Case Studies

Cable Services
Infrastructure review allows for future growth

 

A company based in Wrexham with branches in Liverpool, Stoke and Glasgow distributes a wide range of cable and accessory products.

mwl were invited to review the status of the existing IT infrastructure as it was causing concern. A survey was carried out that revealed several deficiencies and opportunities for improvement. The existing IT infrastructure consisted of standalone low specification desktop computers being used as dumb terminals running different versions of Microsoft Windows.

The recommended solutions showed how the stability, reliability and resilience of the current facilities were dramatically improved and how additional services were added at modest costs. The recommendations took into account their expressed wishes and best practices observed elsewhere. The survey carried out resulted in the upgrade of the aging IT infrastructure and the implementation of a new group-wide solution. A dedicated file server with appropriate back up facilities and desktop computers with the latest technology were installed which were upgraded to a standardised configuration. The new system allowed office and email applications, in addition to their existing UNIX based accounting systems, to be used by everyone across all branches.

The company Finance Director stated “This simplified solution saved us in the region of £9,000 a year in communication costs and support of the aging equipment”. In addition, when looking towards the future the Finance Director added “The new solution allows for future growth as the company expands, as its capacity may readily be increased without starting again”. 

Challenge 

  • A geographically widespread company, facing the communication issues that this brings
  • Having expanded their IT in an unstructured way as business expanded, the resulting system lacked cohesion and caused increasing concern in terms of reliability and capacity for further expansion

Solution

  • Hardware: Branded base units, laptops and servers, implemented without disruption to the UNIX elements of their infrastructure
  • Software: Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows Server Enterprise
  • Services: Help desk, SLA support, technical site surveys

Benefits

  • Direct access to proactive technical support staff who understand the organisation's specific requirements
  • Controlled, itemised costs
  • Sympathetic improvements to existing facilities, improving overall stability, reliability and resilience

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