KANSAS CITY, Mo. – 1102 GRAND, Kansas City’s Data Center and Internet Hub, has been instrumental in reducing Dibon ARO BPO expenses by $1.2 million annually by moving their business towards a virtual call center.

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While speaking at the Association of Customer Contact Professionals (ACCP) meeting in Leawood, Kan., Michael Amigoni, COO of Dibon ARO BPO, detailed the successes Dibon ARO BPO had while working with 1102 GRAND. Amigoni explained how moving business towards virtual call centers provides monetary savings and better customer service. “Compared to a regular brick and mortar call center and a virtual call center, the total savings for the virtual call center was $1,200,000 annually. Two of the best things I ever did since getting involved in the contact center industry was moving the data center to 1102 GRAND and migrating to the inContact Software Platform. It allowed our team to focus on their core business, customer service,” said Amigoni.

Greg Elliott, director of business development for 1102 GRAND, said 1102 GRAND is excited to be a part of Dibon ARO BPO’s overall IT strategy. “We recognize that all company’s data center collocation needs are not created equal, so we take our time to make sure that each client’s objectives are addressed.”

Amigoni added that Dibon no longer has to worry about issues on the data center side. “When it comes to redundant cooling units, power feeds, battery backups and generator services, we leave all of that up to 1102 GRAND.”
1102 GRAND is a Midwestern carrier hotel and network neutral collocation facility specifically enhanced with the infrastructure to host and provide services to an array of global network operators including carriers, service providers and enterprise customers who demand highly secure and connected, customized solutions for their core networking equipment. 1102 GRAND offers a wide array of collocation options including cabinets, cage space, suites and space for private data centers, all of which are connected to a carrier neutral Meet Me Room, housing nearly 30 carriers and service providers (http://1102grand.com/) Twitter @1102grand.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

1. Checking the redundancy level in place for HVAC, UPSes, PDus and other components

2. Requesting incident logs, maintenance records, etc.

3. Inquiring about what programs and contracts are in place for the data center infrastructure

To learn more about 1102 GRAND’s services, including colocation, call Greg at (816) 471-7872.

Read the article: Choose A Colocation Provider: Areas To Address When Narrowing The Field

Getting it right the first time is crucial when selecting a colocation provider, says Darin Stahl, Info-Tech Research Group lead analyst. For example, SMEs that move equipment into a provider’s space only to have to switch providers shortly after due to lack of foresight will pay a heavy price. “When you get into a colocation, switching costs are enormous,” he says. “This isn’t like buying a bunch of photocopiers, being unhappy with them, and putting them to the curb and getting new Xeroxes in. It’s a big deal to go through switching.” To find a good fit with a colocation provider, consider the following.

✔Acquire Enough Power & Space
Power and space are among the most important factors when judging providers. Where space is concerned, Clive Longbottom, service director of business process facilitation at Quocirca, says to ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish, whether it’s to move existing or new workloads out of the data center or phase the data center out completely. If you expect to need additional physical space later, he says, get enough initially or negotiate with the provider to leave space around your area to avoid a forklift move from one part of the facility to another. This may cost more upfront, he says, but it will have less impact on the business later.

Greg Elliott, director of business development at 1102 Grand (www.1102grand.com), says checking the redundancy level in place for HVAC, UPSes, PDUs, and other components is also vital. “Not having enough redundancy for your organization’s particular requirements could be catastrophic if there was an outage,” he says; conversely, “paying for too much redundancy is likely to cause an organization to overpay for their colocation presence,” he says. Elliott advises requesting incident logs, maintenance records, etc., to determine how well the facility is run. “Based on meetings and facility tours I have been part of, people rarely inquire about what preventative maintenance programs and contracts are in place for the data center infrastructure,” he says.

As for power, Stahl says pricing is increasingly becoming variable. “It used to be I could go in and get a rack and I would know that for $340 a month or whatever the flat fee was, I had A-side, B-side power and this much commit,” he says. “Increasingly, though, vendors are enacting power-variation pricing clauses as frequently as quarterly to say, ‘Look, if I get a price increase from my supplier, I’m going to pass this on to you anywhere from 4 to 10%, and I’ll do that on a quarterly basis.’” In such cases, Stahl says obtaining fullmetered pricing can mean paying less.

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As some of you may have heard or seen, 1102 GRAND is experiencing considerable growth within our collocation business. We would like to thank our existing and new customers for their ongoing business and support as well as all of our friends in the community that keep sending new companies our way. As a result of the growth, 1102 GRAND has been building out data center spaces non-stop this year, and this will continue for at least six more months. The first phase of the 9th floor is scheduled to open November 1st, and is already fully leased. In addition, the 5th floor that opened October 1st has just three cages remaining. This past week our crews started work on another 8500 square feet of caged collocation space that will be completed Q1 2012.

Greg Elliott, director of business development at 1102 GRAND, said that collocation growth has come from a wide range of industry verticals. “Heavy growth is coming from hosting and cloud providers as well as continued demand from healthcare IT companies. In addition to regional customers, the trend of east and west coast customers looking at Kansas City for more affordable data center solutions is contributing to the expansion,” said Elliott.

