Back­ground:

Lane, Berry & Co., Inter­na­tional®, was a Boston-based investment banking firm, formed in 2002 by two veteran investment bankers who saw an oppor­tunity to build an inde­pendent, national investment franchise.

Upon Lane, Berry’s inception, a computer network was imple­mented by a prior IT consulting firm. The system provided basic computer system services. Lane, Berry’s rapid growth from a startup company to an estab­lished investment bank with plans to expand nationally called for a computer network with increased func­tion­ality and the capa­bility to support a national expansion plan.

Lane, Berry’s Objectives:

• Design and implement a computer system to meet current business require­ments and to prepare the firm for national expansion.
• Complete the upgrade of the computer network with zero business inter­ruption or network downtime during business hours.

Welsh Consulting’s Solution:

After assessing Lane, Berry’s tech­nical and business needs, Welsh Consulting developed a network design which defined the approach and proce­dures necessary for upgrading and enhancing the current computer system.

Following the network design process, Welsh upgraded Lane, Berry’s Boston network. The network consisted of Dell PowerEdge servers running the Microsoft Windows Server oper­ating system and a Microsoft Exchange email platform.
As Lane, Berry’s staff travels exten­sively, Black­Berry Enter­prise Server was imple­mented and remote access was provided via Microsoft Terminal Services.

The network was secured by a SonicWALL firewall. Postini Perimeter Manager was installed to protect against spam, to provide network and connec­tivity moni­toring and email spooling. Enter­prise antivirus protection was provided by Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition and Sybari Antigen for Exchange. A robust rotation of backup tapes was imple­mented to backup all company data.

Integral to Lane, Berry’s new computer network was the config­u­ration of many native features of the Microsoft Windows Server oper­ating system — Volume Shadow Copy Service for end-user file restoration, Group Policy and Windows Server Update Services for centralized control of critical updates and security patches. These features greatly increase Lane Berry’s employee produc­tivity and decrease the time it takes for Welsh Consulting’s staff to manage the computer network.

Results:

The Welsh team brought a proactive, vendor-neutral approach to the upgrade of Lane, Berry’s computer network. Welsh’s strategic recom­men­da­tions ensured that all business require­ments were met and Welsh’s tech­nical expertise ensured that the new system was imple­mented correctly. Lane, Berry’s computer network upgrade was success­fully completed with zero inter­ruption to Lane, Berry’s business operations.

Welsh Consulting has since gone on to design and implement networks for Lane, Berry’s New York City and Denver offices and continues to provide on-going support for all three loca­tions. Welsh Consulting’s approach to designing, imple­menting and supporting Lane, Berry’s computer network has met all of Lane, Berry’s current needs and prepared the client for future growth.

Welsh Consulting continues on in a support role, providing proactive support and admin­is­tration of Lane’s Berry’s IT oper­a­tions. Lane, Berry & Co. has since been acquired.