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The feeling’s mutual: SHI and Texas Mutual forge a partnership during the pandemic
Video Transcript: Texas Mutual teams up with SHI: Modernizing network infrastructure amid pandemic
I think picking a partner is not just, can they get you the best deal or the best price. It has to be a relationship. It has to be that you can have a random question that they're going to go find an answer to and dig for you on your behalf. I can't say it enough that SHI constantly is helping me solve our problems.
My name is Jason Blevins. I'm a senior manager in engineering for Texas Mutual Insurance Company. Texas Mutual is the leading provider of Workers Compensation Insurance in the state of Texas representing over 76,000 companies. Our mission is to help employers prevent workplace accidents and support our workers of Texas if an injury occurs.
My first meeting with SHI and meeting Amber and team, I had a notion, I had worked with SHI in the past. I was a little shy, had worked with another VAR that had done a really good job at my previous job and I kind of thought, “Hey I'm going to go in there with that.”
But Amber really helped me like understand how my business worked cause I was trying to navigate new waters in an organization so she helped me understand what our processes were better than some of the people that I worked with knew. How my timelines had to work, what was important, and we had to go negotiate like VMware contracts, Microsoft contracts my first couple of months and she really helped me navigate those waters which just helped me say this was a good partner to be working with.
Texas Mutual prides itself on our ability to deliver great customer service. Our focus on the workers in Texas and their safety is highly critical to us and we feel that you know the same customer service skills is what SHI brings to the table for us every day.
So SHI is really good about helping us deliver on big projects. We recently had to do a network refresh project as an example and it took a lot of effort to get the right equipment, the right orders, the right services associated with the equipment. And we were able to uh get that process through and started.
The great thing about SHI is when things don't go right that they're there to help us get through those times. Whether that's working with the vendors, getting us the right equipment that may have been mis-ordered, whatever happens they're there to service us in the best way they know how.
So one of the things that I like to do is just you know be curious with the solutions that we put out there. I don't always know what other customers are doing and why they're doing it and so if we're not doing it, SHI really comes to the table with a lot of good ideas of what's possible and helps us find those solutions.
Customer profile
Texas Mutual Insurance provides workers' compensation coverage to 75,000 policyholders with 1.5 million workers.
Solution
SHI's Advanced Solutions Group helped Texas Mutual overcome obstacles during the pandemic to modernize their network.
500 - 2500 employees | Digital Workplace | Infrastructure | Networking | Next-Gen Infrastructure | Procurement | Professional Services | Software Licensing | Training
Outcomes
$45,000
Total savings from network upgrade project.
Consolidation
Texas Mutual reduced their reliance on other vendors to work more closely with SHI.
Efficiency
SHI leveraged vendor relationships to expedite the network refresh.
Texas Mutual turns to SHI to help navigate complex vendor agreements and rebuild their network during the pandemic.
Challenge:
Operating since 1991, Texas Mutual is a leading provider of workers' compensation insurance in Texas, covering over 76,000 companies with more than 1.5 million workers. Innovation is a core focus of Texas Mutual as they strive to provide best-in-class service for their customers and employees.
Like most companies, Texas Mutual encountered some extreme obstacles in early 2020. A major network refresh project was derailed by the pandemic and they needed help getting things back on track. They were also in the process of negotiating complex contracts with a few major vendors. Senior IT Manager Jason Blevins had just joined the company, so getting up to speed remotely was a challenge. He turned to SHI for help.
Solution:
SHI Account Executive Amber Land stepped in to help Jason understand their licensing position and push the network project forward. “She helped me understand what our processes were better than some of the people I worked with,” Jason says.
Amber tapped SHI’s Advanced Solutions Group (ASG) and Networking Solutions Architect Dan Vargas to expedite the networking hardware refresh. Despite long lead times, the team was able to negotiate with vendors to acquire the necessary hardware on time.
SHI not only led the design and buildout of the new infrastructure, but also brought in a partner to facilitate the necessary training to ensure the team understood the intricacies of this unique installation.
Outcome:
With Amber and Dan’s guidance, the network refresh project was completed in 2023, saving the company $45,000.
As a result of these successes, Texas Mutual decided to broaden the scope of their relationship with SHI.
“We don’t always have the knowledge to do what we need to do, so leveraging people like Dan, he’s able to come in and help us design a solution that we can implement in our organization at the best price with the correct vendor that meets all of our needs.”- Jason Blevins, IT Senior Manager
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