VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 • MSI SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS December 2003

Happy
The Value of Partnerships Holidays
As we approach the
Today’s business landscape is as IT integrators shouldn’t try pounding as solutions that easily meet, or can
holidays and juggle our
competitive as any sporting event. a square peg into a round hole by expand to meet, future needs.
schedules to “fit
Organizations within every industry delivering off-the-shelf solutions.
By working with a systems integration more in,” MSI wishes
partner with other companies to Organizations need customized solu-
company that partners with several you a happy holiday
help provide better and more robust tions that solve current needs as well
different vendors, customers have season and thank you
solutions for their customers.
Department stores partner with the availability to receive a robust for your continued
different vendors to provide a variety solution that meets their needs at business. December
of goods to consumers at affordable a price that provides a measurable is usually the busiest
prices while credit card companies ROI. Benefits include faster and more month for our clients.
are increasingly partnering with effective customer service, a single We assure you that
airlines, car rental agencies, and point of contact for end-to-end your needs are top pri-
other organizations to help provide solutions over multiple solution lines ority, and we are ready to
their consumers with outstanding How MSI Determines and engineering support that covers help make your last initiatives for
value-added services. The IT industry Partnerships the entire breadth of a company’s the year a success. In September 2004 –
is no different. But what makes a IT infrastructure. MSI will be celebrating 10 years of serv-
● Identify Consumer Need
good partnership? ice. We are excited about this landmark
● Develop Business Case Putting Together a year and thank those who made it possi-
Drafting the Right IT Company Winning Team ble. Over the next few weeks and always
● Identify Initial Partner
When looking for a company to help Candidate List MSI determines their partners much – stay safe, keep well, and enjoy the
plan, implement, and maintain an like a football team identifies players time with your family and friends.
IT infrastructure, it is important to ● Review Business Case and they need to complete their lineup.
know who they partner with. Do they Identify Business Partner Some teams bring in players that
partner with industry leaders, service ● Complete Engineering and are fast; some bring in players that iSeries Makes Waves
oriented organizations, and techno- are strong; the winning teams bring The iSeries Practice at MSI is rapidly
Sales Training
logical innovators? And do these together a collection of players expanding and bringing industry-
partnerships provide several options ● Roll Out New Partnership whose attributes compliment one leading solutions to our customers. The
in designing a solution that fits and Solution to Customers another to provide strength, speed, development of strategic relationships
an organization’s specific needs? agility, and reliability. with several Independent Software
(Continued on page 2) Vendors (ISVs) contributed greatly to
this growth. These relationships have
propelled MSI’s iSeries Practice into a
leading solutions provider, expands the
boundaries of integration with our
customers, and cover some of the most
important concerns customers are facing
today; bringing advanced skills in solu-
tions revolving around web enablement,
security, business continuity, Windows
integration, Linux partitioning, and
business applications. These strategic
relationships bring valuable services to
MSI’s iSeries customers and provide
them with measurable return-on-invest-
ment and lower cost-of-ownership.
MSI Adds Data Center Solutions to List of Practices
The complete IT environment must be considered when implementing any utilities, outsourcing firms, and power solution companies to minimize
comprehensive technology solution. Companies that want to leverage the this critical exposure.
latest innovations in technology need to consider the ramifications of these
Emerging technologies usually have drastic ramifications on the physical
changes to the physical environment in which the hardware resides. To fulfill
environment. A prime example of this can be found with the new blade
this need for our customers, MSI has created the Data Center Solutions
technologies. By consolidating many 1U and 2U servers into blade centers,
Practice to bridge the gap between promise and reality.
significant savings are being realized by reducing the overall footprint of
An often overlooked part of the IT infrastructure is the data center facility the data center and allowing organizations to re-allocate newly vacant space
itself. Building the right environment for your hardware requires significant for other purposes. However, the footprint reduction into denser blade
thought and planning. As data centers grow in complexity, facilities must technology may actually increase the cooling requirements for the data
keep pace by using the latest technologies to address all the necessary power, center. The amount of heat concentrated within a single area must be
environmental, and physical needs of their hardware. More than just drywall dissipated efficiently to protect the investment in new technology.
and wires, the data center facility has evolved to become an integrated
By understanding the interaction between the physical and computing
component of the overall IT environment.
environment, the Data Center Solutions team can help you determine the
The emergence of 24x7 operations and service level agreements has also necessary requirements in any improvement project. Through MSI’s Data
provided a unique set of problems for most organizations. Redundancy is Center Site Survey process, the team will evaluate your power requirements,
usually considered at the machine level, with partitions or multiple systems, environmental management, and physical plant based on the specifications
but most solutions that are implemented stop at the power plug. As a result, and act as “general contractor” for your improvement project. For more
many businesses have expensive “high availability” solutions implemented information on our capabilities, please contact Jason Black, Manager –
on the same public power circuit. MSI’s data center team works with local Data Center Solutions, at (800) 640-4674 extension 2304.

