DEMAND GENERATOR: Pete Busam, Decisive Business Systems

All that changed when Pennsauken, N.J.-based Decisive came to the rescue with a Citrix Systems access solution that opened the door for 150 Bollinger employees to tap into the insurance agency's data from off site.

Len Cannarozzi, senior vice president and CIO of Bollinger, one of the leading private insurance agencies in the country, said he relied on Decisive as his trusted IT adviser with insurance industry expertise to solve the data-access dilemma. The Citrix solution includes five Hewlett-Packard servers and 150 Citrix software licenses, he said.

Cannarozzi hadn't considered the Citrix solution until Decisive proved it could be integrated with Bollinger's existing IT environment. But he felt confident that Decisive Vice President and COO Pete Busam and the Decisive team had the insurance industry expertise to ensure the project's success. "It's not about the technology," Cannarozzi said. "It's about getting our people to work smarter and more efficiently. Pete and his team understand operations and how the insurance industry works."

That knowledge was critical as Decisive moved to tightly integrate the Citrix software with Bollinger's Applied Systems insurance application.

Before Decisive brought the comprehensive remote access solution to the table, Bollinger used 10 Symantec pcAnywhere systems to access insurance data. If all the connections were busy, other employees were "shut out," he said. "For us, the big payoff was for people to be able to work from home. We have quite a few telecommuters."

Cannarozzi says he turned to Decisive after Bollinger's 2003 acquisition of The Madara Company, an insurance agency in Mount Laurel, N.J. David Madara, the former president of The Madara Company who is now executive vice president for Bollinger's Southern Division, worked closely with Decisive on technology solutions for many years. In fact, Madara was looking at upgrading the agency's PC infrastructure when Decisive stepped in and recommended Citrix. That move alone saved the company an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 in hardware costs.

Busam said the Citrix solution paved the way for Bollinger to bring new users onto its system quickly as it grows, either organically or through acquisitions. And the deployment also led to a deeper strategic relationship between Decisive and Bollinger. "This is all about understanding the client's business and delivering for them," he said.

Cannarozzi, for his part, said Bollinger continues to derive additional benefits from the Citrix solution with each passing day. For example, Bollinger is rolling out new Web access capabilities that give employees even more flexibility accessing the company's data from a Web browser. Cannarozzi also is working with Decisive on a disaster-recovery Citrix solution that will eventually reroute users to a new site automatically if the company's Short Hills, N.J., network is down.

And Bollinger also relies on Decisive for hardware and software recommendations. "Pete and his entire staff understand and know how we operate in the insurance environment," Cannarozzi said. "Pete is our trusted adviser. He is looking out for our best interest. I really believe that about him. We have a lot of faith in him and his team."

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