Situation
Australian Water Systems (AWS) commenced business two and a half years ago manufacturing water tanks for commercial and residential applications. From its initial workforce of 25, the company has grown exponentially as demand for its product grew. The business now comprises a head office in Brisbane and offices throughout Queensland and NSW.
From the outset AWS needed an IT solution to support its day-to-day processing tasks with the ability to scale up as the business grew. Being a relatively small business, the company couldn't justify a large IT department but it still needed technicians and support staff to manage routine activities. In search of a better way to take the business forward, Zadok Williams, IT Manager at AWS, turned to Brennan for a solution.
Solution
Working with AWS from the start, Brennan has engineered the expansion from the company’s initial single Small Business Server. The system now comprises a three-host ESX environment running 18 virtual servers all housed in the Brennan Data Centre. Brennan also manages the Private IP WAN which links the data centre to each of the AWS business sites. The centralised design requires minimal bandwidth to function effectively and currently supports some 170 users. The servers handle all of the applications required to run the business including day to day operations of the supply chain, customer relationship management (CRM) and financial needs.
Brennan maintains the server system and is responsible for the network administration, design, maintenance and engineering. The outsourced solution allows IT manager Zadok Williams to focus on long term strategic planning which he does in consultation with the account team at Brennan responsible for the AWS account.
Also included in the managed service from Brennan is a 24/7 service desk which gives access to phone support for staff in all AWS offices.
Future plans for the system include designing and implementing a disaster recovery solution based at the Brennan Sydney data centre. In the event of a severe hardware catastrophe, Brennan would restore key AWS applications to backup servers to ensure continuity of the business.
Benefits
Daniel Dislers, senior consultant at Brennan, explains that AWS has managed to avoid many problems that plague other businesses. He says "by coming to Brennan so early, AWS has been able to grow its IT structure without needing to do a lot of work on its own IT environment. Everything has been designed from the ground up for easy growth and expansion and that is just what has happened. The centralised system ensures that when changes are made they are made across the system and everyone is on the same page." He adds "In short, we're AWS's 24 hour outsourced IT service and it's our job to make sure everything works."
