Background to EDM

EDM is a global leader in the provision of training services to the civil aviation, defence and rail industries, drawing on best-in-class technologies and training practices to deliver a vital service to their customers.

EDM was formed in 1971, and over the subsequent 40 years, has been driving standards of safety and service in industries which serve as key cornerstones of our interconnected world. EDM are proud to work on a global scale from their Manchester HQ, making them another example of a thriving local business doing vital work with the support of the inTEC Group.

EDM’s requirement

EDM turned to inTEC in need of a more reliable, proactive IT Support partner. Technology was fast becoming a barrier to effective working, with struggling infrastructure leading to regular downtimes and frequent disruptions to daily operations which their IT Support were struggling to address.

EDM required a service which would rectify these issues with enhanced levels of proactive and reactive support, with faster response times a key requirement within a bespoke partnership able to continually adapt to meet their evolving needs.

First steps

EDM onboarded as a full Managed Service customer with inTEC, benefitting from our highly efficient response time SLA, a named technical contact within the inTEC team and ongoing proactive maintenance activities across the company’s network. Disaster resilience and cyber security were also identified as priorities to be be addressed in our partnership moving forward.

Our solutions

As well as providing EDM with our full ongoing IT support package, including fast response times and remote access enabled toward minimising IT downtimes, inTEC have also supported EDM with the development of a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and the re-enforcement of their cyber security posture.

The DRP includes clear actions for a wide range of potential disaster events, centring on minimising critical data loss and mitigating the impacts of any consequences which cannot be prevented. The Plan includes measures for Critical Incident Response, Online Data Backup and activation of a Disaster Recovery Team.

We have supported the EDM DRP with the provision of a full inTRUST Premium deployment. This was in response to comprehensive vulnerability scanning and a subsequent assessment of how best to maintain EDM’s existing Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation standards, while continuing to ensure security advancements across the EDM network to minimise opportunities for infiltration by malicious actors. EDM’s inTRUST Premium service includes Antivirus, Ransomware Protection, EDR, Vulnerability Scanning and 3rd Party Patching. In addition, EDM now have an on-premise vulnerability scanner for network node.

“inTEC Business’s professionalism, expertise, and prompt response to our needs have been exceptional; their level of service has greatly contributed to our productivity and peace of mind.” – David Garner, EDM

Delivery and outcome

Since working with inTEC, EDM have noted significant improvements in the performance of their IT infrastructure and the ready availability of high-quality support when issues do arise. Our cyber security measures have supported EDM to be more resilient against threats and the DRP ensures that EDM Ltd’s operations can continue smoothly even in the event of a disaster.

“Working with EDM Ltd over the past 10 years has been an absolute pleasure. Their team is incredibly dedicated and collaborative, making it easy for us to implement tailored solutions that meet their unique needs. Together, we’ve achieved remarkable results, ensuring their systems are secure, reliable, and efficient. We look forward to continuing our successful partnership with EDM Ltd.” – Mick Satiar, CTO, inTEC Group

Contact Us

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.

iTEK introduce remote access infrastructure for Colin Briscoe Construction

ABOUT

Colin Briscoe Construction was established in 1993 with the aim to provide a professional construction contracting service to clients throughout the North West of England. They are based in Carnforth in Lancashire, just south of iTEK Computer Solutions.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

Colin Briscoe Construction came to iTEK due to their dissatisfaction with their previous IT supplier. They found that the response time and support satisfaction from their IT company failed to meet the standard that they expected.

“They came to us from a recommendation, and the brief was that they had a system that wasn’t working for them. Our first port of call was to audit their entire IT infrastructure. We talked to the customer about what they’ve got, what they like and dislike, what works well and what doesn’t and what they would like to have instead.”

Explained Ben Mitchinson, iTEK’s Managing Director.

