Jerome Monroe Smucker was an Ohio farmer and penmanship tutor when inspiration for breakfast spreads struck him. With hard work and an education from a business school, the 39-year-old had successfully run four dairy farms and a creamery. In 1897, he took his chances on opening a cider mill that he used to create apple butter, Smucker’s first product. 120 years later, Smucker’s needed support for its Cisco system, and took a chance once again.
For more than 120 years, the company has remained under the leadership of its founding family – the Smucker’s. With 7,700 employees and $7.3 billion in annual revenue, Smucker’s is ranked #414 on the Fortune 500 list. Smucker’s generates roughly equal parts of its revenue from pet foods, coffee, and consumer foods. More than 90% of the company’s sales are in the US.
Smucker’s relied for years on a Cisco Unified Communications solution as well as a PBX system to keep its business intact. Initially, its managed service provider proved to be inadequate, often leaving the company to tackle certain service-related tasks that it firmly believed the provider should have taken care of. Its IT team bore the brunt of this problem. Smucker’s needed a provider that could relieve its staff of this burden.
After evaluating several options, Smucker’s IT team found its way to Continuant. With Continuant’s help, this team no longer has to worry about solving communication problems, saving them time and freeing up resources to be spent on other core business functions.
While the initial agreement calls for Continuant to provide managed services for their Cisco systems, Smucker’s is also currently evaluating Continuant’s ability to provide audiovisual solutions, as well as support for their legacy PBX systems that still exist within Smucker’s voice environment. Continuant is poised to help Smucker’s improve their voice and AV systems, so the company can continue to do what it does best - “spread” their products to American cupboards.
“I wouldn’t be able to do my job without Continuant, providing the day to day management of our system.”
-Shriners IT Team Member.
“Having a partner with one hand to shake instead of one throat to choke for the management of our UC solution and telephone support has been a great advantage to Shriners. It’s saved Shriners in resources of 3-4 FTE (Full time employees) to help manage our environment.”
-Glen Boomdram, IT Network & Telecommunications Manager