Helpmates Staffing Services is known for strong partnering relationships with its clients. By differentiating itself with better employee screening and training programs that increase productivity and lower turnover, Helpmates plays a strategic role for its customers. In the same way, Helpmates seeks strategic partners to help execute their business plan. A key area where a strategic partnership is critical to their success is the company’s information technology. “We’re a big recruiting machine,” explains Scott Leighton, controller at Helpmates. “We process 70,000 resumes and hire and train 6,000 people a year. We rely on our technology to reduce the cost of what is a very labor-intensive process.” With eight offices across Southern California, the company relies on its PCs and networks to stay connected and automate applications, testing, employee placement, and time card tracking.

Shortly after Leighton joined Helpmates three years ago, the company’s single IT staffer left. “We had to decide if we were going to replace our IT person or look at some kind of out-sourcing,” say Leighton. “That led us to a long conversation with Dempsey Bluevar. We needed a strategic partner, not a vendor. We could tell that they were on the same page as us.” Dempsey Bluevar provides complete management of Help-mates’ technology infrastructure including deployment, remote monitoring, help desk, and on-site support—all in a single IT management program that is customized to Helpmates’ unique business requirements. The result for Helpmates is both lower costs and better IT functions.

Comprehensive IT Management that Improves BusinessOne of the key elements of Dempsey Bluevar’s service is their ability to comprehensively monitor and manage the IT infrastructure remotely, thus reducing costly service visits and accelerating their response to issues. They do this by using advanced management software and Lenovo desktop and notebook PCs based on Intel® vPro™ technology. The advanced capabilities of Intel vPro technology give Helpmates the energy-efficient PC performance they need to run demanding business applications while at the same time enabling Dempsey Bluevar to deliver better PC management with greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Helpmates is sold on the advantages of remote management. “If I’m going to replace PCs, I want vPro capabilities,” says Leighton. “I’m very attracted to anything that can be remotely managed, because I want to keep my costs down.”

Outsourcing IT Makes Staffing Services Firm More Competitive Strategic Partnership with Dempsey Bluevar Improves IT Functions While Lowering Costs

What is Intel® vPro™ technology?• Hardware-based capabilities that allow secure, remote access to desktop and notebook PCs virtually any time for maintenance, updates, and upgrades, and for diagnostics, repair, and reme-diation – even if the PC power is off, the operating system is unresponsive, management agents are missing, or hardware (such as a hard drive) has failed.1

• Industry-leading performance through the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor, which is optimized for multitasking and next-generation software so that virus scans and other tasks can run in the back-ground without bogging down user applications in the foreground.

• Impressive energy efficiency and energy manage-ment delivering lower power consumption and cost.

“ Intel vPro technology… means lower cost and higher productivity for our clients.”

Aaron Biehl, Vice President of client services, Dempsey Bluevar

The Dempsey Bluevar solution brings a number of advantages to Helpmates:

Better IT support and lower total cost. Complete IT manage-ment from Dempsey Bluevar brings Helpmates a much broader set of skills and resources (resulting in better outcomes) and utilizes economies of scale (resulting in lower overall costs). “In terms of our IT capabilities, Dempsey’s services allow us to stand shoulder to shoulder with larger competitors,” Leighton says. “We would have to hire at least two IT staff—at a cost of maybe $150,000 per year—to accomplish what Dempsey does for us.” By remotely managing PCs based on Intel vPro technology, Dempsey Bluevar is able to further reduce Helpmates’ costs. “My costs stay down, since Dempsey’s costs stay down,” notes Leigh-ton. “And at that same time, my people can be more productive.”

Greater reliability and uptime that minimize business inter-ruptions. Using the advances of Intel vPro technology, Dempsey Bluevar can monitor and manage Helpmates’ PCs around-the-clock, 7 days a week, even if the PCs are off or their operating system is disabled.1 When an issue does arise, Dempsey Bluevar can address it much faster. “With Intel vPro technology, the time it takes us to fix the average hardware problem is decreased by 75 percent, and the average time to fix a software problem is decreased by 50 percent,2” says Aaron Biehl, vice president of client services for Dempsey Bluevar. “This means lower cost and higher productivity for our clients.” Dempsey Bluevar can also proactively watch for many developing issues (such as hard disk health, system temperatures, and memory usage) and intervene before they become problems that interrupt the computer user’s workflow (or the entire business).

Proactive security that protects critical business data. In an environment where threats from viruses and malicious software are ever-increasing, Intel vPro technology enables Dempsey Bluevar to proactively protect Helpmates. Dempsey Bluevar can constantly monitor the PCs to ensure that critical security software is in place and up-to-date, without bothering the end user. Regu-lar updates to antivirus software can be done after hours without interrupting computer users. Helpmates’ critical business data is better protected, without negative impacts to productivity.

Systems that lower cost and make IT more “green” while supporting growth. Dempsey Bluevar can power down Help-mates’ Intel vPro technology-based PCs after hours automatically, thus saving energy and lowering energy costs by approximately

$150 per PC per year.2 “The ability of Dempsey Bluevar to power down our PCs after hours is very attractive,” notes Leighton. “Power is becoming more and more of an issue and anything that lowers our cost is great.” At the same time, these PCs have the performance to run today’s and tomorrow’s demanding appli-cations seamlessly. The included Intel® Core™2 Duo processors deliver 40 percent greater performance than previous-generation processors while also delivering excellent energy efficiency.

A strategic view that prepares for tomorrow. “Dempsey Bluevar provides us with much better IT planning and knowledge about how to develop our infrastructure to support our business,” says Leighton. “If we had our own internal IT staff of one or two people, we wouldn’t be able to maintain the depth and breadth of expertise that they bring us.” Using quarterly strategic meetings, Dempsey Bluevar works with Helpmates to develop an ongoing technology roadmap. “Dempsey can see what’s working in other businesses similar to ours, and can introduce us to new tools like Intel vPro technology,” notes Leighton.

Better Business Focus and Better ITScott Leighton has advice to businesses thinking of outsourcing their IT: don’t hesitate and pick your partner carefully. “At the time, we thought of outsourcing our IT as a very risky decision,” he explains. “But it was nothing to be afraid of and I wish we had done it sooner.” But the right partner is critical. “We’re talking about the guts of our organization—our IT is mission critical. We put a lot of trust in Dempsey, and they’ve never let us down.” For Dempsey Bluevar’s Aaron Biehl, that kind of relationship is why they’re in business. “With our strategic approach—our tools, our processes, and our expertise—the impact that we can make on a small business is significant,” he says. “The impact on our customers’ financial statements is very real.”

For More InformationFor more information on the benefits of Intel vPro technology for small business, visit msp.intel.com.

For more information on Dempsey Bluevar, visit www.dempseybluevar.com.

For more information on Helpmates Staffing Services, visit www.helpmates.com.

1 PCs with Intel® vPro™ technology include Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT). Intel AMT requires the computer system to have an Intel AMT-enabled chipset, network hardware and software, as well as connection with a power source and a corporate network connection. Setup requires configuration by the purchaser and may require scripting with the management console or further integration into existing security frameworks to enable certain functionality. It may also require modifications of implementation of new business processes. With regard to notebooks, Intel AMT may not be available or certain capabilities may be limited over a host OS-based VPN or when connecting wirelessly, on battery power, sleeping, hibernating or powered off. For more information, www.intel.com/technology/platform-technology/intel-amt/

2Estimates based on field testing performed by Dempsey Bluevar in November 2008.

INTEL MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. This document is for informational purposes only.

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Copyright © 2009 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel vPro, and Intel Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

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