Archives: Case Studies

Desktop Virtualisation Project Slashes IT Administration Time by 85% for Ace Express

One of the country’s leading freight companies, Ace Express has saved 85 per cent in reactive maintenance and support  time within their  IT department , thanks to a desktop virtualisation project deployed by MJ Flood Technology.

Based on VMWare and HP technology, it has significantly reduced  IT administration overheads, cut the company’s carbon footprint and energy costs while delivering a secure and stable computing experience to the company’s 80 staff.With offices in Ireland, UK and the Far East, Ace Express has embraced the power of technology to deliver excellence in customer service. “Ace Express is almost a 24 x 7 operation,” explains Michael Tracey, Interim Executive, Ace Express.

“The secret to our success is based on focus, customer service and flexibility and our ability to deliver on this is heavily dependent on exploiting IT. We have advanced internal systems offering full track and trace capability, integrated satellite technology to track our vehicles and digital signature capture at point of delivery incorporating auto emailing our customer service with any delivery related issues.  With over 10,000 jobs processed each month, IT is a mission-critical function for us.”

Transforming the IT Function

Ace Express has one person in charge of IT for the entire company.  However, 85% of his time was taken up with routine administration and low value, reactive day-to-day tasks.  “We bought into the concept of cloud computing at an early stage,” explains Tracey.  “We could see that it would answer our technology challenges and transform the IT function from a cost-centre to one which would add real value to our organisation.”

“VMware View essentially decouples the operating system, applications and user data from the underlying PC hardware and centralises delivery of these from the network core,” explains Guido Marchetti, account manager with MJ Flood Technology.  “This allows Ace Express to centrally automate and manage delivery of these components to their users for increased control and huge cost savings.  Desktop security policy can also be set centrally through role-based administration and this completely locks down the desktop, eliminating any risk of introducing undesirable files through third party memory keys or potentially unsafe downloads,” he adds.

The IT administration role has been completely transformed as a result of this project, with 85% of IT resources now spent on strategically-important project work, which helps Ace Express to continue to use technology to drive competitive advantage and improve business performance.

The Financial Case

Tracey and his team did a full cost/benefit analysis before proceeding with the project and were pleasantly surprised with the results.  “The financial case still had to stand up to scrutiny,” he comments.

“Quite apart from the projected reductions in IT administration overhead, we also calculated power savings on the thin client devices of between 75% and 80% in comparison with traditional PCs.  That gives us a payback of  three years on these devices alone.  The reduced power consumption also supports our “green” policy and significantly reduces our carbon footprint.”

Consistent and Powerful Desktop Performance

Users at Ace Express can now enjoy a consistent and powerful desktop experience courtesy of HP’s thin client devices.  The ThinPro Setup Wizard streamlines setup with a short series of easy-to-follow screens that help to choose the right configuration for the company’s environment. In addition, HP’s on-board ezUpdate automates deployment of new connections and image updates from one centralised repository to all users in one simple step.

Embracing the Power of “Virtualisation”

Tracey and his team have really embraced the power of virtualisation and are now looking to apply the concept to their own business as he explains.  “We are constantly looking at new service delivery models, which will improve customer satisfaction.  The concept of “virtual” warehousing is one such offering, where the customer places a PO on us and we handle everything in the workflow process right up to invoicing their client directly.  This is done by creating a “virtual” PC within the customer’s own PC.  It’s an innovative service that is gaining much interest and one which we hope to rollout in the near future.”

Ace Express was a voted a Deloitte Best Managed Company for two years in a row in 2009 and 2010.

Leading accountancy practice counts on MJ Flood Technology for IT Support

Leading accountancy and business advisory practice, PKF O’Connor Leddy & Holmes has outsourced its IT function to MJ Flood Technology.  This virtual IT team now provides the company with all of its IT support within the iManage framework of a three-year managed service.

PKF can continue to grow and serve its client base without worrying about the IT infrastructure which supports those efforts, thanks to iManage, a three-year managed service from MJ Flood Technology.  The company’s professional services team take full responsibility for PKF’s IT infrastructure and its state-of-the-art network operations centre provides the remote diagnostics, alerting, alarms and appropriate remote resolution to ensure that PKF’s IT operations run without interruption.

Like most businesses, PKF relies on certain mission-critical applications to run its business as Mark Tully, partner with PKF explains. “We mightn’t do much business online but we do a huge amount of communications online,” he says.  “IT is vital.  It’s like turning on the light.”Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, PKF has experienced many economic cycles since inception.  The company has a broad range of customers, representing a cross section of Irish industry including manufacturing, retail, wholesale, architects and engineering firms.  It attributes its long-standing success to “hard work and client servicing” according to Tully and that means concentrating on its core business.

