Testimonials

I have a great deal of confidence in whatever Acendex’s staff tells me and I truly believe that they understand me and my goals. Moreover, they are willing to patiently listen to and address my many questions. Given the extreme importance our network has to our business, it is nice to know and trust the people in our corner. My first encounter with Jonathan Husni and the Acendex team set the stage for what became an excellent relationship. I was working for a startup company that had many legacy systems in place. We needed to develop a series of new applications and run them centrally through a wide area network. It was a risky decision for us, but one that had significant benefits if it worked right. That meant we had to choose the right company to design and implement the network. From the very beginning, the Acendex team was exceptional. They brought new ideas to the table but also stayed within our budget. They delivered what they promised on time and continued their excellent support even after the installation was complete. What I personally like about working with Acendex is their focus on their customers. Some technology companies I have worked with in the past were focused on the technology, forgetting that their customers were paying the bill. Jonathan Husni and his team are focused on their customers. They try to learn enough about my business to support us better. They understand our need to have 99% or better uptime for the network. They take personal pride in what they do by putting their names on their work. They are proactive in assuring that we have the appropriate system updates and are always willing to help if we get into a difficult situation. At one point our network manager left the company. Acendex not only supported our installation but also helped us find and train another qualified network manager. I have always felt that the Acendex team is a partner, not just a supplier.

I was responsible for a barely functioning PC network that no vendor in town wanted to service when one of our board members recommended that I contact Jonathan Husni and his team at Acendex. We had no IS staff in our organization. Our file server was a converted desktop PC. Our few workstations were several years old and prone to break down with increasing frequency. My initial contact with Acendex was a crisis for us—something had stopped working and needed to be fixed. Once the problem was solved, our relationship quickly became a partnership. Jonathan advised me about some immediate improvements that could be made to stabilize the network. Recognizing that cost control was a high priority for our organization, he made suggestions that were affordable for us to implement. We received excellent service from the Acendex team. Our fortunes improved a couple years later when my organization received a significant amount of grant funding from some local foundations to acquire and install a completely new network server and desktop hardware, software, cabling, and communications. I turned to Jonathan and Acendex to help me think about how best to satisfy the needs of the organization while spending the funding dollars prudently. Jonathan and his team interviewed members of our staff and listened as we described the challenges we faced in gathering data and generating financial and operating reports. Jonathan prepared an extensive proposal document, met with board leaders to discuss the proposal and answer their questions, and ultimately designed a new network for us. Our network was installed on time and on budget. We had a well-functioning network that was virtually 100 percent reliable. At the same time, the Acendex team advised us about network security, and helped us to implement a tape backup system. They educated us about the importance of standardizing and securing our desktops. As our partner over the long term, Jonathan and his team continually advised us about technology upgrades and helped us figure out what made sense for our organization. The proof of the success of our relationship with Jonathan Husni and Acendex is that any time I’m asked, I recommend them to colleagues and clients without hesitation.

I started with Acendex about eight years ago when we were dropping our existing IBM baby 36 system and looking to implement a network. What impressed me at the time was the competence of the people with whom I spoke, as well as the fact that I never felt like I was talking to a ‘salesperson’. We place a high priority on uptime. If my system goes down, I can lose a lot of money and potentially customers. Jonathan and the other Acendex people understand my needs and have been great about helping me strategically plan my system. I am also comforted by the fact that Acendex has a large, well trained staff of engineers so in the event of an emergency. I always know that no matter what time of day or night it is, someone can be here quickly. I have dealt with other firms in the past that, although they had a few good engineers, did not have the vision or people necessary to truly bring value to my company.

