• Special Report

    In February 2009 we published our Special Research Report on the IT plans of all Premier Leage football clubs.

    Our research team spoke with IT Directors at all clubs about their IT plans. This is exclusively available for subscribers, click below for further details.

     

    Click here to read report

Sample Report

Technology business Technetix undertakes telephony project and investigates server virtualisation (South East)

OPPORTUNITY: Searching for telephony expert / considering server virtualisation next year
SUGGESTED ACTION: Approach as relevant to your expertise

SOURCE: Profit Track 100 2008 20.04.08 (Number 64: Technetix): Technetix, the West Sussex-based supplier of components and services for high-speed broadband networks, has enjoyed profit growth of 59 per cent in the last three years.

Pearlfinders spoke to Head of Group IT Ian Glossop, who leads the company's in-house IT team of four. Ian told us the company has 25 bases worldwide - in Europe, Russia and the US - five of which he'd describe as "full business premises" with large IT requirements. There are 240 users globally, as well as a "few thousand" customers that interact with the company's e-ordering systems, for example. Ian's currently focusing on the following: -

1) Telephony implementation
Ian is looking to install a group-wide unified communications system, allowing office, home and remote users full interconnectivity across the business. Savings will come from falling costs calling mobiles (internal VoIP is already used), as well as a removal of its WebEx videoconferencing system (which will save £14k p/a). Ian's currently got nine quotes, from the "Mitels, Alcatels, Ciscos and Avayas" - he's looking to balance price, product and solution before deciding which route to go down. A rollout will be gradual here - it might start in the UK, or the Netherlands.

2) Virtualisation
Ian currently uses Citrix to virtualise a four-server cluster to run the company's ERP system, as well as having played around with VMWare at an application level. Come Q3/Q4 next year, however, a virtualisation project for its entire server farm is a possibility. Ian described the company as extremely forward-looking as regards green IT - it's upgraded all CRTs to TFTs, for example, and looks to extend the life of all PCs as far as possible - Ian noted that 90 per cent of a machine's carbon footprint is generated before it's purchased. Ian noted that the company likes to do as much in-house as possible, so opportunities for external suppliers here are most likely to be from a software/training perspective.

3) Intranet
Ian is currently rolling out a new intranet to improve internal knowledge sharing - he's developed this on the Ektron CMS platform, which was preferred due to its competitive pricing, and functionality.

4) Hardware purchasing
As well as group-level agreements with Dell and HP for hardware, Ian retains Focus IT for hardware resell. He described the account management as "absolutely amazing" - it can provide a particular laptop on a day's notice, for example - and he won't be reviewing this relationship unless something goes catastrophically wrong.

If you're a telephony specialist, you may want to try a last-minute approach to see if you get a quote out for the project Ian's mentioned - focus on how you can improve business efficiency, which Ian sees as just as important as cost reduction. If you're a server virtualisation/green IT specialist, you'll want to plan an approach for mid-next year, when opportunities here could well have emerged - again, note Ian's interested in both cost savings and environmental efficiency.