We look after the SME industry,” explains Tully.  “We have a niche and we look after it.  It’s all about client retention and dealing with the people that matter; keeping them in the loop; keeping them informed,” he adds.

Taking Care of Business

To enable the company to focus on its core services, PKF took the decision to outsource the management of its IT infrastructure and helpdesk services to a third party.  MJ Flood Technology was chosen to provide the service.

MJ Flood Technology’s iManage service comprises a software toolset that permanently resides on PKF’s IT infrastructure.  It encompasses servers, desktops, laptops, printers and UPS devices.  If a component reaches a specified threshold, i.e. memory, disk storage, CPU, an alert is sent to the iManage network operations centre, warning of the state of the component. The iManage team can take preventive action before the component reaches a critical state. iManage is the ultimate insurance policy for us. We know that no matter how critical our problem is, somebody in MJ Flood Technology has the expertise and knowledge to fix it.”

Mark Tully, partner with PKF.

“Our service is based on a proactive approach,” explains Gareth Madden, sales director with MJ Flood Technology.  “In addition to proactive monitoring of hardware, we also ensure that the most up-to-date software and security patches are remotely installed, at least once a month. This gives the customer total peace of mind and fulfils important regulatory requirements for specific industry sectors.  Where there is a requirement for scheduled maintenance, we will agree this at a time that will avoid disruption to the customer’s business operations,” he adds.

Where issues cannot be resolved remotely, engineers are despatched to site within the parameters set down by the service level agreement.  “We often have a scenario where customers are pleasantly surprised by a visit from one of our engineers.  They don’t even realise that there is a problem with their infrastructure,” Madden adds.

The Ultimate Insurance Policy

PKF runs a number of mission-critical applications which support the business.  The company’s office costing package is provided by Sage.  Coretime is used for all the company’s internal accounts production and Vistopia is used to prepare client accounts.

Granular Reporting

As part of iManage, PKF receive monthly reports, detailing the overall health of the network and associated devices as well as a detailed breakdown of the number of devices managed, patches installed and alerts and alarms that have been dealt with.  Tully admits that he doesn’t read the reports – he doesn’t have to as he knows from network uptime that the service is doing what it is supposed to be doing.  “I know the product I bought – I bought an 8.30am to 5.30pm, 5 days a week, 4 hour response time,” he says.  “We know that no matter how critical our problem is, the team at MJ Flood Technology have the expertise and knowledge to fix it.”

iManage is the ultimate insurance policy for us,” says Tully. “If anything goes wrong, we have a direct line to you and all of your resources are engaged to fix our problems.  Even when we had problems here with the software from our external providers, you came in and sorted it out for us,” he adds.

International Rugby Board Converts to MJ Flood Technology

Refreshed virtualised server and storage infrastructure provides continuous, uninterrupted operations for Rugby World Cup. Record global TV audiences ensured the recent Rugby World Cup (RWC) was another triumph for the International Rugby Board (IRB).  The provision of continuous, uninterrupted IT services to support this global rugby fest, comprising 20 teams playing 48 matches over a six-week period, was instrumental in that success.

Thanks to a refreshed virtualised and storage infrastructure designed and deployed by MJ Flood Technology, the IRB can provide resilient, scalable and flexible IT services, which specifically cater for the unique requirements of this global sporting organisation.

“The Dublin network was a critical component in the flow of data to our website in terms of statistics and results,” explains John Corbett, IT manager with the IRB. “The network was very busy during the Rugby World Cup and had to cater for additional staff on the ground in New Zealand, months before the tournament even started.  Thankfully, we had very few teething problems with the solution and the migration was seamless.  Everything was stable and worked as expected.”Mission Critical Network. The IRB had looked at the possibility of virtualisation over the years. With 14 servers, it was a technology, which was always going to deliver real benefits to the organisation. However, with a demanding project pipeline, the lull in business activity before the RWC offered the perfect opportunity to upgrade the infrastructure.

“In any World Cup year, we would always have to increase our infrastructure to support temporary file storage or temporary mailboxes for additional staff,” according to Corbett. “The mailbox count alone was up by over 50 per cent and these accounts were typically used by website editorial staff to exchange rich content of video and audio files.”

The IRB’s mission-critical application is a data feed which provides statistics and results.  The statistical feed gathers data from multiple sources, packages it into XML files and pushes it across the network from Dublin to various sources including the IRB website and other agencies, who have paid to take the service on a per tournament basis.  Resiliency and maximum uptime, therefore were critical for the continuous and uninterrupted flow of tournament-related information around the world.

