Time is Money Billing Systems Realizes 99.5% Uptime with Virtualized Server Environment
 
 

Time is Money Billing Systems Realizes 99.5% Uptime with Virtualized Server Environment

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After several years in the professional services industry, a group of entrepreneurs identified a growing challenge and unmet need. They knew that to succeed, professionals must be available around-the-clock. The introduction of smartphones into the marketplace enabled professionals to be on-call all the time, but there was no avenue to track the time spent on client interactions on smartphones accurately, immediately, easily, and securely, which negatively impacted billable targets and firm revenues.

The group of entrepreneurs that founded Time is Money Billing Systems designed a solution from an insider’s point of view. This software as a service (SaaS) helps professionals, such as lawyers and accountants, to capture their mobile time effortlessly and securely. The service is easy to use, can integrate seamlessly with current industry accounting systems, and provides the utmost level of customer confidentiality.

Time is Money Billing Systems needed a solid technical foundation supporting its service. The company sought highly-available, high-performance servers that could handle a large volume of transactions and provide the reliable data access that leading professional services organizations require. Any system downtime would result in the organization’s customers losing thousands of dollars in revenue, every minute. Time is Money Billing Systems selected and installed Oracle’s Sun Fire servers for production, back-up, and storage. Since implementing the servers, the company has realized 99.5% uptime for its servers, as well as those it manages remotely for its customers.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Time is Money Billing Systems

  • “Knowing the amount of revenue at stake for our customers as well as our reputation in the industry, we had to design our service from the ground up to be scalable and extremely reliable. In our minds, the only solution was to install Oracle’s Sun Fire servers, which have the reputation of being very solid machines, and they have not disappointed us.” – Michael Bluestein, Chief Executive Officer, Time is Money Billing Systems.

  • Deploy a reliable, high performance technology infrastructure to support the company’s Time is Money Billing System service, which enables professionals, like lawyers and accountants, to accurately track billable hours spent while working on mobile devices
  • Ensure that the system stays up and running, so that the company’s customers do not lose revenue opportunities
  • Enable the company to remotely manage and support servers placed in clients’ firms

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Sun Fire X4100
  • Sun Fire X4140
  • Sun Fire X4150
  • Sun Fire V20z
  • Oracle VM VirtualBox
  • Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager
  • Implemented Oracle’s Sun Fire X4140 and X4150 servers to ensure 99.5% uptime for the Time is Money Billing System
  • Virtualized the environment to consolidate six servers on one box
  • Deployed Sun Fire X4100 servers at client sites—providing customers with a total hardware/software/service package and ensuring complete security by encrypting every piece of client data before it leaves a customer site
  • Used Oracle Integrated Lights Out Manager to log in to clients’ systems remotely, monitor servers (even if they are in a powered-off state), and solve any issues without needing to travel to the client’s site—saving time, preventing client’s missed revenue opportunities, and reducing system management costs
  • Used Oracle VM VirtualBox to test and roll out the company’s integration system virtual machines on a desktop environment to fine-tune and customize them for each client
  • Achieved approximately 45% in cost savings by virtualizing several production servers onto one box

Why Oracle

“We had used Dell, HP, and IBM servers at other companies where we were involved in the past, and none of these could compare to Oracle’s Sun Fire servers in terms of reliability, enterprise class functionality, design, and support. We need the best to perform the best,” said Michael Bluestein, chief executive officer, Time is Money Billing Systems. “Oracle Premier Support ensures that we receive high quality, expert assistance for our Oracle software and systems technology. Oracle Support provides us with the proactive support, tools, updates and patches, and resources necessary for our business to succeed.”