This business brought in our part-time IT director with the aim of streamlining their systems, as well as helping in reducing running costs.

CEO’s Mission

The business had a budget of £300k for this project. This was designed around stabilising an inconsistent system and shoring up the IT architecture. This was required after the previous internal team unexpectedly left. The business had relied on one system that was severely out of date. With any support and upgrade contracts expired or on the verge of running out. Then, the Director needed to bring the entire system’s exchange limit under control. In addition, they needed to optimise it and help in reducing running costs. The company, with around 160 users, hadn’t had any regeneration or significant improvements for around 10 years.

What Our Director Did

Updated And Refreshed Systems

The IT Director analysed all the software and applications in use in the business, and consolidated the system. They then worked on consolidating 32 separate applications down to a core 16 programmes. This had the effect of drastically decreased running costs.The Director ensured each system was upgraded to the latest SQL programming system.

Optimised Practices and Running Costs

The Director identified a reliance on a single system and a physical server as an area for improvement in the existing work model. Therefore, by virtualising the entire environment, moving to 12 virtual servers and cutting down to just two physical in-house servers, the Director simplified the costs for the business, which saw a significant saving as a result.

Stabilised All Systems

Before the Director worked with the team, the business had found that everyday systems and applications were consistently crashing. Finally, part of the project involved upgrading the company to the latest SQL programming system. Then after this, the Director made sure everything from software to exchange system was fully optimised.

The Results

The Director achieved the entire project for just £65k, almost £250k under the business’s initial budget. By the end of the Director’s tenure, the company had a full wide-ranging and all-encompassing set of systems that were completely up to date, upgradeable and fit for purpose. One of the major wins for the whole project was a hugely significant reduction in running costs for the business, in conjunction with saving so much of the budget for this project. Demonstrating the efficiency and impact of this project, it won the award for Best Internally Managed Project of the Year from the BT Group.

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