“Given the experience and tender review sessions we had with a number of technical specialists in MJ Flood Technology, we felt they were the best fit to do the job for us.”

John Corbett, IT manager with the IRB.

A Resilient and Practical Solution

“We recommended an HP technology platform as we felt it offered the best price-performance solution for the IRB’s unique requirements,” according to David Flood, senior IT solutions consultant with MJ Flood Technology. “Computing needs are handled by 2 x HP DL380 G7 servers running VMware for virtualisation and provide the high speed, high performance required by the IRB for their mission-critical traffic. An HP P2000 iSCSI SAN array coupled with HP switching technology forms the core of the network and delivers the scalability and resilience which underpins the network design,” he adds.

Virtualisation allowed the IRB to reduce the number of servers from 14 to two, delivering a host of benefits to the sporting organisation. “Firstly, we have cut down on the amount of physical space used in our computer room,” says John Corbett.  “Secondly, we’ve significantly reduced our server power consumption with more redundancy that we ever had with physical boxes.  Finally, we can also fire up new servers for testing systems and applications and that’s much easier to do on a virtualised system rather than configuring physical boxes,” he adds.

Match Analysis and Statistical Deep Dive

In parallel to the primary SAN array for “live” production data, the IRB also had a specific requirement for cheaper storage, which would accommodate their video analysis files. An HP MSA 2000 chassis with 5 x 2 TB SATA drives provided the ideal solution as Corbett explains. “This system stores an archive of all IRB matches, allowing our Game Analysis Unit to access video files and use their game analysis software to provide granular detail on each match.

In choosing an IT service provider, the IRB went out to tender and originally considered proposals from four organisations to complete the project. “Given our experience and tender review sessions with a number of technical specialists in MJ Flood Technology, we felt they were the best fit to do the job for us,” explains Corbett. “Their technical expertise was solid and the team made us very comfortable that they could deliver the solution for us, within the aggressive timescales required by the project.”

Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Forges Ahead with Innovative IT Project Delivery

The Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht is forging ahead with innovative IT project delivery, thanks to iManage, MJ Flood Technology’s suite of managed IT services. By outsourcing routine day-to-day IT management and support, it can re-direct its own skilled resources to work of a more strategic nature.

Like any government department, IT is a core service that keeps the wheels of administration turning, efficiently and effectively.  As the role of the Department of Heritage, Arts and the Gaeltacht (DAHG) is primarily a policy-driven one, information sharing and communications is critical.  In that regard, the department went out to tender for a flexible IT support contract and awarded it to MJ Flood Technology.

“Without any fear of contradiction, we have been particularly pleased with [MJ Flood Technology] staff and the manner in which our contract has been dealt with since day one,” comments John McElligott, head of ICT with DAHG.  “The managed network element of the contract happens seamlessly and quietly in the background.  We don’t have a big drama and that’s exactly what we want,” he says.

Planning for Changed Circumstances

The Department had been subject to periodic and significant major re-organisation in the past, as happened again last year with the Tourism and Sports divisions moving out and the Heritage and Gaeltacht divisions moving in. Dealing with this reality requires a high degree of flexibility as McElligott, explains:

“Traditionally, dealing with a transition of function such as Heritage would have entailed a transfer of technical staff and associated infrastructure between Departments. But we took a conscious decision not to do that in order to minimise disruption. Instead we re-configured existing services and re-routed email communications systems. We needed to minimise unnecessary expenditure and to use technology in a sensible way to deal with the reality that we found ourselves in.”

We have been able to achieve timely solutions to the problems resulting from the restructuring over the past year in a way that we wouldn’t have been able to do, if we didn’t have that contract and relationship with a number of key people in MJ Flood Technology,” he says.

 “Thanks to iManage, we can now devote resources to system development work and deliver a proactive service to users rather than a solely reactive one.”

John McElligott, head of ICT with the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

A Flexible Support Framework

The Department issued a broad request for tender, the scope of which also included major project work. “We could not envision the exact nature of the changes that the Department may need to react to,” explains McElligott. “But we were certainly seeking to strengthen our ability to effectively respond in a timely fashion.”

“We proposed a support solution that would provide maximum flexibility to the department,” according to Gareth Madden, sales director with MJ Flood Technology.  “We understood that they couldn’t be definitive about specific projects and their timelines but we proposed an economically advantageous model together with iManage – our managed service framework, which serves as a good fit for their needs.”

