Seattle Aero is a supplier of customized kits for aircraft modification, production and overhaul. The 40-person firm relies heavily on its IT infrastructure to track and manage kits containing thousands of parts, as well as to support its growing operations. However, Seattle Aero does not retain any in-house IT staff — according to Controller Ron Payne, it’s much more efficient and cost-effective to outsource its IT needs to isoutsource.com.

“We need somebody we can call whenever we have a problem or need help with a project. I’m able to do some things but I’m not an IT person — it hasn’t been my education and I don’t have the experience to handle the more complex issues,” Payne said. “We started working with isoutsource.com a couple of years ago, and they’ve done a great job for us. They have the skills, experience and responsiveness to handle all our IT needs.”

isoutsource.com visits Seattle Aero regularly to ensure that all its IT systems are running properly and that nothing is reaching a critical threshold that could potential cause downtime. If Seattle Aero should have an IT problem, isoutsource.com technicians are just a phone call away.

In addition, isoutsource.com assists Seattle Aero with equipment specifications, implementations and larger projects. One of the first projects isoutsource.com completed for Seattle Aero was the installation and configuration a new Microsoft Exchange server.

“We believe it makes good business sense to replace equipment when it starts getting old,” Payne said. “When you have a $50 million business, the price of a state-of-the-art server is nothing compared to the potential risk should an older server fail. Older servers can be used in other areas — you just don’t want them on the front lines.

“isoutsource.com is very good about helping us stay on top of these things. We trust them to make recommendations and implement the technology we need to keep our business running smoothly.”

One of the larger projects isoutsource.com completed for Seattle Aero involved coordinating a move to a new facility. The isoutsource.com team designed the new computer room, configured the new equipment and handled the physical move of IT gear — all on a very short deadline dictated by the completion of the new space.

“The deadline was hard to find because the build-out kept getting extended. We couldn’t unplug everything from the old place until the tenant improvements were done in the new place,” Payne said. “isoutsource.com did as much of the work ahead of time as possible, then when we said ‘go’ they executed in a very short period of time. They put everything in and it worked the first time, which was amazing to me. It was a big, important project for us, and they delivered.”

According to Payne, isoutsource.com is very responsive — if Seattle Aero has an urgent need, a technician is there right away. It’s like having an IT professional on staff without the cost and headaches.

“IT people tend to move around a lot — it’s tough to get them to stay in a position for very long. You’re frequently faced with hiring somebody else, and tending the store while they’re overcoming the learning curve,” he said. “isoutsource.com has documented the configuration of our systems so that any one of their consultants can work on them. We gain access to a pool of highly skilled technicians and consultants accessible through a single point of contact.

“Could we run around and find somebody who’s a bit cheaper? Maybe, but it’s not worth it. isoutsource.com knows us, we know them, and they do a great job. It’s that simple.”