Del Grande Dealer Group (DGDG) is the largest family-owned Automotive Group in the Bay Area. Since technology has taken over the automotive industry, the Del Grande Dealer Group team has taken pride in using innovative technologies to streamline their operations, grow their business, stay on top of equipment, stay ahead of their competition and provide customers the best service possible.
Del Grande Dealer Group initially had one person to handle technology and handle difficult situations as needed, but it became too much of a responsibility for one person to handle effectively. When they needed to switch out some old technologies and get optimized, they needed an IT partner they could trust to handle the job. They quickly began a search for the most dynamic and experienced managed IT specialists they could find.
“Initially, we had 300-400 knowledge workers and our staff has grown consistently,” says Ralph Yamasaki of Del Grande Dealer Group. “Just trying to be status quo was no longer sufficient; we needed a more managed and more structured, proactive approach. We needed to determine what we should do to grow as an organization in a way that drives efficiency and to promote scalability.”
“It was also critical to us that our IT partner had working knowledge and experience in the auto industry. Some aspects of our organization are incredibly unique and we wanted the team we worked with to have a deep knowledge of the needs and challenges specific to our industry.”
After doing due diligence with various IT providers in the area, Del Grande Dealer Group was connected to Intelligent Technical Solutions (ITS). ITS came highly recommended by another well-respected dealership and was the perfect partner for the large Del Grande Dealer Group team.
The Situation: Determining a More Strategic Approach
As soon as ITS San Francisco came on the scene, they knew the dealership would benefit from a more focused and managed approach. The Del Grande Dealer Group network was growing rapidly but needed a better governance structure, more security protections, and centralized PC and server management solutions to manage its expansion. ITS San Francisco recognized that DGDG would also realize strategic gains from unifying its email system to a single brand, dgdg.com.
Additionally, PC management would benefit from a centralized approach. PCs had been patched intermittently with some PCs that hadn’t been updated in some time. The Antivirus was out of date, third-party applications weren’t being updated, and there were no central patching strategies.
File security could also be improved to leverage modern authentication protections with better use of user and group file and folder permissions. DGDG would further benefit from locking down PCs to prevent end-user application installs, which were slowing down PCs and hampering productivity.
“When we initially partnered, the big heavy lifting we needed from ITS was updating and converting our platform,” says Yamasaki. “We had a combination of old computers and old technology, and we needed to get everyone on the latest platform. We had a lot of users on XP and a lot of users on outdated versions of Microsoft Office. These team members were no longer able to operate because the software was so out of date, and they couldn’t open attachments correctly.”
The Solution: Stabilization and Modernization of Dealer Group's Technology Infrastructure
The ITS team worked quickly to implement a more managed and strategic IT approach, including:
- Migration to Office 365 to take advantage of its many services, including email, license compliance with Microsoft, Office Online, and OneDrive sharing functions.
- Implementation of a file-server infrastructure and a working Windows domain, assigned individual user accounts and migrated data, and joined PCs to a new network.
- Integration into the Microsoft Azure cloud, using AD Connect.
- Implementation of Azure Backup and Site Recovery technologies for business continuity and disaster recovery.
- Improved network security with DNS filtering technologies to reduce web browsing abuse, and category filtering.
- Foundational projects in flight, which include Cisco switching upgrades, moving to Gigabit switching, and deploying a company-wide Meraki wireless solution.
- Implementation of near-term plans including Single Sign-On and two-factor authentication technologies.
- Tighter computer security to prevent infections, viruses, emergencies, etc.
