West Central Alabama Rehab Center

The Customer

The Easter Seals: West Central Alabama Rehabilitation Center (WCARC) is a nationally accredited, private, not-for-profit vocational rehabilitation facility located in Selma, Alabama. For over 50 years, WCARC’s primary focus has been to assist people with disabilities in obtaining and maintaining employment.

The mission of WCARC is to provide quality, consumer-centered community services that enable children and adults with disabilities to achieve their maximum potential. Adult services include job readiness training, skills training, job development, and job coaching. Each year, WCARC works with between 250 and 300 adults with disabilities living in a seven-county area of West Central Alabama – one of the most economically depressed areas of the Southeast.

The Challenge

After assisting a similar agency on the Mississippi Gulf Coast that had lost all paper and electronic records during Hurricane Katrina, WCARC experienced the value of offsite data storage and quick, simple data retrieval.

Hurricanes like Katrina make the threat of data loss especially apparent on the Gulf Coast. But even without natural disasters, there are a wide variety of ways that valuable data stored on the PC can be lost.

WCARC’s old method of storing data consisted of changing tapes and drives and then rotating them in and out of the vault. After a few times where data had been lost due to equipment failure, WCARC saw firsthand how it took weeks of work to retrieve and restore their data.

The Solution

WCARC has been a Windstream customer for six years. They believe that technology and customer service go hand-in-hand. When Windstream’s Account Manager introduced the Online Data Backup solution, WCARC immediately took advantage. They installed the product on their laptop and desktop computers.

Setup was a breeze! The interface is very similar to other common backup software so the product is easy to navigate, and the scheduling feature ensures that it runs during times that will not interfere with peak bandwidth usage. If it weren’t for the small window on the screens in the morning informing the administrator that the backups had run, it would truly be “set it and forget it”.

Managed Network Security was also a key factor in choosing Windstream. WCARC has a great deal of confidential information in electronic files that are being backed up. Having that information on standard tapes or disks at WCARC’s primary location not only put them at risk of physical damage, but also at risk of theft.

A true Online Data Backup solution is just one component of WCARC’s solution. The WCARC package includes voice, data, web hosting, domain name, and toll-free numbers.

WCARC is very appreciative of the level of service they are receiving from Windstream and are extremely satisfied with their solution.