Partner Success
Kortek Solutions IT for Las Vegas SMBs is no Gamble with this Symantec Partner
Small and medium-sized businesses in Las Vegas know it’s no gamble to call on Kortek Solutions for their IT needs. This 18-year-old company, founded by President and CEO Lyle Epstein, provides a range of services and solutions, many based on Symantec products. The five employees of Kortek Solutions assist about 300 companies in southern Nevada, Arizona, California, and Utah with email, remote connectivity, data protection, and security services. In addition to system setup and configuration, Kortek Solutions provides managed services in which clients receive a range of IT services for a fixed monthly fee. Other clients choose to engage Kortek Solutions on a break-fix basis.
PARTNER PROFILE Website: www.korteksolutions.com Headquarters: Las Vegas, NV Geographic Area Served: Western USA Serves Company Size: 1-49 employees Services Provided: IT Consulting, IT Implementation Symantec Solution Focus: Endpoint Management, Endpoint Security, Messaging Security
One-stop shopping Kortek Solutions resells many Symantec products, but focuses on Symantec™ Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition, Backup Exec™, Backup Exec™ System Recovery, and Enterprise Vault™. “Symantec products are awesome,” Epstein raves. “I wouldn’t sell them if they weren’t—that’s not my business model. We won’t put in an entry-level product that isn’t capable of scaling up. That’s a waste of money for our clients.” Epstein estimates that less than one percent of computers he protects with Symantec™ Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition in a managed services environment become infected with malicious code. This provides great value to Kortek Solutions customers who don’t need to worry about costly downtime or other business disruptions. “For our break-fix customers who don’t maintain current virus protection, we might spend two to four billable hours trying to get rid of an infection. That’s a lot of money for the customer,” Epstein says. But Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition, combined with a Kortek Solutions managed services contract, makes such episodes virtually nonexistent. Epstein personally beta-tested Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition and admired its easy deployment and configuration. “I was really impressed with how easy it was, and with how the wizards configured most of the settings for you,” Epstein says. “An end user who doesn’t qualify for managed services from a provider like us can have it set up and running in 20 minutes.”
“Symantec products are
awesome. I wouldn’t sell
”
them if they weren’t. Lyle Epstein President and CEO Kortek Solutions
PARTNER Success
Kortek Solutions
Kortek Solutions also recommends Symantec Backup Exec™ and Backup Exec System Recovery to its customers. Epstein particul a r l y l i ke s B a c k u p E xe c Sy st e m Recovery’s ability to restore systems to dissimilar hardware, and the ability to restore physical servers to virtual machines. This has proved useful at several Kortek Solutions managed services customers: Kortek typically installs a computer at those sites for storing backups, but that device can also serve as a virtual machine host. In a pinch, an ailing server can be remotely restored to this virtual machine in as little as 20 minutes. This gives Kortek Solutions breathing room to diagnose the problem and, if necessary, acquire and configure a replacement server without disrupting the customer’s business.
Kortek Solutions Company Success Summary:
• Symantec™ Endpoint Protection for Windows XP Embedded
Specializations
• Symantec Enterprise Vault™
• Small and Medium Business
• Symantec Ghost™ Solution Suite
Key Industries • Construction • Medical
• Symantec™ Multi-tier Protection
• Financial
• Symantec pcAnywhere™
• Insurance
• Symantec Premium AntiSpam™
• Real Estate
• Symantec™ Protection Suite Enterprise Edition
• Services
• IT Consulting
Kortek Solutions deploys Symantec Enterprise Vault™ to help clients such as medical offices with email retention. “Enterprise Vault is able to meet the compliance needs that doctors have,” Epstein says. “I really like the way Enterprise Vault archives email out of the Exchange mail store and sticks it in a separate database. This makes Exchange databases much smaller, and it’s seamless to the customer.”
• Norton 360™ Premier Edition
Kortek Solutions enjoys substantial benefits from its partnership with Symantec. The Technical Assistance Partner Program (TAPP) is among Epstein’s favorites; it allows Kortek Solutions engineers to get direct access to
• Symantec™ Mail Security for SMTP • Symantec™ Network Access Control Starter Edition
Services Provided
Partnership Benefits
• Symantec™ Mail Security for Microsoft® Exchange
• Legal
Kortek Solutions also uses Backup Exec System Recovery to test upgrades and migrations before applying them to customers’ production systems—something it does at least monthly.
With all of these Symantec solutions, Kortek Solutions provides installation, configuration, and management at a high level that small businesses can’t afford internally. “Our value is that we support what we sell and we stand behind the products,” Epstein continues. “Our engineers are highly trained and skilled. I require all of them to continue their training and recertification. We invest about 30 percent of our time yearly on certifications and training.”
• Symantec™ Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition
• IT Implementation Symantec Products Offered • Norton 360™ • Norton AntiVirus™ • Norton Ghost™ • Norton PartitionMagic™ • Symantec Backup Exec™ for Windows Servers • Symantec Backup Exec™ System Recovery Desktop Edition • Symantec Backup Exec™ System Recovery Server Edition • Symantec Backup Exec™ System Recovery Windows Small Business Server Edition • Symantec Brightmail™ Gateway • Symantec Brightmail™ Message Filter • Symantec™ Endpoint Protection
Symantec’s advanced support teams when escalation is needed, which speeds resolution of problems. Epstein also likes Symantec’s online Product Advisor and Quote Generator, “I use that all the time to save my customers money,” he says. Kortek Solutions also taps into Symantec’s Extended Terms Financing Program, which offers qualified partners free 60-day extended payment terms for select
• Symantec™ Protection Suite Small Business Edition Technical Accreditations • STS Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery 8.5 (1 held) • STS Symantec Data Loss Prevention 9.0 (1 held) • STS Symantec Endpoint Protection 11 (2 held) • STS Symantec Network Access Control 11 (2 held) • STS Symantec Security Information Manager 4.5 (1 held) • STS Veritas NetBackup 6.5 for Windows (1 held) For more information on Kortek Solutions and other success stories, please go to www. symantec.com/customersuccess.
PARTNER Success
Kortek Solutions
products. “That’s a great benefit for a partner that can’t fork out the money right away,” Epstein says. Other partner benefits, such as product rebates and not-for-resale products, also contribute to Kortek Solutions’ bottom line. Epstein is an active participant in Symantec Connect, the online community for business customers and partners. “I’ve been posting there for over a year,” he says. “I post questions and answer others’ questions. I like to be involved in the community.”
“I think Symantec has the best partner program in the industry. Symantec
”
really treats its resellers like family. Lyle Epstein President and CEO Kortek Solutions
Kortek Solutions belongs to several technology partner programs but Epstein is partial to Symantec’s. “I think Symantec has the best partner program in the industry,” he says. “Symantec really treats its resellers like family. I get emails, phone calls, and personal visits from my representative all the time. I’m not just another reseller moving a box.” “Symantec is interested in Kortek Solutions and where we’re going,” Epstein concludes. “It wants to help our business grow.”
Copyright © 2009 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec logo, Backup Exec, Enterprise Vault, Brightmail and Ghost are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the United States and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Symantec document # 20450025