Sam Ash

As America's largest family-owned musical instrument retailer, Sam Ash Direct has built a reputation with musicians as the one-stop source for the latest instruments, gear and accessories. Sam Ash's roots as a leading musical instrument retailer can be traced back to 1924 and the opening of its first store in Brooklyn, New York. That store offered the most popular instruments of the day: banjos and mandolins. Since then, Sam Ash has enhanced its reputation for staying on top of emerging trends in the music business and catering to the needs of the musicians that are their customers.

(Performance Optimization) (Administration)
(IBM WebSphere Commerce Management)  
(Hosting) (Landing Pages) (Monitoring)
(24/7 IBM WebSphere Commerce Support)
(Interactive Marketing)

Sam Ash Direct’s goal for its website is to provide state-of-the-art sales and support 24/7. After outgrowing its original in-house ecommerce platform, Sam Ash realized it needed a powerful and versatile ecommerce platform that was aligned with the performance of its business. Once Sam Ash selected the IBM Websphere Commerce platform, their next step was to find a  managed services provider with a proven track record supporting the IBM Websphere platform. That search led Sam Ash to SysIQ, an IBM Websphere reseller and leading provider of intelligent ecommerce applications, web site design, marketing, and managed services to multi-channel retailers.

SysIQ immediately developed a detailed plan on how to continually improve site performance. The plan included such steps as performing code reviews to identify and eliminate all bugs that can lead to systems errors and negatively impact performance, a rigorous testing program for page loads and site availability, and putting into place policies and procedures to automate as many tasks as possible. System signatures are constantly monitored to identify developing problems so SysIQ can take action before they grow into performance problems visible to Sam Ash customers. SysIQ also implemented run book procedures that integrate, orchestrate and initiate tasks between systems, applications and operating environments in a specific sequence in support of IT or management processes. In addition, SysIQ has brought a higher level of transparency to the reporting process. Reports detail where and when database, coding and application errors occur, what errors occurred, how many occurred, when and how the errors were corrected. SysIQ  created a transparent partnership that allows Sam Ash to have full control over its platform in an outsourced environment. Ecommerce platform is not a silo; IT has to support the business logic of the site and be connected to the business side of operations. SysIQ became  a part of the Sam Ash team, not just a provider of managed services.

The payoff from selecting SysIQ has been page downloads in less than three seconds, increased sales, 99.99% uptime and the continuous reduction of systems errors over the three years SysIQ has been managing Sam Ash’s IBM Websphere Commerce platform. SysIQ’s long-term goal is to eliminate systems errors all together. It has developed and committed itself to a plan to achieve that ambitious goal. Sam Ash’s relationship with SysIQ has grown to the point where the retailer now entrusts SysIQ with code support and code development of new features and functions. SysIQ is also helping to redesign Sam Ash’s website.

SysIQ Client Testimonial

"Finding a managed services provider experienced in supporting IBM Websphere was important to us, because many hosting providers we contacted claimed to have experience with IBM Websphere, but in actuality had Websphere developers on staff, not administrators familiar with running the software day in and day out, that is not the same thing. SysIQ understands that managed services are not just about running a website. SysIQ always takes the high road even if it means doing more work initially so that we run more efficiently in the long-term."

Susan Freed, IT Director
Sam Ash