We live in a changing world and business must adapt to meet new challenges. That’s certainly the experience of Phillips and Smith (PSL). A manufacturer and distributor of world leading fire-fighting product, PSL found commercial opportunities in importing product from other markets. As the business evolved, demands grew on the I.T. infrastructure.
Strong growth put pressure on capacity, and PSL needed to streamline the management of their network. Previous mobility projects by Kinetics for PSL had enabled a mobile salesforce, and the benefits of Exchange 2007 and Windows Sharepoint Services to increase their efficiency was obvious. Secure, remote access to critical data anytime anywhere was vital to achieve continued growth in a competitive market.
PSL turned to their longstanding, trusted I.T. partner, Kinetics Group. Working together over nearly ten years has built a strong relationship between the companies, and Kinetics’ knowledge of Phillips and Smith made it easy for them to find the right options.
Kinetics implemented a Microsoft Windows Server solution, with Exchange 2007 and Sharepoint. Using Microsoft’s BPIO methodologies, deployment times were reduced, and ongoing maintenance is a breeze. Support costs have been cut and user satisfaction is up. Busy sales staff can securely access critical email, documents and ERP business data wherever and whenever they need it.
PSL were more than happy with the outcome. Ian Phillips, General Manager – Admin & Finance says “It was a seamless transition from the old server to the new, and it was all achieved with no downtime effecting the day to day running of the business. PSL now look forward to expanding staff access to data through implementing Sharepoint, adding value to the already superior service they offer their customers.”
“Data security is also important to us” Phillips added “and a centralised solution providing backup services for the servers as well as networked PC’s was an ideal result. The added benefit of Kinetics also monitoring these processes on a daily basis is added security if I am away from the office.”
PSL now also have the infrastructure with which to expand. “There are plenty of options for us looking forward” Phillips said “and with Kinetics proven ability, and the relationship we have had over the years, we are keen to investigate new tools. With our server workloads now better balanced, we have the spare capacity to develop additional data services for our staff and ultimately directly to our customers.”
Kinetics is helping PSL to investigate and build new I.T. solutions for the business challenges ahead.
Phillips said “What is often lacking in small to medium enterprises is the in house IT knowledge, especially when it comes to strategically planning the future IT needs of a business. Having a partnership with the likes of Kinetics makes this whole process a lot less daunting, and reaps real benefits across all facets of the enterprise. We have grown significantly in computer users in the last 10 years, and interestingly quadrupled in size of our remote access users (laptops etc) to service our growing markets worldwide, placing more emphasis on the requirement to access our network 24/7. Having a secure, reliable network infrastructure is vitally important to us.”
“I would have no hesitation in recommending Kinetics to anyone looking for an IT service/solution partner.”