Meraki-Giving

FEATURED on meraki.cisco.com – June 14, 2016

Not to be confused with ‘Meraki-Gives’, our Meraki-Giving campaign spread holiday cheer to nonprofits last November with the help of our Meraki partners.

Carmichael Consulting Helps Drake House
Last November the Meraki team launched Meraki-Giving, a seasonal campaign focused on building relationships with our partner reseller community and their nonprofit customers. Meraki partners submitted some of their nonprofit customers for a chance to receive 5 Meraki APs for free. The only requirement for partners was that they assist in installing and deploying the new network if their customer was selected.
We received an overwhelming number of submissions and learned about some amazing nonprofits that our Meraki partners are lucky to work with. The detailed partner submissions and the inspiring nonprofit mission statements made narrowing the list down to 50 organizations incredibly challenging. Read on to learn more about one of the winners.

The Drake House & Carmichael Consulting Solutions

Located in metro Atlanta, GA, a nonprofit organization called The Drake House, and partner reseller Carmichael Consulting Solutions have been working together for 4 years. Both organizations are driven by the same mission: helping their customers and residents.
The Drake House is a 16-unit apartment complex that serves as temporary emergency housing for single mothers with children, located in Roswell, GA. In addition to housing, The Drake House provides residents with programs such as tutoring, mentoring, career counseling, and basic provisions. Their goal is to keep families together, especially moms with boys who tend to get separated in a traditional shelter environment. By providing basic needs and resources to help get residents back on their feet, the goal is for them to leave The Drake House employed and financially stable enough to be able to sustain their independence within the community. Led by Executive Director Kathy Swahn, the organization has seen an incredible 78% success rate with their residents.
Drake House
Carmichael Consulting Solutions is a local managed service provider to the Atlanta metro area, founded by Tyler Jones just over 5 years ago. Tyler had worked with Cisco Meraki and The Drake House in the past to get them set up with a Meraki security appliance for their network. When he heard about the Meraki-Giving campaign he knew it would be a perfect fit for the organization. The Drake House could benefit from the enhanced wireless performance and security, while Carmichael Consulting Solutions could benefit from the proactive monitoring, visibility and management that comes with the Meraki cloud-managed solution. Tyler described his partnership with Cisco Meraki as fantastic because “Meraki essentially becomes an additional employee” for them, a huge benefit when working with a small team.
With the new Meraki APs in place, Carmichael Solutions helps The Drake House manage their wireless and wired network, without having to be onsite all the time. With a strong network connection, The Drake House can consistently rely on cloud-based tools used in the office, which is especially important when it comes to managing sensitive client data required to receive funding for the organization. The residents use the network from either a computer lab in the center or their private apartment to connect to the internet, for kids working on school assignments and mothers searching for and submitting job applications.
By combining Meraki wireless and security devices, Carmichael Solutions helps manage how much bandwidth is being used on YouTube or Netflix, prioritizing mission critical applications on the network. When Kathy commented on the performance of the new network at The Drake House, her first reaction was concern, noting that there seemed to be more problems with the network – feedback that is rarely considered good! However, after deploying Meraki APs, Tyler actually had increased visibility into the network issues that had previously existed, explaining “now we can see them and start to make them go away permanently.”
At Meraki, we strive to create technology that can connect and empower people. Based on Tyler’s Meraki-Giving submission, it was clear that both organizations were strongly aligned with this goal. Meraki is proud to support the strong partnership between The Drake House and Carmichael Consulting Solutions to help them achieve success in their community.
Check out more Meraki case studies here! We’re always looking for more partner and customer case studies, so reach out to a Meraki rep if you have a story to share.
 
Cisco MerakiBy Margaret Good
 

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