Andrews Sykes
The Andrews Sykes Group is the UK’s leading specialist hire company, providing safe, reliable and cost-effective pumping, heating and cooling solutions to address planned and emergency challenges.
At a glance
The Issue:
As the business expanded into Europe and beyond, the IT team needed improved network visibility and management to effectively support new international growth, along with reduced, stable costs.
The Project:
Maintel deployed a Cisco Meraki solution which allowed simple management, configuration and deployment of devices, protocols and cloud based applications across an increasingly global network.
The Outcome:
The centrally managed network has transformed how the business operates, reducing international travel by 95% due to fast, straightforward remote office deployments and secure, reliable online meeting connections.
The Background
Andrews Sykes Group started as a pumping specialist on the banks of the Thames in 1857. Since then, the business has expanded to encompass the hire, sale, installation and maintenance of all types of comfort cooling, air conditioning, heating, temperature control, ventilation and dehumidification systems, making it the UK’s biggest specialist hire company.
Along with 300 staff at 32 UK depots, Andrews Sykes has a number of subsidiaries across Europe and the Middle East, and continues to grow organically. A wide customer base spans industry, commerce and public sector, all requiring tailored solutions to solve issues efficiently and promptly.
The Challenge
The complexity of the business had increased along with its global network. International offices with their own WANs added cost and complication to support provided by the UK-based IT team. Where overseas depots implemented the UK’s legacy technology, they still required support from local providers or partners, and communication became an issue.
Andrews Sykes’ Business levels are affected by changes in the weather. An unseasonably cold or hot week would directly impact sales trends and make a critical difference to business traffic. Network disruption during these periods would negatively impact overall business performance enormously. Reliability was critical, as was equipment cost.
Why Maintel
Having worked successfully with Andrews Sykes for 15 years, Maintel understood their desire for a co-managed approach to networking.
As a Cisco Gold Partner, Maintel designed a Meraki solution that offered a single global view for the UK-based IT team and allowed them to leverage different methods to connect their business in the most efficient way. While the Andrews Sykes team wanted the ability to manage more of the network themselves, as a trusted partner with elevated technical expertise, Maintel remained ready to act quickly on any issues that arose.
Maintel’s strong relationship with Cisco allowed the business to benefit from commercial flexibility with Cisco partner finance.
The Solution
Maintel deployed a Cisco Meraki network to simplify IT operations and reduce network maintenance and facilities costs.
As a centrally managed platform with a single, intuitive dashboard, the Andrews Sykes team would have end-to-end visibility across their entire distributed network, and the ability to proactively solve issues at any site before they became critical.
The growing business could manage overseas expansion with an “office in a box”, shipping the equipment needed to new sites before managing configuration remotely. The solution also offered a tunnel into other cloud environments such as Azure to simplify configuration.
What are the benefits?
- 95% reduction in international travel – updates and changes are now carried out remotely, and improved network speed, performance, and stability support greater use of video calling in place of face-to-face monthly meetings.
- Improved sustainability – the business’ environmental impact is improved by minimizing carbon emissions from flights and optimizing network resources to enable a reduction in power consumption.
- 50% reduction in WAN costs – SD-WAN investment was supported by WAN savings and reduced travel and maintenance costs.
- Performance visibility – the team can see instantly if part of the network isn’t performing and immediately identify the root of any issue allowing them to actively manage the situation and avoid time wasted fault finding.
- Update control – During peak business times, the team can choose to keep services up and running instead of applying updates. Deferring patches by a day or week to a quieter period ensures optimized performance during business-critical periods
What the future holds
Security will be a major focus moving forward, along with a back-office move to the cloud. Following challenges moving on-premise equipment from a DR site, the business has decided that networking shouldn’t be tied to a physical site in the future.
Commitment to sustainability policies will also generate changes for the team, who are focusing on moving data online and away from traditional files, towards a more mobile and reactive paperless office.
Client Testimonial
“The continuity with Maintel’s managed service is fantastic. We don’t need to explain our issues – we have a consistent account management team and we have complete confidence in them. Working with Cisco and Maintel is like having 2 support desks – Meraki offers us simple hardware support, and Maintel gives us elevated support if we need it and I would recommend a Maintel-managed Meraki network to anyone.”
Lee Derbyshire, IT Manager, Andrews Sykes Group
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