Case Studies

Bartercard Operations UK

Company: Bartercard Operations (UK) Limited

Number of Employee’s: 120 (UK)

Location: Bartercard Operations UK, Slough, Berkshire

 

Bartercard is a business marketplace with 54,000 cardholders who barter-trade over a quarter of a billion pounds each year with 75 offices around the world and over 600 staff serving our members. Bartercard is a simple, flexible barter system that converts slow moving stock, downtime, spare capacity or vacant seats into extra sales.

 

 

The Challenge

With only 2 servers to run all of our virtual environment, keeping these hosts running with all the recommended patches introduced over the lifespan of VMware meant having to take half of the virtual environment offline to remediate each of the 2 hosts as they were incapable of running all of the servers used by the business on a single host due to CPU and memory limitations.

The old infrastructure was becoming more and more unreliable with failures happening on a more regular basis and any maintenance had to be done out of normal working hours.  This had a huge time implication.

The Solution

Working with DSC (Data Systems Computers) we determined the best solution to enable growth and expansion into Europe and also stabilise what could only be described as a system that due to age  had limitations of hardware.  We analysed our current infrastructure using Dell’s DPACK software which then highlighted the areas that we needed to improve and with the help of DSC (Data Systems Computers) we came up with the best design and hardware that was going to allow growth of Bartercard and expansion in to Europe and that would provide a full Barracuda Backup and Disaster Recovery solution to protect all of our data.

The Benefits

The new Dell hardware has enabled Bartercard to continue its growth and expansion plans for several years to come.  The addition of a third server means that host upgrades can be done during normal working hours which allows greater stability of the virtual infrastructure and reduced downtime for business which relies on our clients to be able to use our services to conduct their business whenever they need to.

DSC Services

Working with DSC (data Systems Computers) during the process of upgrading our hardware and backup solution has been a pleasure.  Everyone involved knew what was needed to get our business back on track to enable growth.  DSC kept us updated every step of the procurement process and made sure that the hardware and services were there when we needed them.  Our dedicated DSC technical consultant spent a lot of time onsite setting things up to ensure and enable a smooth migration of our servers and new hardware supplied by DSC.  We were provided additional email support to improve the configuration of both server, hardware and the Barracuda backup appliance to make sure that in the event of our office becoming unusable we could continue to work by bringing our systems online in the cloud.

 

“From initial scoping of the project to deployment DSC showed exceptional professionalism and skilled expertise, I would highly recommend them”.

 

Mike Coulter, IT Manager

Bartercard UK

Balfour Beatty

Balfour Beatty Corporate Services IT

 

 

 

Data systems have worked closely with Balfour Beatty Rail Corporate Services IT department to gain an understanding the business needs and customer requirements. As a result, they have developed a high quality, optimum service model that is extremely cost effective that complements our IT delivery objectives.

 

Data Systems have consistently taken a proactive approach to understanding our needs and have worked in partnership with us to develop a bespoke PC imagining service and web hosted procurement solution that are focused on meeting requests for hardware services in a demanding and challenging environment.

 

Data Systems also offer a range of services that matches all elements of the IT hardware lifecycle which can be taken as a whole service offering or sourced on a modular basis to meet the individual customer requirements.

 

Data Systems have the right blend of technical and account management experience and are capable of responding to procurement demands where larger suppliers often struggle to meet. Data Systems meet these objectives by tailoring service solutions to meet individual company needs. Combined with the experience in a variety of technology solutions, Data Systems offer a comprehensive Managed IT solutions portfolio that come highly recommended.

 

 

Gary Hallam

 

IT Support Manager

(Balfour Beatty Corporate Services IT)

 

 

Pattonair

We have been dealing with DSC since 1999. We started with specialist IBM peripherals and expanded that to include all Dell computers and other suppliers’ equipment. They understand what we are running, and our business, and often introduce products or services that address particular issues we have within our IT environment.

