Client Name: Sparks Catering Butchers
360ict Service: Human Resource Systems
Client Location: Enfield, Middx
Client Challenge:
Sparks are a foodstuffs manufacturer and distributor with 10 delivery vans fulfilling orders throughout the South of England. Hours of working are typically 4am through to 4pm.
They have a bespoke system written in an old version of Visual Basic, with an old version of Sage running on obsolete systems.
The Company depended on these systems for all aspects of their business, and had delayed updating the infrastructure due to the upheaval it would cause the operations and lack of flexibility of more modern applications to replicate their longstanding application which is at the heart of all the Company’s processes – and works !
Now with support no longer available on the old versions of the application nor the Sage 100 software, upgrades needed to be implemented urgently to the infrastructure and the VB application replaced or re written in a modern language to ensure its continuity, all whilst the systems continued.
Our Solution:
We needed to put together a staged plan of upgrades to the SQL, Service Packs and Patches as well as the Operation Systems to enable the latest versions of Sage to be installed.
In order to ensure there was no interruption to the daily operations, we set up a development system which replicated the live system. We then complied a project plan, to complete updates on the DEV system with testing and sign off by the Client before those changes were applied to the live system.
Support was provided by our managed service covering application and user support, along with the overall infrastructure and off site back ups and Disaster Recovery planning. Our provision was extended to match their early start in the mornings.
Client Result:
The Company’s systems have now been made secure with a forward path for any amendments and changes including HR. This has meant that the organisation can continue confidently knowing that they finally after many years can really start reaching out and using technology to its full benefit and effectively moving from a system which was teetering on the brink to a state of the art fully virtualised environment.
Client Testimonial:
“We were embedded into a system which worked but which we knew was not only outdated and no longer supported but was also slow, antiquated and cumbersome. However because it had been tailor written for us originally and was so ingrained in our working processes we couldn’t see a way forward. 360ict worked with us to understand the system fully and give us a new system environment which we can continue to develop and so develop the business.”