We became an Acendex client seven years ago. At that time our firm was in its relative infancy and I was looking for an IT firm that would be able to serve our needs as we grew. What impressed me at the time was the competence of the people with whom I spoke. Having been involved with IT for many years, I also appreciated just sitting and talking about what was new and how it could impact what we were trying to accomplish. All of these feelings still hold true today. In our business up time is money. If our system goes down we have an irate customer and an idle workforce. Jonathan and the other Acendex staff understand our needs, and have been instrumental in helping us plan our system to the highest degree of fault tolerance. Long before the current interest in disaster recovery planning (DRP), Acendex had initiated discussions with us about the need to have a fully developed plan in place and tested. Given the developments this past year we have been able to assure our clients and regulatory agencies of our ability to conduct business in the event of an emergency. Being able to plan and carefully implement good solutions is only possible when you have thoughtful and knowledgeable input. We rely on Acendex to perform that function. We are a very demanding client. When we call, we expect immediate response. Acendex has the staff to be able to handle our requests, regardless of when a problem arises. Typically, most local firms may have a few good engineers but they lack the depth and vision found at Acendex. Whenever we are planning our next system upgrade, or having to change operating platforms to comply with our proprietary software company’s parameters, we always consult Acendex at the beginning of the process. They have been able to listen, evaluate and ask the right questions, saving us time and money. The detailed planning that goes into any major project we undertake is impressive. We are presented with options at different price points, estimates of the manpower required and the pros and cons of the various options. I have confidence that whatever they tell me has our own best interests at heart. I believe what they have helped us accomplish shows that they understand our firm and our goals. Moreover, they are willing to patiently listen to, and address, my many questions. I couldn’t be happier with the way our partnership has grown.

During my career as a CPA both in public accounting and as controller for two privately held companies, I have always been disappointed at the willingness of small-business owners to settle for less-than-excellent professional service providers. Because managers of small businesses must wear many hats, outside professionals provide critical support, particularly in cases when expertise is less than adequate or completely lacking in the management team. I have found myself compelled to insist that my clients and the owners of the companies for which I have served as Controller engage only the most qualified and customer-service-oriented attorneys, accountants, insurance agents, lending institutions and consultants—the most important qualification of each being integrity both in their work performance and in maintaining relationships. Acendex meets my standards of excellence. They have served and continue to serve my former and current employers, continuously raising the level of technology use and increasing the quality and timeliness of information available for decision-making. The proactive attitude, technically competent knowledge base, appropriate sense of urgency and trustworthiness of staff have not been matched by any technology firm with which I have worked. Acendex will certainly be credited with the continued success and profitability of these and any company engaging its services.

The Administration of our village was very fortunate about eight years ago when a local businessman told us about Jonathan Husni and his company. We had been having difficulty finding a technology company that could meet the needs of our office; after a single conversation with Mr. Husni I knew that our problems were solved. We have relied on Jonathan and his team for all of our computer-related needs since then. What I like most about all Acendex employees is their helpfulness and their ability to communicate with people who aren’t experienced in the computer field. They have established a comfort level with our employees, which has been valuable in keeping our systems up and running. Mr. Husni and his staff have always provided us with excellent service, support and advice. I recommend them highly.

We have been working with Acendex since December, 2000. We began our relationship when I decided to restructure our small IS department in order to make it more efficient and more cost effective. Historically, we had an internal system engineer and were using a small IS consulting firm to supplement his activities. Our restructuring was unexpectedly accelerated when our system engineer decided to work for our consulting firm. Not feeling overly comfortable with retaining our current consulting firm, I turned to Acendex for help in completing our restructuring. I hired a network administrator to handle day-to-day activities and sub-contracted all the system engineering to Jonathan and his team. The results have been exactly what I expected. Our internal customer satisfaction is significantly higher and our data processing costs have decreased 35% since 2000. While planning the restructuring of the department, it became clear to me that our previous consulting firm and our internal system engineer had done an inadequate job of documenting our system design, our hardware configuration, our software configuration and our growth plan for the future. I became extremely concerned that I did not know our system design, what hardware we had or what software we had. In addition, we had no clearly delineated path for the future. The ability to solve these issues and provide an understandable plan for the future was my key criterion in selecting Acendex. I spent a lot of time with Jonathan talking about their ability to handle this type of work and quickly put them to the test documenting and evaluating our system. As it turned out, our previous firm had done an acceptable job designing our system, but all of the design work was in their heads. Jonathan’s team did a great job documenting what we had and where they believed weaknesses existed. We then turned to planning for the future and produced an understandable plan for the next three years. The result was a document that showed where we were and where we are going in the IS department. We relied on this document in planning our 2002 IS budget. In addition, we already know our plans for 2003. We know what our weaknesses are and we know how we are going to address them. I am very comfortable that as the CFO of the agency I understand our current IS structure and our plans for the future. Jonathan and his team have done a great job.

