Joseph Holt is an independent brewery based in Manchester since 1849. Over the years, it has evolved and grown to become the modern beer creating brewery it is today, although still surrounded by some of the original history, fixtures and fittings.

The Joseph Holt pub estate currently consists of over 120 houses, which continues to evolve and grow. With a wide range of pubs from busy city-centre inns to countryside food houses and all that go in-between, there’s a pub to suit everyone.

Key pain points

The pub estate contained a large and varied estate of legacy phone systems, which meant an increased cost of maintenance and repairs. These existing systems were continuously failing and finding replacement parts was becoming increasingly difficult to source.

The limited functionality of a traditional phone system wasn’t so much an issue but by embracing the newer features of a modern IP-based system, such as out-of-hour messages and smart call routing, would help make the pub estate become more efficient, along with an improved customer experience.

Proposed Solution

With the upgrade of the UK’s phone network in full swing, the removal of traditional copper and ISDN phone lines is a major restructure. By replacing the current traditional phone system with an IP-based solution, running over an existing data infrastructure for each pub, has enabled Joseph Holt to be ready for the switch-off ahead of time.

With the system being hosted in the cloud, it negated the need for onsite repairs and maintenance as this can all be done remotely with software changes/updates. In addition, it allowed business failover to be completed automatically in the event of a data connection failure

All provided end-user hardware is configured remotely and covered with a 3-year warranty. This provides the customer with fixed costs, less downtime and no requirement for end-user interaction with the system

“The team at Unified World Communications provided excellent customer service from start to finish; explaining the proposed solution and highlighting all the different options available.  The system they provide is easy to understand, which allowed us to establish the appropriate requirements and features for each individual pub. 

Unified World provided an end-to-end solution from design and quotation through to physical installation, along with number porting.  We were kept up-to-date every step of the way.  The project was progressing so well, we put a request in to expedite the roll-out.

Unified World accommodated this and finished the project 4 months ahead of schedule. We now have all of our 116 managed sites connected on the new IP based solution, which are managed remotely and we are benefiting from all the excellent features we have available to us.

I highly recommend Unified World and wouldn’t hesitate to use them again on future projects!”

Kevin Eaton, Audit & IT Systems Manager, Joseph Holt Limited

👉 Ready to modernise your business communications? Contact Unified World* today to discover how we can help.

*Unified World – part of the inTEC GROUP. 

Regal Gaming is among the largest operators of amusement, gaming, and leisure equipment in the UK. With around 400 employees, the firm wanted to improve disaster recovery and cut IT costs by using the cloud to power its email, storage, and collaboration tools for its highly mobile workforce. Unified World Communications (part of the inTEC GROUP) and Vodafone recommended the Microsoft Office 365 productivity suite to replace its existing on-premises messaging technology.

Regal Gaming business needs

Regal Gaming, one of the UK’s largest operators of amusement and gaming machines, serves regional brewers, pub companies, and free-trade customers nationwide. With 200 mobile staff, the company needed an enterprise-grade collaboration solution accessible anytime, anywhere.

Previously, Regal Gaming relied on an aging on premises infrastructure with multiple versions of Microsoft Office and Windows XP, which was nearing end of life. The system struggled with email reliability, storage limitations, and growing IT administration demands.

Managing Director Mark White explains:

“Disaster recovery for email was a principal concern. We also wanted our employees to work flexibly with larger mailboxes, without upfront costs for a new productivity suite.”

To address these challenges, Regal Gaming moved its IT platform to the cloud, improving business continuity, storage capacity, and enabling video conferencing to reduce travel costs all while simplifying IT management and reducing administrative overhead.

Solution

Unified World Communications, in partnership with Vodafone, reviewed Regal Gaming’s requirements and recommended Office 365 with Exchange Online a cloud-based solution managed by Microsoft and Vodafone.

Office 365 provides 25GB inboxes, enterprise level security, mobile access, voicemail, unified messaging, and archiving. Regal Gaming also uses Windows Azure Active Directory and Active Directory Federation Services for single sign-on, alongside Windows Server 2012 to support distributed and mobile workforces.