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The reason we have remained as a customer of DSC is that they are willing to go the extra mile to resolve issues which other suppliers do not seem to do. In particular they have a very good relationship with Dell that enables them to resolve issues which we could not when we were dealing with Dell directly. They are also flexible when it comes to structuring projects and have purchased equipment that they stock against forecast future requirements or hold as advance replacement for warranty repairs.

We are a global company with offices worldwide that are managed through the IT team in the UK. DSC have arranged shipments to all of our facilities and organised warranties to be available within the destination country.

We have used them for multiple projects over the years, but recently they have helped us with the following:
The implementation of a Dell Compellent SAN. Also, when we were looking to upgrade the SAN not long after the initial implementation and split a dual controller system for redundancy, they managed to do a deal that enabled us to retain the dual controller system and acquire an additional controller for the redundant array with no increase in the budgeted cost.

They have sorted out a mess that was left with our VMWare subscriptions when we were purchasing them through a much larger software company. We ended up with several systems not covered as the subscriptions were not correctly managed and VMWare were demanding additional re-enlist fees to put them back on the subscription. They resolved this and corrected all of the incorrect information on the VMWare system so we are now informed in advance of our licencing situation and all of our subscriptions are visible in one place.

They introduced Exinda WAN optimisation systems to Pattonair and they structured a deal so that we could purchase and implement the units on our major connections within a budget (which was very challenging and already set) and organised technical assistance and training for the rollout. They also arranged for us to meet with senior members of the Exinda organisation and obtain product roadmaps and technical information generally not available.

They have resolved issues we had with barcode printers, which were difficult to pinpoint. This turned out to be down to the consumables being ordered by our operations department, and negotiated custom terms for our maintenance contract with the manufacturer to mitigate the resulting hardware issues.

They were also involved with the introduction of Meraki wireless access points to our company in recent months as a replacement for our existing Cisco solution.

Nick Farley, Pattonair

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DAMS Furniture Ltd. (Trading as DAMS International)

Data Systems provide time-sensitive and competitive pricing that is in tune with our unique business requirements whilst additionally offering expert advice on a range of services.

Scott Clarke, IT Systems Admin

GL Education Group

Data Systems have proven to be an excellent, professional IT supplier for all our hardware and consumable needs. Delivery is always prompt and the level of customer service is consistently high.

Daniel Robson, Group IT Infrastructure Manager

Helston Garages Group

Data Systems have been a trusted and professional IT supplier to us for 10 years and continue to deliver the same excellent personal service and good pricing that they have always done.

Tom Moore, Group IT Director

Hall Hunter Partnership

I am very happy with the performance and professionalism of DSC. We have had some issues with EqualLogic as we applied a Firmware update that only took effect on one controller, failing to sync to the secondary. Having spotted the issue the next day, I tried rebooting the device. When this did not work I contacted DSC.

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DSC contacted Dell Pro support on my behalf and I had a DSC engineer on site within 1 hour and Dell on the phone within 5 minutes. Dell logged on remotely, assisting with the uninstall of the Firmware and re-installing it, ensuring both controllers took the effect.

With regards to Networking, again, DSC have been very good; sitting down and assisting with the VLAN setup and segmentation of the ISCSI traffic generated by the SAN. This has improved our network performance.

I have a DMZ network, Infrastructure Network, Client Network and ISCSI network, all of which DSC have assisted on the install with.

Working with virtualization now is very important and I was surprised by the honest and open attitude DSC have. I have worked with VM-ware previously and DSC were quick to point out the cost saving with MS Hyper V and detailing the minor differences between the two. We are now running a MS Hyper V environment. I honestly believe that DSC have done a very good job with us here on-site, and would recommend them to anyone.

One big thing on any project is the ability to work with people that are professional, have a can-do mentality and a positive attitude. It has been very refreshing to work with like-minded people.

Jordan Cervo, Hall Hunter Partnership

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