PayAmerica Story

PayAmerica grows its business while cashing in on IBM Power in the cloud

At a Glance

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Challenges

• Unique and complex ITissues
• Lack of staff bandwidth to support IBM server
• Need for OS upgrades

Benefits

• Team of experts with skills and drive to solve any issue
• Better price point than maintaining its own server
• Access to better and faster hardware

A migration to IBM Power in the Racksquared cloud provides a hardware refresh and improved application performance.

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Right solution at the right price

PayAmerica is in the business of removing obstacles so that people can easily pay their bills. For many people, bill payment may seem simple but for those without a traditional checking account there can be significant challenges. Money orders are expensive and paying in person can take a lot of time and isn’t always an option. With PayAmerica in 42 states, people can turn to agent locations in grocery stores, convenience stores, beauty salons and other businesses to pay any bill.

PayAmerica had traditionally-owned and managed IT infrastructure, but in 2021, they decided to shift resources away from maintaining IBM i server infrastructure to projects that would enable the business to grow. By migrating to the cloud with a service provider like Racksquared, the company was able to offload infrastructure management and at the same time upgrade technology and environment without a capital outlay. The cloud solution is designed to be secure, reliable and resilient. So if there’s a technology failure, PayAmerica won’t suffer downtime that would prevent people from paying bills.

After reviewing proposals from several providers, Racksquared proved to be the right solution at the right price for PayAmerica. “My partners and I were extremely impressed with Racksquared’s expertise, and everything included in the solution,” said Kevin DeBinder, PayAmerica’s Chief Operating Officer.

“We moved two LPARs from a POWER7 in a tier 4 data center to two POWER9 servers located in two separate data centers giving us redundancy and data center diversity. After the migration to the cloud, we found application response times are considerably faster than what they were and we’re saving a significant amount of money each month.”

Price matters, but service is critical

Racksquared offered a great price but what has proven to be the real benefit is the expertise and level of service that they have provided PayAmerica. “When we made the decision to go with Racksquared, we made it clear that we needed to move fast and from the start, Racksquared had a step-by-step migration plan that allowed us to achieve our goals,” said Kevin.

Beyond the iSeries hosting solution, Racksquared has continued to prove their value with a willingness to tackle any obstacle that got in the way. In one instance when PayAmerica faced a problem with their custom application, a Racksquared team member worked relentlessly until he was able to resolve the issue.

“I was just so impressed and so appreciative of him digging way beyond the scope of what I expected,” said Kevin. “That’s what really did it for me. After that experience, I knew we had made the right decision in partnering with Racksquared. We don’t just have a new vendor, we have a new partner.”

Getting their money’s worth

Migrating to the cloud and establishing a relationship with a new vendor are two big decisions and if you get either of those wrong, it can be catastrophic to your business. PayAmerica has appreciated every part of its relationship with Racksquared — from the team’s support for highly complex issues to the smooth onboarding process and migration to the cloud.

“We had absolutely nothing go wrong when we flipped the switch, no downtime, no hiccups,” said Kevin. “They upgraded our operating system and made sure that we were ready to go. They really cared.”

While PayAmerica has the expertise to manage its own iSeries, turning the job over to Racksquared allows those assets to be reallocated, converting them from an expense to revenue generators.

“With Racksquared, the underlying infrastructure and technology are taken care of, and we can focus on growing our business and delivering on customer expectations,” explained Kevin.

This key differentiator is allowing PayAmerica to grow and extend its reach. As it grows, Racksquared will be there to provide the expertise, technology and environment, for PayAmerica’s IBM Power needs.