For ongoing support and maintenance of the network,
Hitchcock depends upon both Praxis and Cisco. Morris
turns to Praxis for network expansion. For ongoing post-sales
support Praxis offered Hitchcock a Cisco SMARTnet® services
contract, providing Hitchcock with post-sales network support
services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
PROJECT CHALLENGES
As with any major deployment, the Hitchcock Automotive
WAN project was not without its challenges.
“Deploying a wide area network among multiple dealerships of
different franchises presented unique challenges,” says Morris.
“Each dealership requires connectivity to the automotive manu-
facturer’s corporate facility through a variety of equipment and
software. Praxis worked efficiently with our IT contacts at each
manufacturer, establishing the network requirements for each
element of our system. Praxis also created a network plan to
maintain connectivity to each manufacturer through our net-
work without compromising our security.” Praxis utilized the
advanced security features integrated through the Cisco product
line to provide the additional layers of security, isolating the
manufacturer’s traffic from internal operations.
Praxis overcame other obstacles during the network deployment.
“When we were ready to bring one of our dealerships on-line,
we discovered that the in-house cabling at that location was
not reliable enough to create a stable local area network,” says
Morris. “Praxis showed us how to utilize Cisco wireless equip-
ment to overcome the cabling obstacles and also provide the
benefits of mobility to managers in this facility.”
NEW WAN ACCELERATES BUSINESS
Since implementation in January 2003, the network has per-
formed flawlessly. Morris notes the remote site systems run as
fast as those at the central site, with zero downtime. And the
individual dealerships are enjoying the benefits of the new
system too. Removing the remote servers saves the manager
of each dealership 10 hours a week on network administration.
Monthly maintenance tasks can be performed at the corporate
office, and deployment of new applications is much simpler.
There is no longer need for duplication of personnel or equip-
ment at each dealership.
Hitchcock can now efficiently generate management reports for
multiple dealerships and distribute them to executives through
the new internal Web site, regardless of the physical location of
the dealerships or executive. “Managers can focus on running
their departments instead of keeping the computer system up
and running,” says Morris. And he reports that customers in
the service area lounges appreciate the wireless Internet links.
The network has exceeded Morris’ expectations and Roback
declared it among his firm’s favorite designs in their 11 years
of network deployment. Morris notes, “The ability to run our
stores on a central server with this level of reliability is priceless.”
SUCCESS IN THE SMB MARKETPLACE
Due to Praxis Computing’s understanding of small and medium
sized business and their growing expertise in the auto dealership
business, Hitchcock Automotive has engaged them in several
new networking projects including re-designing the LAN
infrastructure at other dealerships.
“We pride ourselves on providing our customers high
performance, high security networks, and Cisco networking
equipment is the natural platform in this arena,” said Roback.
“Our partnership with Cisco is very important to us in our
continued success in the small and medium-sized business
marketplace.”
“MANAGERS CAN FOCUS ON RUNNING THEIR
DEPARTMENTS INSTEAD OF KEEPING THE
COMPUTER SYSTEM UP AND RUNNING.”
