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Denny Cherry & Associates Consulting (DCAC) possesses the highest ratio of Microsoft MVP consultants (an elite group of technical experts who passionately share knowledge to solve real-world problems) in the U.S. and therefore, one of the higher per hour consulting rates. Clients come to DCAC initially for limited engagements to solve challenging problems that typically involve legacy hardware and software. The same clients generally stay, because the same in-house forces that lead to those problems falter again. And in desperation, the company turns to DCAC to solve the problem. Despite those requests frequently coming in at 3 a.m. on a weekend, the DCAC team climbs out of bed and works the problem until it is solved.
The most harrowing such event in 2021 involved a mortgage lender that had a big enough problem to start with: they’d acquired the data of a company, but not the staff, and they could not assimilate what they’d purchased. DCAC was hired to reverse engineer the entire stack and then design the merge of 4 TBs of data, utilizing the company’s complex and strained SQL Server replication topology. DCAC’s Joey and John completed the task in two months. Amazed, the company contracted for more hours to clean up their numerous performance issues. Joey and John reduced queries that were taking hours to an average of 6 seconds.
And then disaster struck late one Friday night: one of the client’s IT staff attempted to do a massive delete statement without first running a test to ensure their thin and fragile replication system could handle it. The effect was like attempting to squeeze an elephant through a tube of toothpaste: the server locked, and the database was in restore. Production ground to a halt. After a few misguided in-house fixes, the company called Joey at 3 am EST.
In Europe (and therefore awake) and an MBA as well as an elite IT engineer, Joey immediately understood the gravity: the company was now unable to report to any of their clients and was out of AICPA SOC 2 compliance. Their employee’s error could have a ripple effect: their clients unable to report to their own clients in turn. Unless fixed quickly, DCAC’s client was staring at a host of fines, lost reputation, and possibly even ruin.
Joey realized that all 14 TBs of data would have to be restored, all through that tiny filter, before the weekend was done. He got to work and left messages for John and Denny to call once they were awake. On EST, John called first and joined in, followed by Denny from CA 3 hours later, just as Joey needed to go to bed. The rest of the DCAC team took turns in their Chatty Cathy room, putting in advice and help where needed, and providing uplifting words of encouragement when those were needed too. The trio worked in shifts for 40 straight hours. On Monday, the rest of the DCAC team divvied up the day’s workload so Joey, John and Denny could get some much-needed sleep.
There are many great DCAC rescues in 2021, but what’s most remarkable about the team is their genuine team mentality. Where egos normally rule in an environment of experts, DCAC is an anomaly. Thanks to the flattened hierarchy culture, this team is there not only for clients, but for one another, both personally and professionally, despite the fact they are scattered around the country. When John lost his father to COVID, those who couldn’t go to the funeral were calling, and when Monica was rushed to the hospital, John got on a plane. They consider each other family and do everything they can to foster outrageously happy clients, because they are friends, feel valued as employees, and 3 of the 6 consultants separately stated they never intend to work anywhere but DCAC until the day they retire.