SOLUTIONS

iTEK used this information to tailor a solution which best suited the organisation to transform the way in which they worked. Services were introduced to cater for remote access, which were previously unattainable and the entire infrastructure was overhauled from servers through to desktops and laptops. Since then, remote desktop services have been introduced to enable a greater level of remote working; allowing for quantity surveyors and site managers to utilise a tablet on site and access dedicated construction CRM solutions. The remote access allows them to open a project whilst undertaking construction projects and keeps prices, variations and billings in one location on a per case basis.

“To date we provide all of their IT hardware, software and support, connectivity, all of their hosting for Office 365 and emails. In due course we will be looking to provide business telephony services as well as the mobile phones that we also already supply.” 

OUTCOMES

David Evans from Colin Briscoe Construction commented:

“iTEK have supported our business for many years now and their knowledge, support and advice has been second to none during our working relationship. This has enabled us to remain operational during an incident when our offices flooded and also advising us on IT development and upgrades which enabled us to work efficiently when the first Covid lockdown happened, which was a very busy time for us due to the critical work we were involved in with our clients” 

CONTACT US

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.

ABOUT

Mind in Furness work proactively and in partnership with statutory and other organisations and individuals to promote mental health and to improve the quality of life for people suffering from, or with the potential to suffer from, mental distress. They provide and encourage user-led activities and services and aim to increase awareness of those issues through education and a strong, positive presence in the local community.

Based in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria, the charity, like all others, has high budget constraints. They were looking for a suitable IT support provider and inTEC BUSINESS Ulverston were one of very few companies in the local area who organised charitable licencing and offered charitable discounts to them.

SUPPORT & SOLUTIONS

inTEC BUSINESS implemented the Office 365 suite in Mind in Furness. They fully manage their IT requirements to ensure the users can focus on what they are good at.

OUTCOMES 

inTEC’s Business Services Director, Will Gardner-Brennand states:

“Karen runs a fantastic operation at Mind and inTEC is always on hand to ensure smooth operation of the IT systems.”

Karen from Mind in Furness Ltd commented:

“Initially we chose inTEC for local knowledge, expertise and their ability to respond. Service is great and we really appreciate the knowledge factor, we feel confident being guided by your advice.”

CONTACT US

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.

ABOUT

With their European office registered in Barrow-in-Furness, MorriSofa specialise in developing and manufacturing high-qualified upholstered sofas and the matching furnitures.

MorriSofa Europe were unhappy with their previous IT support provider as they were often billing for non-proactive work and they had ongoing service issues with them. They were keen to work with a local ‘hands-on’ company so were therefore referred to inTEC BUSINESS Ulverston by another client.

SUPPORT & SOLUTIONS

After the team from MorriSofa Europe met with inTEC BUSINESS they soon realised that not only were they able to offer a more affordable IT support package but they could also offer a full, more responsive and proactive service, including everything from hardware through to installation and support.

The inTEC team reset all of their workstations which were not working fully. In addition, they trained the MorriSofa staff in how to use SharePoint and OneDrive, hence becoming a much more cloud-focussed company.

OUTCOMES 

“Highly likely to recommend inTEC BUSINESS to others.”

Rose, Operations Manager at MorriSofa Europe Limited

inTEC’s Business Services Director, Will Gardner-Brennand said:

“MorriSofa came to us as their IT was more complex than it needed to be, meaning additional billing. We streamlined their business processes and made the network work around their ambitious growth plans.”

CONTACT US

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.

YMCA Liverpool and Sefton is a registered charity and company limited by Guarantee. They were founded in 1846 and so build on a long history of providing hope and support for people experiencing challenging times in their lives . They deliver services 24/7, 365 days a year in the areas of accommodation, family work, health and wellbeing and training and education.

THE CHARITY’S REQUIREMENTS

YMCA Liverpool and Sefton has nearly 200 staff  across 11 offices in Merseyside and were operating with an under-invested and aging Microsoft Remote Desktop solution. As the RDS environment was running on Windows 2008 Server (End of Life – 14th January 2020) across multiple non-enterprise physical servers, the entire infrastructure needed a redesign and rebuild from the ground up.

Mark Armstrong from inTEC BUSINESS secured the initial meetings with the charity and outlined his vision of a full Microsoft 365 solution with enhanced security, scalability with significantly streamlined costs.

