'One Hour' Eyeglass Pioneer Now Has 'OneNeck' to Choke

Published: October 17, 2006

by Alex Woodie

For the next five years, the OS/400 and Windows servers that help drive Eye Care Centers of America's (ECCA) business will be managed by OneNeck IT Services, the Scottsdale, Arizona, outsourcer announced last week.

As part of the deal, OneNeck will provide ECCA and its national retail outlets with a variety of IT services, including support and maintenance of "NT and AS/400" servers, administration of SQL Server and Exchange environments, virus protection, backup and recovery, nightly batch job monitoring, and BlackBerry support.

Handing these management tasks to OneNeck will enable ECCA to focus on strategic IT initiatives in key business areas, rather than on the day-to-day IT infrastructure, and help the chain prepare for growth.

Eye Care Centers of America is a $400 million, San Antonio-based company that operates a chain of 385 stores in 36 states. The company, which popularized the delivery of custom-carved eyeglasses in an hour or less, is currently the third largest optical retail chain in the U.S., and operates stores under several brand names, including EyeMasters, Visionworks, Dr. Bizer's VisionWorld, and Eye DRx.

"We're honored to add a reputable and well-known brand name such as Eye Care Centers of America to our client roster," says Chuck Vermillion, OneNeck's top neck and CEO. "Also with ECCA, we solidify OneNeck's entry in the customer-centric retail space, a natural fit for our ability to serve as a total solution provider."

OneNeck specializes in running and supporting several ERP systems, including Oracle's J.D. Edwards World and EnterpriseOne, Infor's Baan and BPCS lines (acquired from SSA Global), Microsoft Dynamics AX (formerly Axapta), and Khameleon Software.