MCMC

Expedient Supports One Business Owner from Start-up at Four to Four Hundred Employees

When Rich Pappa started Calculare Technologies in 2003 he started with low overhead and four co-workers. After time, he built Calculare into a reliable provider of a product called "ScheduleLink+", a powerful technology solution for stakeholders in the property and casualty insurance market.

Pappa eventually sold the company, and ScheduleLink+, late in 2004 to MCMC, a supplier of proprietary processing technology that provides containment services to many of the industry's largest group health, workers' compensation, disability and auto and general liability insurers. "I learned a lot during that start-up time about building a business and managing workflow," he explains. "There are a number of drivers that really helped us succeed and without question, Expedient is one of those."

His journey with Expedient began while he was at Calculare, "I subleased from Expedient in the Crane Building in Pittsburgh. It was great-they really opened their arms to a small group who were just starting out. We had some connections through Shawn McGorry and he had some space which he subleased to us for a small amount and allowed us to piggyback off of a lot of the services they offered at the time. There was never a hard sell, and we always felt appreciated; that's something I think that as a start-up you really value because there are a lot of moving parts at that stage and a lot of pressure to keep things moving without incident, and you don't always have the money to make mistakes."

Shawn McGorry, President of Expedient, says the team was inspiring," They really were like so many other start-ups, eager to create and do good work. I'm glad we were able to help them out at such a crucial stage in their development."

Pappa, who became CIO at MCMC after the transaction, says he was glad to be able to introduce MCMC to Expedient when the company determined it needed additional data center services. "In 2005, we were evaluating different solutions and I had to include Expedient in the mix. I was so impressed with their service and support during our initial time with them that I was really very confident in their ability to work with us at MCMC."

Pappa said Expedient not only provided the technology and infrastructure he needed but helped him determine his strategy moving forward. "Since I've been CIO, MCMC has acquired six other companies, which was obviously a challenge from an infrastructure standpoint," Pappa says. "After some discussions with Expedient, we developed a two-pronged solution; first, we developed standards and essentially cleaned-up everything in-house because we wanted to put only those applications that had been tested and proven into the data center. Second, we deployed Expedient's resources to our benefit at the appropriate times."

He says Expedient worked with them on understanding and prioritizing what needed to be done to get applications prepared before they went into the data center. In late 2005, MCMC installed its first application, ScheduleLink+, into the data center.

The second prong, utilizing Expedient's hands-on resources, was then adopted. "When we were ready to put in our second application in 2007, we were also ready for a new cabinet. After making the decision to move, we found Expedient was really hands-on; they even moved our cabinets together in the data center so that we didn't have two cabinets on opposite ends of the facility. It's the little details like that that really stand out when there is a lot going on during the transition" He goes on to say, "I have a third and fourth application we're planning on moving in 2009, and a few more in 2010."

Along with adding an additional cabinet, MCMC and Pappa have expanded their reliance on Expedient's managed services by utilizing its managed data back-up and recovery solution, domain hosting and back-up MX record services. "We started out using a few of their managed services and have recently moved into using their Storage Area Network (SAN) and recently added a new data circuit for our second office in Pittsburgh so that we can store everything at Expedient instead of building it in-house. It's just far less expensive to work with a reliable provider like Expedient than having to build my own data center and, in doing so, deploy the right engineers and network administrators on our behalf. Those are the line items Expedient takes off our shoulders. I don't have to maintain a giant workforce in order to keep my applications up. Our company has 450 employees in multiple locations, but I have only two network engineers and that's because everything is in Pittsburgh and managed by my team with Expedient's help."

Pappa says he has had no problems with the data center services or support he receives from Expedient, and he stills looks back at his formative years as a small business owner and is thankful for their hands-on approach. "It's just one of those good stories you know where you look back and can say that in its early stages, the first year or so, the start-up was at a critical point and this relationship helped define it as a success."

Pappa says he advises other organizations to find partners like Expedient and leverage their experience and resources. "A lot of people might look at a data center and write it off as too expensive, but if you can work with a provider that will help you find a solution that fits, one that can grow with you, the investment will pay off in the long run. Working with Expedient allowed us to scale our resources as-needed in the beginning; now, in a much larger situation we are relying on them to do the same."

About MCMC

MCMC and its predecessor organizations have had only one goal for more than 20 years-to review, examine, coordinate process and manage all aspects of group health, workers' compensation, disability, auto and general liability claims. At MCMC, we have built our business around referral-based services, including Independent Medical Reviews and Independent Medical Examinations-providing these services to many of the nation's largest group health, workers' compensation, disability, auto and general liability insurers, as well as TPAs, PBMs, self-insured employers, labor unions, law firms and state funds.

About Expedient

Expedient manages one of America's largest all-Ethernet networks, delivering advanced internet, voice and managed services to commercial and government entities throughout the United States. Through the power of its carrier-class Ethernet IP network and class one data centers, Expedient provides innovative and cost-effective networking solutions engineered to meet even the most demanding business needs. Expedient is a proud member of the Continental Broadband family of commercial internet data providers wholly owned by Landmark Communications. Privately owned Landmark Communications' companies are a diverse group of award-winning publications and media outlets, including newspapers, television broadcasting, cable TV programming (The Weather Channel), and electronic publishing. To learn more about Expedient please log on to http://www.expedient.com, or call 866-276-2973, toll-free.