FIRST STEPS

YMCA Liverpool and Sefton were using an old Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server, which regularly failed, was unsupported for many years and lacked a migration path to Office 365. inTEC BUSINESS drew up a project plan for the necessary migration, that would be carried out over a 3-month period.

During this time, inTEC BUSINESS agreed to support their existing systems to ensure the organisation was not exposed or vulnerable during the migration process. This support proved invaluable when the old Exchange 2003 Server subsequently failed requiring a full rebuild and restore.

THE SOLUTION

In order to decommission all the on-premise servers, inTEC BUSINESS built a Microsoft 365 SharePoint / Teams / Azure AD / Exchange Online environment, ready to receive all data from the obsolete system. However, migrating the data and making it available to all staff was hindered by the current PC specifications and broadband services at each site.

inTEC BUSINESS then replaced all the internet services across the 6 sites with a view to also replacing the YMCA telephone system with a fully hosted solution with softphones and new handsets.

YMCA also operated Sage Accounts (v23) which could not be migrated to Microsoft 365, as such InTEC BUSINESS are working to upgrade YMCA Liverpool to Sage Drive which will allow the accounts data to be accessed online.

inTEC BUSINESS have successfully migrated all company data to Microsoft’s 365 platform and replaced or upgraded all the user’s computers and laptops. The end-of-life systems were fully decommissioned and all security is now handled by Microsoft InTune and inTEC BUSINESS’s Managed BitDefender service.

DELIVERY & OUTCOME

Whilst the project took a little over 3 months to deliver, the delay was a calculated risk to ensure that inTEC BUSINESS could learn about the existing YMCA Liverpool infrastructure, how their staff operate and gather as much administrative information as possible.

The incumbent IT Support provider failed to provide a usable handover document, so inTEC BUSINESS had to create a full network topology and meticulously collate as much information as possible and reset credentials or systems where necessary. This included regaining control over their domain names, router access, administrator account access, local PC accounts and much more.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

“The transition to Microsoft 365 was done at pace due to circumstances and came just as the pandemic hit. This enabled us to continue to deliver our vital services but also support vulnerable staff members to work from home. Having inTEC BUSINESS as our IT partner has enabled us to concentrate on our charitable work and not have to worry our IT infrastructure.” Ellie McNeil, YMCA Liverpool & Sefton

CONTACT US

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.

Ellesmere Group is a leading design and installation contractor for mechanical and electrical building services.

Established in 1945, this North West company serves business and public sectors bodies nationwide, offering technical consultancy, site surveys, detailed specifications and tenders for all types of building services.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

Ellesmere approached inTec Business Solutions in 2016 with a requirement for a full service review of their existing IT support, infrastructure and software licencing. The business had an IT estate of 25 PCs, a number of disparate servers and poor options for remote working.

The team was relying on outdated IT systems, which were inconsistent from department to department. In particular, email was proving an issue — Ellesmere found themselves continually experiencing problems with mailbox size and unreliable anti-virus solutions.

What’s more, the leadership team knew that job management and financial reporting were both areas that would benefit from an IT overhaul, in order to improve efficiencies. An internal systems review led to the business engaging with inTec in order to find a way to work smarter.

FIRST STEPS

Following an initial review, the inTec team highlighted a number of key areas for improvement: IT support, email and the infrastructure estate (which was, at that time, a mixed estate of IT kit and software licencing).

A subsequent technology and process review, focussed on service, identified a further need to improve the incumbent job management system. Working closely with the customer, the inTec team lead a systems review, which ultimately highlighted the need for a new, company-wide job management system update.

It was agreed that inTec would undertake a Vendor Selection Process on behalf of the business, to select the most suitable partner for delivering the required business system. Ellesmere and inTec also agreed that Microsoft Office 365 would be a good fit for the business.

SOLUTIONS

inTec addressed email and licencing issues by implementing Office 365 across the business. In doing so, Ellesmere was able to migrate its users away from a hosted email provider, which had been causing issues with storage and accessibility.

