"My staff is very good, but we have to wear many different hats. In the corporate world, I'd be five different people," said Moehlman. "I'm in charge of all the servers, the communications infrastructure, the networking, the application-level stuff, new development, voice mail, telecom, and all infrastructure issues with WANs and LANs. And all that is balanced against network security and access issues. "It's an enormously difficult and stressful position, but that's really where Teoma and Jeff come in. They are absolutely one of our primary vendors for network equipment, network servers, telecom equipment and a lot of consulting services. We definitely consider them to be a critical, strategic partner."

"Because of the way money is handled in public institutions, some funds can't be used for salaries and day-to-day operations but can be used for larger capital projects that have a defined beginning and end," he said. "We utilize consulting services on those larger projects, and we use Teoma most of the time."

"Every aspect of our operation from human resources and payroll to financials and student information runs through this ERP application," said Moehlman. "It is one of the few pieces of the college infrastructure that touches every single staff member, faculty member and student."

"It's a misnomer to call it an upgrade - what we're really doing is building a new system alongside the existing one and porting the data to the new system," said Moehlman. "All of the people we have from Teoma, with the possible exception of one programmer, are dedicated to this project. "This will be the cornerstone of our ERP system for the next five or 10 years. It is a huge project for us. I don't have an exact breakdown of what portion of the work is going to Teoma, but it is a sizeable percentage."

"These are very high-end IBM servers that are sold by very few companies, and Teoma is one of the few," said Moehlman. "I rely on Teoma to help us specify the right equipment and make the right connections with vendors, and not just for this project. You name it - core networking gear like routers and switches, our bandwidth management solution, telecom equipment, midrange servers - if Teoma sells it, we've bought it. "Teoma and Jeff add a lot of value just by getting the right people together and building relationships. They also help me out a lot with equipment and support contracts so I don't have to beat on all those vendors when issues arise. I have one contact to beat on, and he beats on everybody else."

"We spend a lot of time working together, and they know our environment very well - but that's because they take the time to know the environment very well," he said. "They also consistently win every bid that's put in front of them. To me, that says their pencils are sharp and they're doing their job the right way. I know they put in a lot of time off the clock to get certified to sell the products that we need. They're a great partner."

Mott CC, Jason Moehlman