Case Studies
Lemos&Crane
We have worked closely with Paul Crane and Gerard Lemos since 2007, to develop a robust IT solution for their well respected firm, Lemos&Crane www.lemosandcrane.co.uk.
Their expert and professional service is delivered very efficiently and in a personal way. They’ve never let us down."Paul Crane, Partner, Lemos&Crane
“Lemos&Crane have provided practitioners and policy-makers with information for action on social problems since 1994. We work with professionals in social housing, local government, criminal justice agencies, schools and voluntary organisations as well as trusts and foundations.” – from their website
Early adopters of Cloud Computing, they have been using Hosted Email for over 7 years. This has been very successful and has allowed virtually uninterrupted email to their Office as well as mobiles and PCs outside the office. Other functions such as company calendars and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) are handled by other cloud providers.
Their File Server is backed up on the cloud daily to a recommended UK based company specialising in Server Backup. Reports are received daily and the service provides a complete Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity (BC) service.
Anti-virus function is also cloud based, allowing reporting and scanning to be accessed from anywhere without the need for direct links to the Office.
As they have a large membership of over 30,000, organisation and continual knowledge of the status of their members is vital. For this they have built a CRM database which is accessed on a private cloud server. Marketing functions are handled by an online email service which links to their CRM.
This is a great example of hybrid type computing where the local area network is using an “on premise” Server computer for file storage and access, print server and User Account Management, while major functions such as Email, Diaries, CRM and Anti-virus are Cloud based.
Orsa Saiwai
Managing Director of Orsa Saiwai www.orsasaiwai.com, David Tuomey is an International Tax advisor. Frequent travel in Europe & USA meant that the “mobile office” (being able to access the office email and files from anywhere and at any time) was an important factor in his business life.
Having worked with Geoff & his team for over 7 years they have adapted their services around our particular IT needs. It is this flexibility together with their hands on approach that makes them our chosen IT service provider."David Tuomey, Managing Director, Orsa Saiwai
When we first started supporting the company, their entire system was dependent on a single file server running Microsoft Small Business Server 2003. If the server or the internet connection to the office failed then so would the mobile office.
This was a big problem when David was travelling and had no access to vital business information. A decision was made to look into Cloud Technology.
Did we need to replace the ageing file server with a Windows type server? As the company had less than 5 employees we agreed to look at a different model:
1 Email would be transferred to the cloud using a well-known UK based Hosted Exchange Service
2 The file server would be replaced by an intelligent NAS (Network Attached Storage). All users in the office would share files from this device.
3 A Cloud Storage company would be used to synchronise and backup all documents on the NAS to a shared, secure “Cloud Drive”.
4 All anti-virus and Spam filtering of emails would be handled in the cloud.
5 Anti-virus for PCs would be moved to a Cloud based system.
The transformation in efficiency, mobility and happiness was clear.
Gone were the frustrating down periods. No more phone calls and texts from somewhere in the world that email was not working or that an important file was not accessible.
This is a great example of hybrid computing in a small business. Users working in an office with Cloud technology.
• Frustration over loss of email access almost reduced to zero
• Backup no longer dependent on USB drives or tapes!
• Get documents from anywhere with internet
• Anti-virus with the latest updates from the cloud
Carltone Limited
Alex Zadah runs a small successful business called Carltone Limited www.carltone.co, based in a shop in Marylebone Street, London, UK. He’s well known in the oriental carpet and property business as having remarkable knowledge and as a respected businessman.
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He often travels abroad and is frequently out of the office inspecting properties or at exhibitions. I’ve been with him to a few antique carpet sales!
Like many business people we support, he could be anywhere in the world and needs access to:
• email
• calendar
• files
on-line, from his tablet, smartphone or any device without problems.
Up until 2012 his whole IT system was dependent on one computer in his office. Everything – email, access to documents, backup, virus checking and spam filtering was dependent on the server.
There were many times that things went wrong. Alex was frequently out of the office and email on his phone didn’t work, or he couldn’t access files from his laptop.
The worst situation was when email stopped working on Christmas Eve, 2011! The Exchange (email) server was failing and the main email database file was corrupted. Not only did this mean restoring from backup, a lot of down-time, disruption for his office, but also working through the night to get things up and running.
Fast-forward two years, at Carltone’s 2013 Christmas party Alex was telling us how happy he is with the computer system.
• No downtime for 18 months
• Staff working well on secure PCs
• Alex able to work confidently from his iPhone and iPad from any location
So what were the changes that transformed Carltone’s IT?
• Email on the Cloud using Microsoft Office 365
• Cloud Drive using Egnyte for all documents and images
• Backup all data on the server to a local drive AND to a cloud backup service
This is an example of hybrid Cloud, where important computing functions are now served from the Cloud but a central “on premise” file server is operating in the office on a LAN (Local Area Network).