This change was simple to implement but had far-reaching, positive results. It enabled employees to work remotely, provided improved levels of security and eliminated frustrating capacity issues.

OUTCOMES & BENEFITS

The solution included:

• Full roll out of Microsoft Office 365
• Hosted email with increased storage
• A review of R&D spend and subsequent tax credits
• Review of processes across all business departments
• ERP Vendor Selection Process

The implementation of Office 365 and hosted email addressed issues with mailbox size and document storage, as well as giving employees the option to work remotely and on the go, for the first time.

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Vendor Selection Process was completed by inTec, identifying simPRO – a business that specialises in designing software to make running a trade business easier – as the company best suited to meeting Ellesmere’s job management requirements.

Finally, a review into Ellesmere’s technology-related research and development (R&D) spend, gave inTec the opportunity to advise the business on possible tax savings and introduce them to Catax – a inTec partner – who ultimately recouped over £15,000 in tax owed to the business.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

Matt Amstrong, Managing Director for Ellesmere, said:

“inTec offered us a free Discovery Session that enabled us to talk about the business and its current challenges. This session proved really useful, validating the issues we already knew we had and helping to explore suitable solutions.

From this initial session, inTec has delivered change into our business, not only addressing specific issues but also providing a solid sounding board for the Ellesmere team.

inTec has also provided the expertise we needed in helping us to select the vendor for our ERP, which will develop our working practices by improving efficiencies, increasing accountability and giving better visibility throughout our business. Ultimately, this is improving our bottom line!”

CONTACT US

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.

CCM Motorcycles is a family-owned business manufacturing bespoke and limited-edition motorcycles. With designs based on the experiences of a proud racing history, CCM now produces a range of specialist motorcycles with a number of high profile individuals and celebrities amongst their client base.

Based in the North West, CCM is experiencing an exciting growth trajectory and flying the flag for British-based manufacturing in the region.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

The business is embarking on a significant period of growth following the launch of several limited-edition motorcycles which sold out at a number of exhibitions across the UK in 2017.

As a result, legacy technology systems and processes – which had adequately supported the company in the past – were no longer meeting business needs, due to the increased pace and scale of activity.

This drove a requirement for a new technology and business systems plan to support future growth.

FIRST STEPS

CCM Motorcycles initially engaged inTec Business Solutions to review their current systems and processes – and to identify potential areas for systems improvements and process re-engineering. This involved spending time with the whole CCM team and undertaking a Discovery Session.

From the Discovery Session, inTec documented the detailed customer journey, from marketing activity and sales through to design, procurement and manufacturing, including post-sales support, servicing and upselling.

The output from this Discovery Session was to create a future systems vision and identify a number of suitable business applications.

SOLUTIONS

The solution inTec proposed included a new Magento based e-shop as part of an initial website rebuild. The second phase of the online upgrade included a product configurator to enable clients and prospects to ‘build’ limited edition bikes to their own personal specifications, using a highly visual interface.

The third phase of the solution will ultimately be to replace all back-end systems with a full ERP and CRM solution, from vendor Netsuite.

This will support the end-to-end customer journey, as well as being fully integrated with the product design software, e-commerce platform and product configurator.

OUTCOMES & BENEFITS

inTec created a technology budget and business case which was then circulated to several technology leasing and investment partners, to identify a funding solution for the full program of change activity.

inTec also worked with a number of specialist grant providers to secure funding for some of the early project work. The ERP solution is being readied for implementation and is expected to be fully delivered in 2018. Overall, the solution included:

• A website overhaul including delivery of an e-shop and product configurator
• A review and replacement of all back-end systems
• Full ERP and CRM solution

Ray Bell, Chief Technology Office at inTec, said:

“Working with CCM has been a very exciting project for inTec and it is wonderful to work with a client with such ambitious plans, a great product and a focused team. With such ambitious growth plans, there is a considerable opportunity for technology to improve the efficiency of the business, as well as the online customer experience.