Essentially, there are four key elements to the contract:

  • Break/fixA standard contract with helpdesk services and a 4 hour response time for engineer to site.
  • Level 2 and Level 3 software supportSupport services to tackle issues associated with upgrades and re-structuring. For example, Active Directory support, roaming profiles and legacy issues associated with Domino.
  • ProjectsAd hoc projects as they arise such as Exchange email integration and Active Directory configuration.
  • Network MonitoringPro-active monitoring and management of all network attached devices such as PCs, servers, SAN, routers, switches and printers.

MJ Flood Technology staff are currently assisting the department with the rollout of a Microsoft Lync project.  This aims to bring desktop web conferencing to all users in the department and beyond.  Internal communications are the driver for the project, facilitating desktop and document sharing between widely dispersed management teams.  For example, the Department has to communicate with its component functions across a number of diverse networks and locations, including those managed by other Government Departments.

In relation to the day-to-day monitoring and management of the IT infrastructure, McElligott finds the monthly reports valuable in terms of forward planning. “As head of IT, it’s a reassurance that I’m not solely dependent on our own people where resources are stretched,” says McElligott. “I get the reports myself and can highlight the issues with my own team.  It’s pre-emptive and is very valuable from our point of view.”

DAHG have signed a two-year deal with MJ Flood Technology under the iManage framework, with an option to extend for a third.

Mason Technology looks to an innovative, hybrid model of IT support to keep its business running smoothly

Leading laboratory and industrial implementation solutions provider, Mason Technology enjoys the best of both worlds – a transparent IT managed service as well as regular onsite technical support, thanks to iManage from MJ Flood Technology.

Like many businesses, Mason Technology is dependent on IT support to keep its business running smoothly.  Outsourcing its IT support to MJ Flood Technology allows it to concentrate on servicing its customers, without having to worry about maintaining an IT infrastructure.

Established in 1780, the company has constantly reinvented itself over the years, carving out a very successful niche as a leading distributor of laboratory and industrial instrumentation solutions. It represents some of the leading players in the market such as Olympus, Edwards, Shimadzu, Mettler Toledo and many more. It serves a broad range of customers across public and private sectors including academia, healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Some its clients include household names such as Pfizer, Elan and Trinity College. Company staff are specialists in their field and are highly educated to 3rd and even 4th level. The team prides itself on the personal attention it devotes to its customer base.

“In any business, IT is so important,” says Emily O’Reilly, finance manager with Mason Technology. “Internet, email and VPN services are mission-critical to our operations.  If we pay for a service, we expect not to have to worry about it,” she says. “I come in every morning and I expect the service to be running.”

A Hybrid Support Model

Now in its 7th generation of ownership in the Mason family, the business is based on continuous innovation such as the development of its new mass calibration lab. In concentrating on its core competence, Mason Technology prefers to outsource IT support rather than hire internal staff.

“We’re not a multinational company,” explains management accountant, Neil Deere with Mason, who acts as a point of liaison for IT issues. “We just don’t have a need for a fulltime IT professional, onsite, 5 days a week,” he says.

“iManage works well for us. We don’t really see the whole management of the infrastructure. The hybrid support model suits our business and the calibre of staff from MJ Flood Technology has been very good.”

Neil Deere, Mason Technology.

MJ Flood Technology suggested a hybrid model of support as they felt this would provide the best fit for Mason Technology according to Gareth Madden, sales director with MJ Flood Technology. “This provides the team with iManage – our full managed service coupled with weekly onsite visits by one of our engineers, who can resolve issues or provide ad hoc implementation, adds, moves or changes.”

The iManage service comprises a software toolset that permanently resides on Mason Technology’s IT infrastructure.  It monitors servers, desktops, laptops, printers and UPS devices and most importantly from Mason Technology’s perspective – the daily backup.

“We have more contact on backups and the most common alert that I would receive from the helpdesk is related to backup,” explains Neil Deere. “It’s definitely very pro-active that they are checking our backups regularly.”

If a component reaches a specified threshold, i.e. memory, disk storage, CPU, an alert is sent to the iManage network operations centre, warning of the state of the component. The iManage team can take preventive action before the component reaches a critical state.

A transparent service

With the iManage service churning away in the background, Mason Technology admits the management of the infrastructure is completely transparent to them.

“We don’t really see the management of the infrastructure,” explains Deere. “To me that means, it’s working well. We get fast response times – the guys react quickly and in the last 12 months, I can’t remember any outage which negatively impacted our business,” he says.

