Case Study: E.K. Riley

Intermedia.NET's hosted Exchange helps innovative brokerage stay nimble and efficient.

E.K.Riley uses hosted Exchange to create new business model

The founders of E.K.Riley Investments created a business model that enabled each broker to work remotely and according to his or her own business plan. In order to achieve this, they needed to provide the same technology and information delivery associated with a large organization. As a result, it turned to a Hosted Exchange solution from Intermedia.NET.

No compromise

In 2002, Edward Riley decided to build a brokerage firm that could challenge the alternatives provided by Wall Street. The E.K.Riley philosophy "Old Values, New Approach" combines the best of the old with a smart use of new technology to provide expert advice and maintain a clear focus on its customers. In two years, the company has grown from 2 employees to 35, has annual sales in excess of U.S. $5.5 million, and has a quickly growing roster of private investors and corporate customers.

The founders refused to compromise on the technology or information delivery they were used to getting in large companies. Edward Riley, founder and CEO of E.K.Riley, explains: "When we started the company, the first thing we wanted was to have the best technology we could buy. We wanted it off the shelf, and we wanted to have an expert provide the service, because we wanted to focus on money management."

The team needed technology that would support this distributed business model and give every broker access to the system anywhere, anytime and chose the hosted Exchange solution from Intermedia.NET.

Close Collaboration

Collaboration is critical to the organization and its business flow, but about 60 percent of the company's employees work from remote locations. Riley explains, "One of our two primary business development people is located in Port Orchard, Washington, and the other is in Scottsdale, Arizona. The only reason that they are able to work as a team is because they live on Outlook. They are constantly making notes on literally thousands of contacts. Our business development team jointly covers the task list and shares the prospect list. All this is done collaboratively on Outlook."

Every department in the company - operations, accounting, clients, marketing, business development - has its own public folder. Anyone in the company who needs access to information specific to that part of the business can access the public folder and easily find what they are seeking.

"The firm probably has 35 common task lists, so I can go and see what the business development department has on its task list, for instance," explains Riley. Intermedia.NET provides the HostPilot Control Panel, which enables the brokerage firm to easily customize settings on its own.

Dedicated, secure and always there

E.K.Riley began with a shared hosting environment and later upgraded to a dedicated hosted Exchange solution, providing a server for the exclusive use of the company. There is also advanced 24x7 support, as Riley explains: "When Intermedia.NET says they provide around-the-clock support, they do. I can write an e-mail at 4.00am, and get a response by 4.20."

As E.K.Riley is in the public trust and keeps sensitive customer information, the company also requires a network with iron-clad security. According to Riley, outsourcing Exchange Server supports that requirement because the server is located offsite, which creates a clear delineation between the sensitive customer information in-house and the system used for communication and coordination.

Commenting on the stability of the firm's Hosted Exchange environment, Riley says, "It has worked flawlessly since day one. I can lose ten thousand dollars an hour if my email goes down. This place would grind to a halt." And because the hosted solution is in another location, the firm has a high level of disaster recovery.

Growing with the business

The number one benefit E.K.Riley sees from its Hosted Exchange solution is the ability to support the firm's growth from two employees to a projected number of 250 or more.

"Outsourcing Exchange is the only way that I can guarantee that I can scale basically from two people up to 250, which is strategically where we’re going," says Riley. "When we're going to hire a broker, I simply pick up the phone and call Intermedia.NET, and the broker is up and running in a matter of minutes."

"The value that this all brings to our company is immeasurable," says Riley. "Frankly, without Hosted Exchange there's no way I could run the company the way it is. We’d have to completely change our business model. And as we've added more and more accounts, it has allowed us a tremendous amount of flexibility and growth."

For more information, please read about our hosted Exchange services.