We are looking forward to continuing to work with the CCM team as they continue on their exciting journey. Our priority is to support CCM’s use of technology to improve back-end processes, as well as creating a truly bespoke customer journey for this quality British manufacturer.”

CLIENT FEEDBACK

Austin Clews, Managing Director of CCM Motorcycles said:

“Following the considerable success of our recent sales activity and our new business plan for growth, it was clear that we needed to implement new systems and processes to enable us to scale up our operation, while retaining great service levels for our customers.

The inTec team has a wide range of technical expertise, as you would expect, but their key differentiator has been to spend time understanding our business and industry, in order to ensure our technology strategy results in a joined-up solution, rather than just a collection of off-the-shelf tech products”

CONTACT US

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.

Thank you to Deirdra Barr MCIM and all the lovely team at Henshaws for their great feedback regarding the Microsoft Teams training session provided by inTec’s Mark Armstrong last week!

Henshaws is a northern charity supporting people living with sight loss and a range of other disabilities to go beyond expectations.

More than ever before charities like Henshaws need support and donations. If you would like to find out more, click here.

Castle FM is a facilities management company based in Knutsford, Cheshire.

The business specialises in energy management, including electrical maintenance, LED lighting, boilers and heating – all delivered by a team of 60 employees.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

Castle FM is an established business with an experienced professional workforce of electricians and engineers. The front line team services customers across the UK and Ireland, undertaking projects, planned maintenance and reactive work, to deliver a range of facility management services.

In 2016, the Castle FM management team identified a need to improve how they were monitoring workloads, whilst better supporting operatives. It needed to do this in a way that would enable business growth, whilst maintaining efficiencies and delivering the exemplary service levels that customers had come to expect.

They also needed to manage jobs and suppliers from a central system that could be accessed by the whole team.

Finally, the business required external access to its accounting system – a system that had historically only been accessible in the office.

FIRST STEPS

Castle FM first approached inTec Business Solutions in July 2016, looking for a technology-led solution to these issues. At the outset, inTec met with key members of the team to carry out a ‘Discovery Session’.

This enabled inTec to get to grips with the business and develop a deeper understanding of business requirements. Following the session, inTec advised on a number of key areas where investment in technology would benefit the business.

What’s more, inTec was able to future-proof the proposal by offering a fully scalable solution – technology that can grow with the business.

SOLUTIONS

After capturing Castle FM’s requirements and fully mapping their working processes, inTec sourced the best and most cost-effective services and set about delivering a bespoke package of technology solutions.

The solution included:

• Implementation of a job management solution based on E Works Manager software;
• Delivery of Xero Accounting Software linking API into E Works;
• Selection of tablet devices for operatives, with insurance;
• End-to-end device configuration and tracking;
• Data tariff sourcing, based on application usage;
• Application configuration;
• Employee training.

Each element of the delivery was successfully rolled out, packaged as one single job management solution. The project was delivered in November 2016.

OUTCOMES & BENEFITS

The Castle FM workforce was involved at each step of design and implementation. This approach ensured early adoption and user uptake – which was crucial in order to demonstrate value and deliver a clear return on investment.

By delivering a solution that allows Castle FM to manage high demand from customers, whilst enabling operatives to work more efficiently on the go, the business has trebled productivity levels. With the technology in place, the Castle FM management team has better visibility into ongoing workloads, so they can plan more effectively.

For the team on the road, processes are streamlined which helps with job allocation, time sheets and expenses – increasing employee morale and productivity levels.

CLIENT FEEDBACK

inTec delivered an end-to-end solution that enabled the business to do more, without having to increase administrative headcount. The technology we put in place brings together a number of integrated services, all centred around the core delivery of state of-the-art job management software, with E Works Manager.

Ken Newbiggin, Managing Director, said:

“It was a big decision to change our systems but we immediately saw the benefits. Our team has been able to cope with an increased workload and we’ve also reduced pressure on our back office. The technology implemented by inTec has changed the way we work for the better and we’ve been really pleased with the outcome – especially the increase in productivity.”

CONTACT US

Interested in finding out how we can help your organisation work smarter through tech? Contact us now.