MedQuest SwitchesTo Savvis...

Duane Hamby was skeptical of VARs when he was starting out his network-management career. "I didn't understand how you could insert a middleman and not get overcharged," explains the regional IT operations manager at Alpharetta, Ga.-based MedQuest, which runs more than 90 diagnostic imaging centers around the country.

But, with time and experience, he has become a convert and can't imagine what he'd do without his trusty Atlanta-based telecom and networking VAR, PartnerTel--especially when he recounts how PartnerTel helped his company find a backup network provider and, ultimately, switch managed-services providers. The project, which took place in two phases, began in late 2002 and was finished up by mid-2004.

"I've discovered that the discounted pricing for resellers buying in bulk and the value-add is above and beyond what we could get on our own," explains Hamby, who puts the total implementation cost of the network project at around $200,000, plus ongoing managed-services costs.

The Partner Relationship

When it comes to medical imaging, Hamby can't take any chances with his network. It has to be highly reliable and secure. Vital images, from MRIs to ultrasounds and X-rays, are constantly being transmitted across the network to doctors for evaluation and diagnosis, something that can't tolerate network downtime.

After getting over his early days of VAR skepticism, Hamby had built up a solid relationship with PartnerTel, working with the company for about eight years in various companies' IT departments. When he joined MedQuest in early 2001, the solution provider had already been doing some "light support work" in the telecommunications area for the company, and Hamby intended to continue with his PartnerTel colleagues.

Hamby first enlisted PartnerTel to provide a frame-relay solution from Qwest Managed Network Services (MNS). But after three years of the Qwest "headache," he needed something better.

"It seemed to work, but the management of the Qwest network was always a headache," Hamby says. "There was always something going on, and that doesn't even include the billing problems. In the three years, we probably received hundreds of thousands of dollars in billing credits."

When the Qwest network would go down, it was generally at the local-loop level, which the carrier typically doesn't have as much control over. But even before the Qwest contract was up, Hamby was separately on the lookout for a redundant network provider, as required under HIPAA regulations, and had undertaken an extensive due-diligence review of the offerings.

Hamby went to Steve Gareleck, CEO of PartnerTel, and told him he was considering AT&T, Sprint, MCI and all the usual prospects for a redundant network provider.

"I said, 'We're looking at whatever is out there that's affordable--do you have any ideas?'" Hamby relates. Gareleck came through with one provider Hamby wasn't familiar with--St. Louis-based Savvis. "He gave us some great options, and Savvis shined," Hamby adds.

In particular, Savvis' roots in the financial-services market--the self-proclaimed "Network That Powers Wall Street"--convinced Hamby that it was sophisticated and secure enough to handle his network's requirements. Savvis has steadily been moving beyond its financial focus, with about 25 percent of its revenue these days coming from the media and entertainment market; its largest focus for 2005 is the health-care market, says Rob McCormick, chairman and CEO of Savvis.

"The health-care industry is actively moving away from the paper-oriented world to the digital world and to electronic medical records," McCormick says, "which presents some good opportunities for service providers to come in."

Switching To Savvis

This was MedQuest's first go-around with a redundant network.

"PartnerTel helped us with the design and understanding of all the options," says Hamby, who selected Savvis' Intelligent IP Network. Then Gareleck went to work. "They wanted something cutting-edge, but not bleeding-edge," he explains. "They were looking for reliability and standardization and couldn't take the risk of it not working. Savvis was the perfect solution, and the costs were right in line."

It didn't take long before Hamby saw the differences between the way Savvis managed its entire network, routing the data on a private, dedicated network, as compared with the carrier-style solution of Qwest.

Working with Savvis "was like a totally different world," Hamby says. "They might have 15 different departments, but you don't realize it. We have one project manager and one account manager, and everything goes smoothly." And in about seven months, PartnerTel helped MedQuest to implement and deploy the Savvis network as a backup to more than 70 locations.

Backup Becomes Primary

At about the same time the redundant backup network was up and running, MedQuest's agreement with Qwest was expiring and it needed to contract for a primary network again.

"We went out to do due diligence again, and we'd just been through that whole process," Hamby says, adding that he was still not happy with the carrier prospects. So PartnerTel guided MedQuest back to Savvis, where all parties agreed to make Savvis' backup network already in place the primary network, and to bring in a redundant network behind it.

"Having Savvis as both our primary and redundant network provider was one of the most difficult decisions I've ever made," Hamby says. "It doesn't sound redundant, and I had a difficult time swallowing that it could be, but everyone was able to show me on paper and in agreements that the network is carrier-diverse."

The network implementation went off without a hitch, and Hamby plans to continue to depend on the expertise of solution providers such as PartnerTel.

"We're a relatively small shop," Hamby says. "And with 90-plus imaging centers nationwide and one network engineer plus myself, we depend on PartnerTel to help us through the design, implementation and every piece of the project."