PARTNER SUCCESS STORY
PRAXIS COMPUTING
A crucial component to success, however, would be the deploy-
ment of a stable Wide Area Network (WAN). Rich Morris,
Hitchcock’s VP of Information Systems notes, “When I was
considering running two of our largest stores over a WAN, a
big concern was insuring that links between the stores and
the central server would be fast and exceedingly reliable. Any
network outage meant hundreds of employees standing idle,
and lost sales revenue. Downtime during a weekend promotion
would be catastrophic.”
SELECTING A PARTNER
Morris envisioned a robust computer network to provide
uninterrupted high-performance service. “The success of this
project depended upon building the network from best-of-class
components,” says Morris. “In my mind that meant Cisco
hardware and Cisco certified engineers.” At initial meetings,
vendors were proposing solutions that did not meet his stringent
requirements. “Most firms we talked to suggested ‘boiler plate’
solutions — they all wanted to sell me on their current promo-
tion. I was told that the performance and stability I wanted
wasn’t technically feasible,” he says.
Morris then turned to the “Partner Locator” on www.cisco.com,
to look for Cisco network specialists, and found Praxis
Computing, a Cisco Premier Partner headquartered in Los
Angeles.
“From our initial meeting, it was clear to me that working with
Praxis would be different,” Morris recalls. “They listened to
my needs and presented multiple solutions, explaining the bene-
fits and drawbacks of each. Praxis provided the technical and
business answers tailored to my specific concerns and questions.
I was very comfortable with their knowledge base. But what
impressed me most was that Praxis had references that actually
chased me down so they could tell me how pleased they were
with the success of their network projects.”
DESIGNING THE NETWORK
Success with previous WAN projects contributed to Praxis
Computing’s ability to efficiently design and deploy a solution
for Hitchcock Automotive. However, the Praxis design for
Hitchcock represented a unique combination of products
precisely configured to meet Hitchcock’s stringent performance,
reliability, and security requirements.
During the design, Praxis worked closely with Cisco field
engineers to review network design scenarios. Jeff Roback,
president of Praxis Computing, worked with his dedicated
team to design a WAN connecting Hitchcock’s various
dealerships using T1, ISDN, and VPN technologies. Built to
take full advantage of the advanced capabilities that Cisco
equipment delivers, the network was also designed to ensure
Morris’ requirements for availability, performance and security
were met at all points throughout the network.
THE PARTNERSHIP
Although computer networks are mission-critical components
of small and medium-sized businesses, Praxis Computing
understands that many companies do not have full-time network
engineering personnel on-staff. “Our in-depth understanding
of networking technology is a tremendous asset to our clients’
in-house IT departments during the design and deployment
phases of networking projects,” says Roback.
Rich Morris provided the design and security criteria for
the project, and Praxis provided the design, installation, and
configuration of all WAN equipment. As a Cisco certified
channel partner Praxis was able to use the Cisco ‘New
Accounts’ program, enabling Morris to procure the best
possible equipment while staying within his budget.