“The team at MJ Flood Technology will always advise us on when we need to upgrade servers or perform other important tasks such as putting in place a disaster recovery plan,” says O’Reilly. “We’ve had a long relationship with the team,” she adds.Mason Technology runs a number of mission-critical applications which support the business. EXACT is their ERP system running stock management and finance while  Perspective is their price list, where sales staff can remotely build solutions and price them on the spot for customers.

MJ Flood Technology helps O2 Telefonica Ireland and Microsoft achieve significant Office 365 revenues

O2, one of the country’s leading telecommunications providers has achieved significant Microsoft Office 365 revenue targets, thanks to Office 365 syndication services in the form of an activation, sales and support model designed and delivered by MJ Flood Technology.

The model ensures an exceptional customer support experience for O2 Telefonica Ireland customers moving to the Office 365 cloud service and is an integral part of O2’s sales strategy to transition from a traditional telco to a total ICT solutions provider.

“We’ve invested very heavily in this strategy because we firmly believe that this is the way we need to go as a company,” explains Gary Dempsey, Office 365 Product Manager at Telefónica Ireland, which operates the O2 brand.  “We’ve seen phenomenal results. Everywhere we go, we’re asked by Microsoft to act as a reference for other telcos and share our systems and processes.”

Go-to-Market Strategy

O2 recognised that activation, (the process by which customers activate their new Office 365 software license and move their communications to the cloud) would be a critical success factor.

“My experience points to the fact that when you get setup and activation right, customers are satisfied and will not leave you,” according to Dempsey.  “We needed the customer experience to be perfect from day one.  We already had a profitable relationship with MJ Flood Technology and they had a solid relationship with Microsoft.  It just seemed like an obvious fit.”

Natalie Inman, Microsoft’s Global Partner Services Account Manager for the Telefónica Group agrees:  “As customers move into cloud technology, a strong activation strategy acts as a safe haven where the support organisation can anticipate a lot of ‘how to’ problems early on.  This ultimately drives down support costs and transitions the customer to the cloud in a much faster timescale.”

The Model – Activation, Tier 1 and Tier 2 Support

Faced with this challenge, MJ Flood Technology designed and delivered a best practice activation, tier 1 and tier 2 support model.

“The model was designed with scalability in mind,” explains Brian Murphy, Director of Cloud Services with MJ Flood Technology.  “It can easily be adapted for other Microsoft syndication partners such as ISPs, hosting providers or telecoms operators and our ‘white glove’ approach means our involvement in the activation process is completely transparent to the end-user customer,” he adds.

“We’ve seen phenomenal results. Everywhere we go, we’re asked by Microsoft to act as a reference for other telcos and share our systems and processes.  That’s testament to our success.”

Gary Dempsey, Office 365 Product Manager, O2

The importance of choosing the right activation and support partner is reflected by average activation rates of 92% since service launch.  This figure represents a significant uplift on activation rates in other geographies and has been continuously highlighted by Microsoft globally as a great example of best practice.  Denis Meade, Business Development Manager for Cloud Services with Microsoft explains:

“We consider MJ Flood Technology to be a leader in the activation space.  They have developed a robust model and a compelling offering that accelerates the learning curve for syndication partners, who wish to position themselves as a total solutions provider.”

The Model – Sales Support

In parallel to their best practice activation model, MJ Flood Technology also developed a sales support model to directly assist O2 staff in closing end-user sales opportunities.  By strategically placing Office 365 consultants within the sales function, they help the O2 sales team to qualify, specify and propose the most appropriate license plan for the customer.

“The sales support team can split Office 365 into simple messages that customers get and can easily understand,” according to Dempsey.  “They have the business sound bites but they’re also capable of having an in-depth technical discussion with an IT manager and we don’t have to engage three or four O2 staff for that conversation.”

Reporting and Performance Monitoring

As part of the activation and support model, MJ Flood Technology has also rolled out a customised reporting solution for O2 and Microsoft.  Built on Microsoft’s Azure platform, it tracks the full lifecycle of each technical support incident, giving full visibility of time spent on calls, call types and resolutions. It provides full transparency to O2 and Microsoft and meets all the reporting criteria with outputs generated for the joint quarterly business reviews.

“The reporting function is a prime example of why MJ Flood Technology is such a good partner,” says Gary Dempsey.  “This was a piece of work that they could have taken a shortcut on.  Instead they threw themselves into designing and building a customised reporting tool that was sustainable and scalable in line with our sales plans.”

Gary Dempsey believes that if syndication partners get the experience right at the start, it will allow them to use that momentum from within their own customer base to drive additional business.

“If you wait too long to invest, you’ll be too far behind to catch up,” he concludes.