businesses or organizations that were already involved in giving back to the community, and they all had different challenges: some had the right hardware, but not the knowledge to use it properly; some had a lack of connectivity; many were riding on the ragged edge of disaster because of data backup issues; others faced a lack of storage, security issues, slowness, a need for modern cabling and for a better means of communication.

To paraphrase an unfortunate Donald Rumsfeld quote, the organizations were going to work every day with the network they had, not the network they might want or wish to have at a later time. Regardless of their technology situations, we found that our entrants were all making do ‘until’…

On Tuesday, May 19, 2009, ‘until’ became ‘now’ for some deserving organizations when DedicatedIT, with the help of ESPN 760 Radio, announced the winners of its Xtreme Network Makeover at a celebratory event held at Rooney’s All-In Sports Bar & Grill.

In addition to the official winners, we are pleased to be able to make several ‘not-an-official-winner’ presentations.

DedicatedIT decided that we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do some quick fixes for some of the entrants who could get by with less than a full makeover. Our goal is to make life better for these organizations, which, in turn, will filter down to the people they serve.

Profound thanks to all of our contributing partners!

A Little about our Winners

The Palm Beach School for Autism accepts autistic children from all over Palm Beach County into school programs.The vision and purpose of The Palm Beach School for Autism is to demonstrate that all age children with autism can learn at high levels through a structured academic program based upon the principles of applied behavior analysis.

The school is housed in 1950’s era buildings on the grounds of the A.G. Holly State Hospital in Lantana, Fl. Among other things, they are struggling with a patchwork system and a lack of wireless connectivity. Wires drape across rooms and between buildings. There is no centralized backup system for their computers. They have gotten by, ‘until’…

DedicatedIT will provide a network upgrade that will immediately provide a higher grade of service and position them for future growth; something that’s important, because they have a waiting list for admissions and are planning to expand in the next year or so.

Dr. Chris Fox and Dawn Fox are owners of a small business, Palm Beach Chiropractic and Sports Medicine. Like most small businesses today, their resources are limited and they are working with a network that has been cobbled together without a central vision.

Over the years, Dr. Fox has provided hundreds of middle and high school students and members of the Police Athletic League with physicals, allowing these kids to play sports. He also provides treatment for sports injuries to charitable organizations…all of this done at no charge to youngsters who could not otherwise afford it.

A new computer network will improve Dr. Fox’s business record keeping and management, and it will allow Dr. Fox more time to provide services for so many of the local community’s students.

… and a little about the ‘Not-an-Official-Winner’ Winners

Little Smiles made everyone in this office smile right along with them. Their mission is to provide nurses with anything they request for children who are hospitalized. “We aren’t trying to cure Cancer. We just want to make the stay better while it’s being done.”

Just seeing them in action reinforced our idea of what caring and teamwork can do in communities.

Little Smiles is expanding to other states and needs to be able to communicate effectively with other offices, donors, etc. DedicatedIT will be providing the connectivity they need by hosting up to ten staff members on our HostMyIT platform for one year. This means that they don’t need a server, software, a network administrator or a backup system – we will host everything for them, and deliver it via a web browser to anywhere they are.

Waterfront Properties & Club Communities is a small real-estate business that is making its way through a rough economy. We understand the kinds of issues they have, because DedicatedIT is a small business, too.

DedicatedIT will provide a network assessment report, which will identify Waterfront Properties & Club Communities’ network issues, and let them allocate resources to correct the problems that are making them less efficient.

For 13 years, The Shepherd’s Way, along with local churches and partners in Broward County, has provided resources to homeless families who have reached a crisis point in their lives. Every day, The Shepherd’s Way and their partner organizations receive over 150 calls from families who have some degree of homelessness.

The Shepherd’s Way is expanding by converting an unused church to centralize multiple organizations in one place. Besides providing homeless families with shelter, they will provide clothing, groceries, budget counseling, pregnancy support and many other services.

When their expansion project, Hope Central, reaches the point where technology planning and design is the next order of business, DedicatedIT will provide the design consulting for Hope Central’s computer network.

This We Know

There are many organizations in our community that are in need of resources of one kind or another. DedicatedIT heard from some of them in the last two months.

Had there been unlimited resources, DedicatedIT would have made an effort to help all of the worthy organizations and businesses who submitted entries.

DedicatedIT would like to suggest that other businesses, with resources to share, take a look at the local needs and act on some of them. It Takes A Village isn’t just the title of a book.