Integration

Whether you have an existing computer network or need to build a new one, TOSS' System Integration division is fully equipped to help you. TOSS has years of experience helping people maximize the use of their computing resources.

TOSS' Systems Integration team delivers services in these main areas/categories:

• IT Strategy and Planning
• Microsoft-Centric IT Design and Implementation
  • Active Directory & Windows Server
  • Exchange / Email Migration / Email Archiving
• Document & Records Management
• Application Integration (not sure if we need this one)
• Standardized desktop design and build
• Server virtualization (see our separate web section on these services)

IT Strategy and Planning

Building and maintaining an IT environment can be similar to putting together a puzzle, with the added challenge that the puzzle is always changing. TOSS senior consultants have decades of experience in IT, and can put that experience to work for your company. Developing an IT strategy is critical to ensuring the long term health of your IT environment. TOSS will work with your company’s business and IT management to ensure that you are using the right technology for your always changing business requirements, and help plan and budget your major IT initiatives and regular annual maintenance requirements.

Equally important is when companies merge or split. TOSS has years of experience with planning and executing projects to deal with these types of corporate "events" at both the strategic and technical levels.

Microsoft-Centric IT Design and Implementation (or Directory Services and Server Platform)

TOSS' has worked with clients large and small to design, build and maintain their networks. In the Directory Services and server market, Microsoft maintains xx% of the datacenter and yy% of the small-medium business marketplace. Microsoft's offerings fall into many categories, and TOSS specializes in the following:

Active Directory & Windows Server

The foundation of the Microsoft server platform is Active Directory (AD), a distributed directory service that maintains information on who is allowed to log on to your network and what they are allowed to access. It also serves as an information repository for enterprise applications such as Microsoft Exchange. The needs of small vs. complex and distributed organizations are very different; these differing requirements factor into the AD design. TOSS understands these subtleties and will design an AD environment that is right for your company and can change/grow with your company needs.

Exchange / Email Migration / Email Archive

The most popular groupware/email environment in use today is Microsoft Exchange. Similar Active Directory, Exchange can scale from small to large organizations, and the correct design for your organization is key. TOSS has extensive experience implementing Exchange, and with it, other Exchange add-ons/subsystems such as email archiving, Blackberry/PDA integration, unified messaging.

Also key in email system design is storage management – email volume gets larger every year. Compliance regulations mandate the retention of certain content for years, and people in general tend to keep data, and do not delete what they no longer need. TOSS leverages the experience of its Storage Engineering team to design a storage platform that will accommodate the performance and storage requirements of your Exchange system.

Server Virtualization

Many of today’s data centers are dealing with server sprawl, and ever expanding use of expensive electricity and HVAC. In addition, many of the servers currently in use are not taxed (low CPU utilization) but are required because many vendors will not support an application that is on a server with another application.

Server virtualization allows an organization to run several instances of an OS on a single piece of hardware. One physical server could run 10 "virtual" servers on it, and make more efficient use of the hardware's CPU and storage capacity, as well as reducing power and HVAC requirements by reducing the server footprint (ten pieces of hardware into one).

TOSS has certified VMWare engineers on staff that have designed and implemented virtualization environments for companies large and small. Combining TOSS’ virtualization experience with its SAN engineer services produces a combination that many of our customers benefit from to more fully utilize their investment in virtualization technologies. See the Virtualization section of our website for additional information.

Document Management & Records Management

If your company produces document-based intellectual property, or you quite simply have a lot of documents that must be managed, categorized, indexed and secured, a document management system (DMS) will help your company meet all your requirements. While document management systems grew out of the needs of professional services organizations (e.g., law firms, accounting firms, consulting firms), they are now a critical component to organizing many companies’ electronically produced content.

The DMS addresses the following needs:

• Centralized Management – documents are saved directly into the DMS from Microsoft Office, and are centrally housed to maintain control of the company’s intellectual content, vs. having documents dispersed on uncontrolled laptops and desktop PC's.
• Categorization – Each document stored in the DMS has "tags" associated with them, such as author, typist, document type, company division, etc. Users can search for documents using these criteria.
• Full text index/search – The content of the documents stored in the DMS can be full text indexed so that users can find documents by any word or phrase contained within.
• Security – DMS-based documents can be easily secured so that only specific individuals have access to search, view and/or edit the content. Businesses that deal with sensitive documents or have regulatory or legally enforceable responsibilities to clients to ensure there are no conflicts of interest (i.e., law firms and ethical walls) would benefit from this solution.

Tight integration with Microsoft Office and other applications such as WordPerfect and AutoCAD ensure that most content that a company produces can be stored within the DMS.

TOSS has over a decade of experience designing, implementing and maintaining document management systems for various organizations. Our clear leadership in this field makes TOSS the obvious choice for any organization contemplating the implementation of a DMS for their business.

Records Management

Companies are increasingly becoming subjected to new laws that maintain rules on document retention for legal and accounting purposes. A Records Management system is used to properly enforce retention policies properly on content generated by an organization. A records plan layout is determined using the retention rules that are required to be followed by a company, along with where documents fall into its various categories. The Records Management System keeps track of the documents, where they are located (paper and electronic information) and controls their ability to be edited.

Standardized Desktop build

In order to more easily setup and manage large quantities of workstations, many companies will create an "image" of a PC with all of their applications installed upon it, and then distribute that image to the PC’s under its control. Using an image with all core applications installed, or distributing the core applications to a desktop that contains only the base operating system, are two different methods used today to more easily manage large quantities with a small IT staff.

TOSS has 15 years of experience building standardized desktop images for organizations, and creating the procedures, infrastructure and automation to allow for a virtually "hands off" desktop deployment approach.

Contact TOSS today for more information regarding our comprehensive Storage Solutions.