Case Study: Bright A Blind
The Client
Bright A Blind started 25 years ago in London and then steadily spread throughout the South East and most of the UK, serving many of the biggest and most prestigious companies in the country. They work with facilities managers, contractors and refurbishment companies throughout the UK installing, maintaining, cleaning, replacing and repairing blinds of all types.
With a team comprised of onsite engineers, sales people and administrative staff, local and remote IT operations are central to the ongoing success and growth of the business.
The Business Requirement
With a diverse and growing client base, Bright A Blind’s local IT hardware and Access database provision are business critical to ensuring they meet the needs of those clients.
Aquilatec were charged with upgrading software licensing across the business, ensuring Office 365 plans met the expectations and features required by the users, and managing the upgrade of all pertinent local hardware and software underpinning the smooth day-to-day operations of the business and databases.
The Challenges
With aging Office licensing and local PCs approaching up to 5 years old, the major challenge for the project was to ensure that all operational software was brought up to scratch and made current, extending the life of the current hardware available, all whilst avoiding the impending end of life of support for Office 2010 and enabling continuous ‘business as usual’ for the clients’ team.
The Solution
To get the IT hardware up to scratch, all workstations were upgraded with brand new SSDs, giving the users a flying start in their newly upgraded Office suite of tools. Office 365 was deployed throughout the business and given its’ flexible license options, savings were made on traditional Open License and Retail models.
To make sure the Access database continued operating, the core Microsoft Access software it relies upon was updated to the current version, with Aquilatec engineers assisting the BAB development team on compatibility factoring.
Finally, to assist with communication across the dispa - rate teams, Aquilatec introduced instant messaging through Skype for Business to aid with collaboration and speed of correspondence.
Lynn Makin, Head of IT said:
“Oliver, Joe and the team are great. Instead of spending a lot on new PCs, they injected a new lease of life in to our equipment, and ensured that all of our software was current and up to scratch. I was very impressed with the efficiency with which Aquilatec undertook the project, and the outcome has given us at least a good further 3 years of life."