According to Martin West, Head of IT Services at Unified World Communications:

“This was a complex solution because Regal Gaming has many sites across the UK with engineers working remotely. Rather than invest heavily in on-premises servers, Office 365 offered the flexibility and high-quality service the business needed to stay competitive.”

The upgrade began in June 2013, with 300 mailboxes migrated in just six weeks. Regal Gaming has also trialed Lync Online for video conferencing and plans to roll out SharePoint Online for 400 employees.

Benefits

Regal Gaming has moved its email, storage, and collaboration tools to the cloud with Office 365, reducing risk and improving disaster recovery compared to its previous on-premises system. The shift avoids a six-figure server investment and lowers ongoing IT support costs.

Improved Productivity
Employees now benefit from 25GB mailboxes and the flexibility to work from home, on the move, or directly with customers. Office 365 ensures continuity at no additional cost over the old system.

Lower, Flexible Costs
With a monthly per-user payment model, Regal Gaming avoids major capital expenditure and can scale licenses to meet seasonal demand. Office 365 also guarantees 99.99% uptime with enterprise-level security.

Future-Proofing IT
Microsoft manages all updates, enabling Regal Gaming to access the latest tools without extra costs or added IT overhead. Gaming Equipment Firm Ensures Disaster Recovery with Cloud Productivity Suite.

“We’ve reduced the cost of deploying email and collaboration tools, and, because Microsoft manages all of the upgrades, we’re set to spend less on future in-house IT support.”

Mark White, Managing Director, Regal Gaming

👉 Ready to modernise your business communications? Contact Unified World* today to discover how we can help.

*Unified World – part of the inTEC GROUP. 

About Just Property 

Just Property are an estate agency who have been helping the people of East Sussex buy and sell their homes for well over two decades. With offices in Hastings, Bexhill and Fairlight, the team are based in the heart of the communities they serve, drawing on over a century of combined experience to provide a people-driven service to their customers creating a great alignment to our own inTEC team in St Leonards-on-Sea!

Business Requirement

Just Property requires efficient, proactive management of their IT infrastucture to ensure that their highly mobile team can stay online and connected across their multiple locations. Recently, they migrated to a cloud-based solution to best support their operations as their existing on-premises servers were end of life and not performing suitably. In 2024, a power outage caused one of these servers to fail, creating an added urgency to the move toward a cloud solution.

First Steps

Just Property have taken comprehensive IT Support services from our St Leonards-on-Sea team for over a decade and inTEC are proud that our partnership remains strong and successful today. They benefit from a dedicated Account Manager who ensures consistent communications and proactive planning of the future development of their IT infrastructure, as well as prompt responses to changing circumstances and the evolution of business needs. As such, our team has already made significant progress in the design of the required cloud solution when the power outage brought about the server failure.

Solution

The local team rapidly expedited an existing plan to scope a cloud solution for Just Property, utilising the backup drive to restore the data lost in the server failure. The new cloud solution is complemented by a UniFi network infrastructure upgrade across the three sites, allowing us to remotely manage each network to ensure consistent performance.

The solution has been configured so that users can move seamlessly between the three sites, auto-connecting to the internet across the three sites on a singular network.

Most recently, we have ensured that Just Property are ready for the Windows 10 switch-off by ensuring that all devices across the estate are fully Windows 11 compliant.

Benefits

Just Property’s team now benefit from consistent, reliable and futureproof cloud-based IT, which provides a great foundation for our continually proactive partnership. Business operations can be integrated seamlessly across the three sites, maximising the collaborative potential of the whole Just Property team.

“We have never had any issues with the service provided by inTEC and their solutions have always provided exactly what we needed.”

– Sarah Dixon, Administrator, Just Property

St Leonards Motors transforms its IT infrastructure,
hardware and processes with a comprehensive
company wide move to the cloud and adoption of
Microsoft365 suite of applications

ABOUT

SLM are a successful motor dealership which began trading in 1959 and as of 2022, the family group consists of 12 sites across East Anglia, Sussex and Kent.

The business runs franchises with Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Fiat and Vauxhall, and includes two body shops and Sussex Used Cars.

BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS

Historically, both hardware and software had grown organically and without structure. Cloud technology was not integrated into the environment, limiting flexibility and capability. The SLM board felt it was time to take a more progressive approach and needed a solution to allow their team to work collaboratively in a secure and safe environment from a range of devices. Reliability and consistency for users was a key requirement, as was the need for centralised management and strategic development to support the future ambitions of the business.

