About
Our client is the UK’s largest independent flame cutting company, employing 100 people across various sites. Founded in the late 1940s, the business has grown from one small site to a well-known brand serving a wide range of customers around the country. At their headquarters in the West Midlands they stock up to 2,000 tonnes of steel and are able to cut up to 500mm of thick steel plate. They first contacted Cloud Zion back in 2010 after experiencing issues with their existing IT provider.
The Problem
The manager reported several issues when we first visited the site. The company’s office staff were using a PC which was operating on Windows XP, sharing one folder across the entire user base. This meant that only 10 users could access files at one time, causing frustration and slowing work processes. All employees used AOL emails, but when a staff member left, it was incredibly difficult to regain control of the mailbox and set it up for a new user. Email addresses were also a problem – the company was using an @aol.com address which did not reflect the international, independent nature of the business.
The internet connection was slow, regularly failing and leading to costly downtime. The file sharing facility was also sluggish, taking a long time to download and significantly impacting on the amount of time staff had to collaborate on documents.
Solution
Cloud Zion implemented a number of strategies to get the organisation working more efficiently and productively. We quickly set up a new infrastructure, starting with a Small Business Server with the company’s own email exchange. This enabled the company to project a more businesslike image to the outside world, with all emails now taking the following format: firstname.lastname@ourcompanyname.com.
We installed a new file sharing facility on the server, migrating all old data across and installing robust antivirus software to keep business-critical data safe from cyber-crime and user error. We created one simple central point of management to enable us to quickly view the status of each machine and run system scans both remotely and on-site. We also installed two new internet connections with failover functions in case one went down, which vastly minimised the risk of downtime.
Cloud Zion set the company up with a Cloud mail filter to clean out all spam emails, with robust nightly backups and monitoring systems in place to protect data and emails around the clock. A web filter has been set up to limit sites like Facebook throughout most of the working day, but the staff are able to access social media sites for one hour every day. All remote sites have now been connected to the main site, making it much easier to manage all sites at once.
If you want to find out more about this project or discover how Cloud Zion can work for your business, contact our friendly team of IT support experts today.
