Located in Chicago, Homer L. Chastain could have easily used any of the consulting firms in the Chicagoland area but instead chose MCS Office Technologies because of their known familiarity with the latest Microsoft solutions.  They wanted to replace their servers with new equipment to enable better communication with remote users and small branch offices.  Also, Homer L. Chastain wanted web-based time entry to make life easier on their office personnel.

"By upgrading to Windows Server 2003 with Exchange 2003, we saw instant speed increases. Combined with the one Active Directory forest, this allows us to easily share drawings, designs, and emails," remarks Erik Kocanda, IT Manager for Homer L. Chastain.

MCS deployed two HP Proliant servers at each location. Each new server is a domain controller for the entire forest, allowing easy authentication by valid users to all available resources at any connected location.  MCS Office Technologies migrated all data, files, and email from the old Windows NT4 servers as well as the Exchange 5.5 information store.  Each user was able to keep their existing user profile - MCS was able to migrate profiles without impacting the end user experience.

Homer L. Chastain & Associates also had MCS install a web-based extension to their existing time card software.  After the server migration was completed, MCS thoroughly tested the application, creating a custom login screen.  The software, IIS 6.0 and Microsoft SQL Server based, allows traveling and remote users to enter their timesheets from any location, no longer having to fax their timesheets into the home office, reducing transcribing errors and decreasing turn around time.