SOLUTIONS

inTEC worked closely to understand SLMs’ specific challenges and future plans, allowing us to develop a robust IT strategy using technology road mapping. This process helped us to build and create a reliable, efficient platform which would enable the group to take full advantage of the benefits of a Microsoft cloud environment.

Microsoft 365 was key to this approach and as a Microsoft Gold Partner with competencies in Cloud Solutions, inTEC were able to work with SLM to unlock the value in the Microsoft 365 suite.

Cloud

Cloud technology was at the core of this digital transformation project. Although the existing servers were replaced with current generation hardware for on-premise management of Active Directory, these integrate with a Microsoft Azure cloud Active Directory environment, creating a hybrid cloud environment and joining all SLM sites into one centrally managed structure. SLM’s print management solution was moved into a Microsoft Azure hosted environment, for centralised management and control across the whole group.  inTEC moved SLM away from their existing legacy mail solution into Microsoft 365 to provide not only hosted email but a consistent, up to date desktop and cloud application suite.

Sharepoint Zone

 SLM’s SharePoint Zone, which inTEC developed as SLM’s central platform for business operations. Everything runs from here, shared internal document access, access to external cloud applications and it is all secured and centrally managed based on an employee’s job role, giving them access to everything they need for their job.  This allowed fully collaborative working across every dealership.

Infrastructure

SLM’s data cabling infrastructure and wireless networking was brought up to standard. The legacy wireless networks was replaced with a modern group wide, centrally managed Wi-Fi solution, providing a robust, reliable, secure and fast internal communications infrastructure.

Annual Leave

A custom built Annual Leave Management solution was built into the Microsoft environment allowing for simple and easy leave management across the whole group providing a transparent and frustration free process for the team.

         Hardware

Desktop and laptop hardware across the group was replaced with fast, new technology, removing performance bottlenecks previously experienced by end users and providing robust and warranted devices to ensure maximum uptime and interruption free working.

inTEC also deployed Microsoft Enterprise Mobility and Security (EM+S) suite to provide a range of security solutions to protect critical customer data and help protect devices and user environments from malicious attacks and data leakage.

With the new system deployed, inTEC now deliver their PromisePlus IT support and managed services agreement which gives all users a best in class central, friendly point of contact for all technology issues and saving the group £70,000 + per annum in internal staff costs. All technology is now centrally managed and pro-actively maintained on behalf of SLM and inTEC continue to work with the board in developing and implementing a technology roadmap to support the ambitions of the group.

OUTCOMES

Significant performance improvements across the whole business were immediately noticed and previous system reliability issues disappeared. SLM’s staff now access their shared data online from within their inTEC designed ‘Zone’ where their data is safely secured on Microsoft servers in the Cloud and is accessible from anywhere with Internet connectivity. A customised navigation structure makes getting to relevant information easy and logical. Staff can easily share and co-author live documents and collaborate effectively across the organisation regardless of their location.

Staff now feel that the technology is there to aid them in their role rather than being a hindrance to them. Combined with rapid and friendly support provided when issues or queries arise, a hugely positive impact on morale has been seen. Efficiency and productivity has improved as systems work as expected, every time and the workflow processes implemented reduce manual effort and wasted time. Data security is greatly improved and as a result inTEC were able to deliver Cyber Essentials accreditation for SLM Group following completion of the project.

There is a confidence in the environment and peace of mind for the board now that SLM has a partner that has taken away the technology headaches and is helping to drive the future strategy. But this is still only the beginning of the journey as inTEC work with SLM to further leverage the investments made to date.

“The decision to reform our IT was a big one, but it was the right decision, and getting inTEC on board was the right decision also. They share our goals, they share our ambitions, and with inTEC as part of the team we are thinking positively about SLM Group’s future.

From the very first meeting with inTEC they seemed to have an innate understanding of our business and our IT needs. The inTEC people were so reassuring, and it was quickly apparent that these guys were at the absolute top of their game.”

Mark Phillips, Managing Director, from SLM Group commented.

CONTACT US

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