“The Premier iT team is very responsive. Someone will get help to you right away.”
NETA, the National Exercise Trainers Association, schedules over 1,150 continuing education and specialty fitness certification workshops every year all across the country, and over 125 home study courses to maintain professional fitness certifications. Mario Crespo has been the Executive Director of NETA for over 25 years in the nonprofit organization’s four-plus decade history of training exercise professionals.
In 2018, Mario Crespo sought to replace the IT firm that NETA had been using for decades. Mario said they needed to make the switch because, “the guy we were working with ran an IT company for almost 20 years – he was good, but he was also very expensive, and often very difficult to reach. He was spread too thin, and it was getting harder and harder to get a hold of them if there was a problem. Also it was like an hour drive every time we needed them to come for a service call. So I started looking for an IT company close to us.” Mario was also searching because NETA was in immediate need of IT services – specifically a server upgrade, Office 365 migration, and windows upgrades.
Mario found Premier iT, “I called them – and right away they called back. We discussed service options plans. Premier iT handled all of it for us.” Mario said the biggest difference between Premier iT and the IT firm them were using is that “Premier iT is there.” Premier iT owner, Alan Altepeter and his team take, “a real interest in our unique business practices and needs. We have a lot of things that we have created on our own, and Alan has been really good about sitting down and figuring those things out. Working on getting to know our systems and what we are doing.”
The example Mario gave of an issue that is unique to his office was their internal database, which “we built ourselves so we could automatically email our customers. Like if we have a customer that is enrolled in one of our training sessions – people could just push a button and send out a reminder with detailed information.” When NETA switched to Office 365 they lost the ability to use their custom system. Mario said, “It took a little trial and error to get it to work, but Alan got the two systems talking to each other. He figured it out.”
Mario also appreciates that Premier iT offers multiple solutions to a problem and makes recommendations – all of which have the potential to solve the issue. “Whether they suggest an outside backup option or the one they that offer… since they have their own backup. Or they recommend people to work with. Or something to do with security option. It has all worked out really good. They let you know that they care about finding the best solution that works for you.”
The greatest relief, Mario said is knowing that when NETA has an IT problem he will be able to reach Alan and the Premier iT team. “I typically hear from Alan you know sometimes right away, sometimes in a few hours, sometimes by the end of the day but he or a somebody on his team will always call me. The team is very responsive. We have worked with them for about a year now and we haven’t had any issues with the quality of their work.”
“Premier iT is there, they pick up the phone when you need them, their techs are knowledgeable, and if you need something really complicated Alan is always there to help you out.”