If you would like to schedule time to see the new spaces or tour the building, contact Greg Elliott at 816-213-7731 or Greg@1102Grand.com.

Here is a special feature about Stallard Technologies, Inc. detailing who its client are, how it’s associated with 1102 GRAND and why Kansas City is the place to do business.

Description about the company: Stallard Technologies, Inc. buys and sells new and pre-owned Dell servers, workstations, and storage solutions. Customers can choose from 30 different models at 40% – 60% savings over new equipment. Dell certified technicians re-configure the equipment to your exact specifications and conduct a 20 point inspection of each unit. A FREE one year STI Limited Warranty is included with each system. Save Green, Go Green, Stallard Technologies.

Who are your clients? Stallard Technologies works with small businesses to Fortune 500 companies in the US and all around the world. We can ship from one computer part to 2000 Dell servers(Germany) at a time.

How is your company associated with 1102 GRAND? We share many mutual customers by providing the IT hardware that 1102 GRAND host and maintains.

Why are you in Kansas City? The company was started by James Stallard out of his father-in-laws garage in Overland Park, Kansas in January 2003.

What is the best part of doing business in Kansas City? Friendly, hard working people who desire to do things with excellence.

What are the benefits of working in Kansas City? Good place to raise a family and great quality of life.

What are the financial or economic incentives to living in Kansas City or the metro area?Reasonable cost of living and good business opportunities.

Information Technology Kansas City (ITKC) offers a valuable service to the Kansas City community, so I would like to take the time to share some details from their website about the organization.

ITKC is a program of the Enterprise Center of Johnson County focused on building a strong IT community within the Kansas City metropolitan area that consists of organizations that provide or use Information Technology.

ITKC offers an array of programs and services that aim to educate, entertain, provide networking opportunities and increase the visibility of local expertise to the Kansas City region. The programs and services include:

• Networking events for IT professionals, managers or executives

• IT technical and business seminars

• Best practices roundtables and discussions

• Site tours

• Directory of IT service and training providers

ITKC does not cater to only one type of company, but believes small to well-established businesses can benefit from the programs and events it offers. Participants of past events have included engineers, managers, executives and financial and sale professionals.

ITKC’s mission is to energize, unite and nurture the regional Kansas City information technology community. It builds upon the strengths of many companies, small and large‚ to help enable a center of IT excellence in the Midwest. It is the gateway to the IT community and provide a leadership resource for the metro area.

So if you are a KC IT professional and have not checked out ITKC, we encourage you to do so. Actively participating in groups such as this, helps build a strong IT community in Kansas City.

To learn more about ITKC visit www.itkc.org

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog.  Here is a special feature on Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. about who it is, who it serves, how it’s associated with 1102 Grand, and why Kansas City!

Company Description: Mayer Hoffman McCann P.C. (MHM) is a national independent CPA firm – 3rd largest in Kansas City and 8th largest in the country – that is dedicated to providing high quality audit and attest services including: Financial Statement Audits, SAS 70 Audits, Employee Benefit Plan Audits, Reviews and Agreed Upon Procedures. They are guided by their core values of competence, integrity, respect and value, and with more than 30 locations nationwide, they are a nationally recognized alternative to the Big Four.

Who it Serves: While MHM provides services to a variety of industries and companies, their primary focus includes mid-sized and growing companies (public and private) in the construction, nonprofit, life sciences, manufacturing, financial institutions and other professional services industries.

How it is Associated with 1102 GRAND: We provide SAS 70 services to 1102 GRAND.

Why Kansas City: MHM’s roots in Kansas City can be traced back to 1954 when Ernest D. Mayer opened a small accounting practice. After years of steady growth, Mayer Hoffman McCann’s tax practice merged with CBIZ, Inc. in 1998 while MHM began to focus strictly on audit and attest services, and continued to acquire other independent CPA firms across the country. Even though MHM quickly became one of the Top Ten accounting firms in the nation, they recognized Kansas City as both a strategic location and strong foundation for the company, so remained in the area and established it as their national headquarters.

The Best Part of Doing Business in Kansas City: There is such a vast amount of different businesses and industries in the Kansas City area, that as a Consultant, we learn so much about how these businesses operate, what their target market is, where they can improve, etc. We can then help them by applying the services our company provides or introducing them to others that can assist.

The Benefits of Working in Kansas City: I have lived in Kansas my entire life so helping small, medium and large sized businesses locally is very rewarding.

The Economic Incentives to Living in Kansas City or the Metro Area: There are a lot of areas you can reside in Kansas City that are safe and have great schools and not have to pay a premium to live there. I think convenience is also a big factor as you can get around the city without having to wait in traffic for the most part.

During an interview with Stallard Technologies, a data partner of 1102 GRAND, Greg Elliott reviewed why the company has a working relationship with Stallard Technologies.

“Our main job at 1102 GRAND is to provide a carrier neutral place for providers to connect their networks and to do the behind the scene connections that need to take place in order to make all of those networks work,” said Elliott.