Customer Benefits
Partnerships (Continued from page 1)
● Lower Risk by Combining the
Best of the Best
MSI has an intensive process in place to determine "If a potential alliance partner is known for a high ● Increased ROI Delivered by
the partnerships that will provide customers with level of quality and customer service and not just Unique Solutions
the greatest benefits. The process begins with the its ability to push a product out the door, we feel
● Broad Array of Products and
development of a business case as well as an initial confident that, together, we can provide a seamless
list of possible alliance partners. Each potential solution to our customer," says Ron Minchow, MSI
Services that Meet Specific Business
partner is reviewed to identify the benefit their business development executive. "Because we have and IT Requirements
service or offering will provide end customers. After predetermined and studied who we want to align ● Single Point of Contact for
an executive council reviews all the information, a with and why, we will end up with a higher quality Comprehensive Implementations
decision is made on who best fits customers’ needs offering that is of much higher value to the client."
as well as MSI’s core value of customer service.
● Cost Savings through bundling
When a partnership is formed, MSI’s engineering of hardware and services
Over the past several years, MSI has built up an and sales teams go through training programs to ● Faster and
extensive list of partnerships that bring different learn as much about a company’s products and
More Effective
attributes to any solution. These partnerships allow where they would fit into an IT solution. "By the
Customer
our architects and engineers to provide you with the time we provide a solution, our engineers have
right solution for companies, regardless of size or taken a look at the customer’s requirements to
Service
industry. Our partnerships include industry giants determine which of our partner’s products will ● Engineering
such as IBM and Cisco as well as niche players that provide the best fit within their environment," Support for Multiple
provide specialized products for servers and net- says Phil Sauvageau, executive vice president Product Lines
working such as Vanguard and F5. of solutions and services. "The fact that we have
several partners on our team means we can
● A Winning Solution
leverage the best technologies to provide a
robust solution for any IT configuration."