Several factors have influenced our decision to work with Acendex over the last few years. We do not have enough need for systems support to hire a full-time or even part-time system administrator on our own staff. Besides which, the cost of such person full-time would far exceed the cost of retaining Acendex. Hiring Acendex has given us the ability to tap into the array of knowledge that their various engineers have. Although we mainly utilize one person at their firm, he often taps the knowledge of other “specialists” to work more effectively and efficiently. No one person can be an expert at everything, but Acendex’s employees work as a team so that the firm as a whole can be ‘experts’. Acendex engineers are educated and experienced. To be honest, the firm we had hired previous to Acendex often sent engineers that were inexperienced. They arrived ready to solve a problem, only to realize that they did not know where to begin; they would consult with another engineer over the phone to resolve the issue. Ultimately, we ended up paying for two engineers: one to solve the problem and the other to learn. Although we were paying a lower hourly rate for their time, they incurred more hours to accomplish the goal at an ultimately higher cost. Acendex’s engineers don’t solve every problem instantaneously, but generally speaking, issues are resolved quickly because their engineers are highly educated and have experience. Acendex has been proactive. They present ideas and technologies that may help our systems work more efficiently and effectively, then allow me to make the decisions about what we need through a cost/benefit analysis. I am not technically competent in their technical arena, and I devote very little time thinking about how to improve our systems. I appreciate Acendex researching the vast array of available options and bringing to me only the one or two best choices for my business.

The quality of Jonathan Husni’s recommendations were top shelf. We were very impressed and pleased and will follow through with his recommendations in phases.

We are real estate management company with nearly $500 million of retail, industrial and residential properties. We hired Acendex in June, 1999, to design and build a local and wide area network to facilitate a major change in accounting software and to establish desktop e-mail and fax capabilities. We’ve been extremely pleased with Acendex’s performance and the professionalism of its staff in studying our needs, developing written, comprehensive recommendations and options and implementing the chosen configuration. Our new network has allowed us to decentralize a major accounting function, something we have been working towards for 10 years. The Acendex staff is sensitive to our need for after-hours maintenance and is readily available for emergencies. Acendex has a very proactive approach to network management that includes quarterly meetings to review the status of the network and to identify any potential upgrades or enhancements that might be required in the future. This means that we are very rarely surprised by having to make an emergency purchase to fix our network and it allows us to better budget our IT expenditures.

One of my primary objectives upon joining this organization was to implement an agency-wide network solution that would accommodate the future growth of the agency while addressing current needs in the financial and clinical areas. My past history with Jonathan Husni and his team from Acendex was the key factor in the decision to bring them in to assist us in plotting our IT strategy. Jonathan designed a system that allowed for the use of all of our existing equipment while addressing the need to keep costs low and reliability at a premium. As a true not-for-profit operation, we did not have a large IT budget to work with nor do we have an extensive IT department (1 person). Despite these limitations, Jonathan was able to design a low-cost solution using cutting edge technology that has served our agency and has enabled us to grow from a 15-person network to a multi-site, 60-user operation with minimal additional investment. Due to the nature of our function in the psychiatric emergency system, uptime is a critical factor and the integrity of our system has been proven many times over. We continue to work with the staff at Acendex to maintain our systems and to consult on issues needing IT solutions. I feel that we have received significant value from this business relationship.

I have worked with Jonathan Husni for several years and have the upmost respect for his company. I have had them develop service programs, design outsourced networks, and flexible billing programs. They are extremely creative and a company that you can rely on to get the job done at a fair price.