Kieron Beattie Landscapes was established in 1970 and since then has developed into the company of choice for a wide variety of customers including: local authorities, landscape architects and private clients. We first met with Ed Mills, Managing Director, of Kieron Beattie in May 2016. Newly appointed to the post, Ed was keen to invest in a stable IT infrastructure. Ed’s view was very much that they were the experts of their growing business, but they needed to be assured of two main things; that their IT infrastructure could support them through their growth, but also that they could confidently entrust their IT to an IT partner, allowing themselves to concentrate on running their business. After collaborative discussions we were quickly appointed to provide IT services and support to the business.
The main problem with their existing IT was that it was in a poor state with several identifiable issues;
- The server, based on Small Business Server, was slow and prone to becoming unresponsive;
- There was no spam filtering in place, the pervious IT company had tried to implement a service, but it had caused issues and been removed;
- Most IT equipment was stored in a rack, although only the server was plugged in to the UPS so a power outage would result in phones switching off. The equipment in the rack was untidy, with one switch hanging by the cables connecting it to the patch panel;
- Despite assurances there was an offsite backup, there was none, only a local backup.
The site required some urgent attention, followed by a strategy to bring it up to a good standard to ensure a reliable fast and secure network.
We set ourselves on creating a strategy to rectify the immediate IT issues and create an IT infrastructure that would be equally suitable to meet the future needs of their growing business. Our first task as part our immediate strategy was to stabilise the existing equipment. The key element of any business network is to ensure that there is an offsite backup in place. While the likelihood of needing an offsite backup is low, the impact of not having one in the event of a disaster is high. While rare, IT networks can be destroyed due to fire, flooding, theft, or virus and malware.
We also implemented a cloud based spam filtering service to protect from viruses and malware, and to reduce wasted time deleting junk and other unwanted email.
Once this was in place we spent a lot of time familiarising ourselves with Kieran Beattie as a business, their staff and the day to day issues they faced, their ongoing requirements and also their long-term needs. Six weeks after commencing support we recommended an IT strategy. From this the following has been successfully delivered;- Migrate websites
- Migrate email to Office 365
- Tidy the server rack; plug all devices in to the UPS;
- Replace server
- Improve desktops
- Supporting growth
Our strategy significantly helped improve their IT performance and reliability and continues to do so. At HB Tech we believe positive collaboration with our clients is vital for achieving results. We have built a strong on-going partnership with Kieran Beattie providing them with the very best IT support and above all allowing them to entrust their IT to us. As such they can focus on continuing to achieve their mission of ‘offering quality landscaping that surpasses expectations’.
Testimonial: “It is always a pleasure working with HB Tech and we find the level of support is excellent. I.T is important, however we appreciate being able to entrust this over to HB Tech so we can focus our expertise on running our business. Efficient and professional, HB Tech always fulfil our IT needs and above all it works. Thanks to all the team”. Ed Mills, Managing Director at Kieron Beattie Ltd.
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