Barkley leverages SHI for every phase of transformation

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Video Transcript: Barkley levels up infrastructure technology with SHI

If I would describe SHI in three words, I would say they're collaborative, trustworthy, and synergistic. I'm Lambert Tomeldan, SVP of Technology at Barkley. Barkley is a full-service advertising marketing agency. Our verticals basically span finance, healthcare, restaurants, retail, and more. As head of IT at Barkley, I'm responsible for all IT operations which includes infrastructure, cloud, as well as applications. When I first started at Barkley, I did a quick assessment of where they're at, at their current position. One of the things I noticed is that they had technologies from a large portfolio of companies; they had many types of storage, many types of servers, and they also had many types of applications. So, I put together a technology transformation plan to make the agency more efficient. One of the things I discovered with our infrastructure is that it was old and being old, what does that mean? Well, slow bandwidth, network drops, unreliable Wi-Fi, so I knew that we had to replace that. So, we put in a new system that would be future-proofed, would allow the business to scale, would grow in any direction but also be able to be connected to all our different offices around the country. We partnered up with SHI and Cisco to put in a new network infrastructure. We put in a new network core; we also established 10 gig to the desktop for our video team because they wanted to scrub videos in real time, but in addition to that, we also put a very reliable Wi-Fi system in place. So, we have staff that walk around with their laptops open quite a bit, and one of the issues that we faced were network drops as they would go from room to room or from floor to floor. Now we have a very strong network backbone where our employees do not experience the dropped network, and they can walk around freely and continue their work. SHI played a very major role in our success to improve our infrastructure, transform our technology, and make Barkley as scalable as it is today. Paul and SHI were almost like an extension to our team while planning out our infrastructure improvements and our transformation plan. They were there from the very beginning as we were putting together all the information, all the research to figure out what we needed to do to make Barkley a very scalable agency. It means a great deal to me that Paul has my back and that he's been advocating for me, my team, and for Barkley. To me, that's a true partnership between SHI and Barkley.

Customer profile

Full-service advertising marketing agency.

Solution

SHI helped implement Cisco networking, consolidate storage, and secure intellectual property while maintaining workflows.

Partners

Cisco

Speak with a specialist

Outcomes

Performance

8K videos can be edited in real time

Security

Digital assets are protected

Storage

Consolidated storage is accessible from all locations

The partnership between SHI and Barkley leads to a successful technology transformation.

Challenge:

Barkley is a full-service advertising marketing agency that works across a wide range of industries. They pride themselves on their insight into modern consumer habits, enabling them to create iconic brands and campaigns that drive growth and performance. As a distributed organization, they require high-speed access to large media files from multiple offices across the country, and the high-profile nature of their work means they have a great deal of intellectual property to protect.

But their aging infrastructure wasn’t up to the task. Their storage framework was unsustainable, comprising multiple systems from a large portfolio of providers. Employees routinely experienced dropped connections due to poor Wi-Fi. Most critically, Barkley’s greatest asset is the intellectual property they create for the brands they represent, and they needed help ensuring its security.

Together with SHI, Barkley initiated a 5-year, multi-point transformation plan to overhaul their network, consolidate their storage solutions, and improve their security posture.

Solution:

First, SHI partnered with Cisco to install a future-proof network that enhanced connectivity and scalability across all their offices. We increased bandwidth to their workstations and improved Wi-Fi reliability throughout each office.

Next, Barkley needed to consolidate their storage system to allow scalability and reduce support overhead. They worked with SHI to build a solution that is easy to use and accessible from all their remote offices.

Finally, they needed a better way of securing their intellectual property while still allowing the staff to work in the most creative environment possible. SHI performed a Security Posture Review (SPR), providing an eye-opening view of where there were security gaps and what solutions would help seal those holes.

Outcome:

The improvements to Barkley’s network infrastructure have been transformational. By increasing their network backbone and utilizing a more efficient storage solution, video editors can work with 4K and 8K assets in real time across the network. Improved Wi-Fi reliability allows the team to work seamlessly throughout the open-concept offices without dropped connections.

The security solution that SHI helped deploy allows Barkley to monitor their IP and detect threats with greater accuracy, giving them and their customers peace of mind that their assets are protected.

“SHI was almost like an extension to our team while planning out our infrastructure improvements and transformation plan.”
- Lambert Tomalden, SVP of Technology