The Firm
Founded in 1949, DMJ provides accounting services to privately held companies in a variety of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, real estate and hospitality. The company has about 100 employees and is based in Greensboro, North Carolina, with offices located around the state.
The Problem
Leadership knew that if the firm wanted to keep servers in house, it would have to invest $250,000 in upgrades and maintenance. Plus, security was becoming a major concern. “If the power went out, the whole firm would go down,” says Mike Gillis, managing partner at DMJ. “The cybersecurity issues kept me up at night. One day, I just said, ‘We’ve got to do it.’”
The Solution
DMJ moved to Cloud Premier in late June 2021, during one of the firm’s quieter times of year. The firm’s IT manager worked with Rightworks to switch over to the managed IT model, and DMJ had a few power users adopt the new service a few weeks early. After a couple of days of transition, the firm was up and running. It was around that time that Gillis himself had a memorable experience with Rightworks customer service. “I was setting up a new home computer at about 9pm one night,” he says. “I got it all working. I logged into the network. I couldn’t open any files. I went into the Rightworks chat window, but I didn’t expect to get anybody. Somebody popped into the chat.” It turned out Gillis had not yet downloaded the Citrix application he needed to access Cloud Premier remotely. “The support person gave me the link,” he says. “I completed the download, and everything worked fine. I never expected to get help like that at that time of night, but I did.”
Why Rightworks?
Gillis received a positive reference from CPAmerica, an industry organization of which DMJ is a member. His son had also played lacrosse with a Cloud Premier salesperson, so Gillis had some insight into Rightworks.
The Benefits
Gillis says he sleeps better at night knowing an entire team at Rightworks is taking care of his firm’s data security. “I just feel much more secure with Cloud Premier and much more secure with the functionality,” he says. “Security always scared me.” DMJ spent the money it had been planning to invest in servers to install a brand new, top-of-the-line videoconferencing system in its offices. Better yet, since the firm made the switch to Cloud Premier, its IT staff has been able to take on new responsibilities. Gillis says the firm now plans to have its IT staff do billable work for clients, something that wasn’t possible prior to adoption of Cloud Premier. “We’re going to get them consulting with our clients and turn them into a revenue source,” he says.