MSI IS THE SHORTEST DISTANCE TO ENABLING INFORMATION

 MSI Business
Practice Perspectives Partners & Alliances
ADTRAN, Inc. – [Link]
Storage Networking
On September 9, IBM announced the intelligent agents across desktops and Agilysys (Formerly KeyLink Systems) –
unveiling of its 3592 Enterprise Tape Drive. servers to insure their integrity in defense [Link]
The drive is designed to work with IBM’s of the proliferation of network attacks;
3494 tape library, STK tape libraries, or as a preventing attacks before they occur. BMC Software, Inc. – [Link]
stand-alone rack solution. In addition to
superior data storage availability the 3592 Many companies are finding that intrusion
detection is not an effective barrier to network Cassling Diagnostic Imaging –
will also include Write Once Read Many
(WORM) technology for additional security. attacks in today’s fast-paced world. Instead [Link]
of intrusion detection, they are looking at
On October 31 IBM made its latest addition to intrusion prevention solutions to combat Cisco – [Link]
virtualized storage management by making attacks. Intrusion prevention technologies
its SAN File System (SFS) generally available. work at the application level instead of the Clear Technologies, Inc. – [Link]
SFS enables host systems to plug into a network level and can effectively reduce the
common SAN file structure allowing files and number of false alarms, zero-day attacks, F5 Networks – [Link]
file systems to be viewed and managed as a and create multiple points of defense against
centralized IT resource. For more informa- suspicious behavior. Fujitsu Softek – [Link]
tion, please visit [Link]/
software/virtualization. eServers Gauss – [Link]
• iSeries
Enterprise Software MSI has teamed up with HarrisData to Geeks! – [Link]
Passport Advantage is IBM’s comprehensive provide HarrisData Business Application
Software for mid-sized organizations. HarrisData – [Link]
software licensing and software maintenance
program. A Passport Advantage subscription Business Application Software solutions
lowers the cost of acquiring new software provide business functionality that is House of Brick Technologies –
releases by allowing you to purchase software flexible, easy to learn, easy to use, and [Link]
under a single volume license while providing offer real-time access to critical information.
24X7 technical support by phone. Acting as They are also designed to deliver positive IBM – [Link]
an extension of your team, MSI frees your ROI in the first year by providing appropri-
IT staff by simplifying contract renewals, ate functionality at the lowest total cost Interwoven – [Link]
maintenance and support schedules, and of ownership.
other administrative distractions, allowing Kofax Image Products – [Link]
them to focus on business-critical functions. • zSeries
IBM has announced that the end of services MCDATA – [Link]
for OS/390 Version 2 Release 10 will be
Print and Output September 30, 2004. MSI’s zSeries profes- MQSoftware – [Link]
Management sionals can help you plan and implement
IBM has announced new additions to its your migration to z/OS before the last PolyServe – [Link]
already extensive list of cut sheet printers. OS/390 version comes off support. Contact
The innovator of digital printing over 50 your local zSeries specialist or client PowerTech Group – [Link]
years ago, IBM printers are designed to executive for more information.
help increase output efficiencies while Stonesoft, Inc. – [Link]
lowering print costs to help organizations
continue to decrease operating expenses.
Data Center
Kevin Russell, Security Architect, has earned
Suse – [Link]
Visit [Link] for more
information. the designation of Certified Information
Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Symantec Corporation – [Link]
the premier professional certification for
information security experts. The CISSP is Vanguard Integrity Professionals –
awarded by the International Information [Link]
Systems Security Certification Consortium
(ISC)2, a non-profit consortium dedicated to Veritas Software – [Link]
training and certifying information security
professionals worldwide. VMWare – [Link]

N TECHNOLOGY FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS PERFORMANCE.

Calendar of Events:
December 11:
Intrusion Prevention Seminar, Omaha 14301 First National Parkway
Suite 400
January:
Sarbanes–Oxley Executive Summit, Omaha, NE 68154
Kansas City
Also Coming in 2004:
Networking Learning Series, Omaha

For more information on these

learning opportunities, please call us
at 800-640-4MSI or visit us online:
[Link]

CRM Solutions for

Small and Medium-Sized Businesses
Customer relationship management (CRM)
CRM solutions are
solution is a perfect union for customers looking
solutions are now available to small and medium- for an affordable, comprehensive mid-market increasingly critical to the
sized businesses across the Midwest. Partnering CRM application. C2 CRM is easily integrated success of today’s businesses.
with Clear Technologies, MSI Systems Integrators into any company’s business processes, and Because retaining a customer
is making the award-winning C2 CRM solution MSI’s ability to support a customer’s infrastructure
available to small and mid-sized companies.
is more profitable than
makes our C2 partnership with MSI an ideal one.”
trying to acquire a new one,
C2 CRM solutions let customer-focused small and CRM solutions are increasingly critical to the one of the biggest
medium-sized businesses react quickly to changing success of today’s businesses. Because retaining
market trends by streamlining sales processes
competitive advantages
a customer is more profitable than trying to acquire
through up-to-date information on customers, a new one, one of the biggest competitive advan- for a business is the
prospects, and leads; strengthening customer tages for a business is the ability to successfully ability to successfully
service with faster data retrieval; enhancing establish and maintain good customer relationships. establish and maintain
marketing activities by tracking campaigns; and
putting pertinent, up-to-date information at the “In today’s marketplace, businesses are constantly good customer relationships.
user’s fingertips. looking to improve processes that help them better
serve their customers and make their employees
“Our partnership with MSI is a strategic relationship more productive,” said Mike Fischer, vice president businesses, but with the affordability of a C2 CRM
for Clear Technologies,” said Van Symons, president of Software Solutions for MSI. “In partnering with solution, we can now equip small to medium-sized
and chief operating officer of Clear Technologies. Clear Technologies, MSI can provide CRM solutions businesses with the tools they need to prosper too.”
“We maintain the focus of providing front office that solve both of these needs. Until recently CRM
productivity applications while MSI’s value-added For additional information on Clear Technologies,
applications were targeted to large enterprise
Inc. or C2, visit [Link].