Stallard Technologies is an Internet retailing company based in Overland Park, Kansas. It specializes in buying and selling quality new and used Dell servers and workstations, as well as EqualLogic and EMC storage devices and Cisco network appliances.

At Stallard Technologies, it is your personal shoppers. It works aggressively to find the best available values on business networking hardware, so you can accomplish your networking goals effectively, efficiently and under budget.

It deals strictly with reliable vendors and top quality products, and will make sure that you are getting what you expect, no surprises. It knows the importance of building relationships, and is committed to providing you with the best combination of hardware value and service available anywhere, online or offline!

Stallard Technologies, has its own staff of trained and qualified technicians. It manages complete diagnostic checks on all our products. Performance of products has the Stallard Technologies seal of Approval and Warranty.

Hi, I’m Greg Elliott with 1102 GRAND, Kansas City’s carrier hotel and collocation facility. Thanks for taking the time to join me for another podcast concerning what we’re seeing out there in the collocation industry. Today, I’m going to focus on why networking events are important to 1102 GRAND to facilitate the growth of the IT and the telecom community in the area. 1102 GRAND is a major hub for voice and data traffic in the midwest and we see a lot of deals come through the doors and we offer to help in any way we can. Whether it’s a potential customer who needs cabinet or cage space, or just needs a recommendation on who they should go to for their solution to their problem. We always try and help.

For years, we have sponsored networking events to help bring people together. We have our annual golf tournament, our Boulevard Brewery event, along with other informal events throughout the year. We find that when you bring individuals together in a relaxed atmosphere people share ideas, and in turn, deals happen. So we feel it’s our place in the community to be a hub for the commerce, as well as a hub for the internet. I invite you to come take a look at what we’re building at 1102 GRAND.

Click here to register for the April 1st networking event at Boulevard Brewery

I’ve had many discussions with people involved in the software and IT industries and the topics that usually come up are:

-Where can I find good employees?
-Where can I find other software or IT Professionals to network with?
-Is there an organization that has resources that can help my software or IT company?

My answers to these questions are, “yes,” through the Software and Information Technology Association of Kansas (SITAKS). I was able to visit with Miriam Ubben, president of SITAKS, and here’s what she had to say about this worthwhile organization.

Q: What is SITAKS all about?

A: The Software and Information Technology Association of Kansas was launched in June 2008 to provide support to Kansas’ burgeoning software and information technology (IT) industry. SITAKS is a corporate membership group designed to support Kansas’ 3,200 software and IT companies, as well as companies with large IT departments. We provide state level advocacy, workforce development, capital formation and management level education and networking to our members. You will find value in SITAKS membership if your company has an interest in building connections and establishing your presence within the software and IT sector.

Q: What impact has SITAKS had on the IT Community?

A: The SITAKS membership has grown to 100 member companies in just 18 short months. During this time, SITAKS has hosted over 30 educational and networking events that have brought together software/IT executives that are now leveraging each others’ products and services.
Many of our events center on helping to improve your bottom line. Our events are customized to the software/IT management environment and include such topics as utilizing state and federal R&D tax credits for software development, protecting your company’s IP, securing federal contracts and tapping into state funding programs.
Next February 2010, SITAKS is hosting the first annual Kansas Technology Awards featuring awards in nine categories. This event is designed to bring prominence to our member companies and the sector. We are also rolling out our state legislative platform in December, 2009 which focuses primarily on improving the business environment for software and IT companies.

Q: What opportunities are there to become involved with SITAKS?

A: In addition to attending events and board participation, members have the opportunity to serve on the following SITAKS committees: 1) Public Policy Committee; 2) Workforce Committee; 3) Events Committee; and 4) Membership Committee. Committees meet monthly and provide networking opportunities and an opportunity to provide direction to the organization.

Thank you, Miriam, for taking the time to share about SITAKS! Feel free to contact me via email at Greg@1102Grand.com for questions about SITAKS. Let me know if there are other topics you would like to see discussed here at Nfrastructure EXchange, and I would be happy to look into it. We are currently working on topics that delve into the Healthcare IT and Call Center verticals. Stay tuned!

SITAKS Bio

The Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC)*, as part of its mission to promote technology based economic development, launched SITAKS on June 11, 2008 to support Kansas’ software and information technology companies. SITAKS is located in Lenexa, KS at the Enterprise Center of Johnson County. Current members include small to large companies. Founding companies include Garmin, Freightquote, LSI, DSI, Perceptive Software, Deloitte, cBIZ and 1102Grand. Membership is based on number of employees in your company. Visit www.sitaks.com to learn more and to become involved!

By Greg Elliott

Hi, I’m Greg Elliott with 1102 GRAND, Kansas City’s Carrier Hotel and collocation facility. What we want to try to do with these podcasts is just to share with you some real world experiences that we’re seeing here in Kansas City, across the nation and around the world. We have customers from Kansas City, and as far away as the Philippines and Germany. We’re seeing a good cross-section of what’s going on out there in the collocation world. I wanted to share with you specifically a customer that recently came to us…