Insights

ASL have been working with Vision since 2007 and manage their entire IT estate. Vision was purchased by a US multinational in 2019 and ASL were retained to deliver a refresh of their hosted private cloud environment. We support approximately 70 users at their site in Blackburn, and another 30 users in China, Dubai, Pakistan and India. Mark Doyle, Group Finance Director has this to say: “Vision has partnered with Awareness who have been our outsourced provider for in excess of 10 years. I can’t speak highly enough of the team and how they support our needs on a daily but also strategic basis. Awareness is an innovative business with exceptionally skilled employees who work with us to not only meet the day-to-day requirement but to also ensure our IT infrastructure is future proofed. Security is obviously uber important in this modern age and Awareness have successfully fended off two separate attacks on Vision in the past 3 years – something we are eternally grateful for.” Mark Doyle.

ASL have supported Pure since their inception and manage their entire IT and communications portfolio. We provide a hosted private cloud and support approximately 150 users across 18 sites. Louise Parrot-Bates (CEO) and this to say about us: ASL have been our ICT support since we established our charity Pure Innovations in June 2005. We currently employ over 240 staff across the Greater Manchester area. Over 150 of those staff require IT equipment to be able to do their jobs – they need to be connected and supported with any daily IT issues they may encounter. Our staff’s IT skills and knowledge is vastly variable – making the demands on ASL unpredictable. They have supported our teams to effective remote workers and addressing issues that arise daily in a prompt effective manner. They have supported the relocation of premises to ensure we have the correct infrastructure to be operational and effective.

ASL have worked with NorthEdge since 2011 providing a hosted server private cloud, supporting over 50 users across Manchester, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. In 2020, ASL conducted a full Cyber Security Review and proposed a 3-year technology plan that included software, training and next-gen firewall technology. Derek Knowles (Head of Operations) has this to say:  I have personally worked with Awareness for over 4 years and during that time have built a really good, solid relationship with them – from their management team to their support team. We run our own business based on good relationships, so it is crucial those that work with us know how important this is. We rely on the team at Awareness to undertake all our IT activities, advise us relevant changes and implement those changes with minimum fuss and downtime for our employees. They remain a critical component to our success, and I would not hesitate in recommending them.

ASL provide a private cloud environment to support their web-based software solutions (also developed by ASL). We presently provide hosting, software development, and application support to over 200 users. In addition to this, we have provided IT Consultancy and assisted in the due diligence process of the IT portfolio of a £30m company acquisition. John Rigby (CEO) provided the following feedback: “I write in my capacity as CEO of K3 Capital Group plc, an AIM listed Professional services group comprising of Sell Side M&A, Insolvency and Restructuring and Specialist Tax. Our Market cap is in excess of £115m, we are a high growth business with significant aspirations.  Our M&A business comprising of three brands, Knightsbridge, KBS Corporate and KBS Corporate Finance has been working with Awareness Software Ltd for a several years. During their tenure they have taken ‘ownership’ of the development and hosting of several of our bespoke software platforms. During this time they have played a significant part in transforming our software to be both better, faster and more stable which in turn allows our corporate broking teams of almost 200 staff to process and handle our vendor clients and business purchasers at much greater scale with increasing efficiency, in turn creating significant value in our business.  The systems and support provided are without doubt excellent and we are always able contact the relevant members of the team in short order to rectify any issues or instigate any development which we may have.  During the summer we raised £30m from shareholders and embarked on a significant acquisition strategy during which, as our trusted partner, Awareness, via John and David have been able to provide invaluable and detailed IT due diligence insight that has allowed us to progress our acquisitions forearmed with the knowledge that the IT systems of the target companies are fit for purpose.  John has built a great team of very knowledgeable and expert staff who are a pleasure to deal with…. In all a great company. I would happily recommend Awareness to be the IT partner of choice for any company and our experience over the years has been significantly better than that experienced by previous providers.“

ASL were parachuted into Accrol with a brief to stabilise the IT environment and support them during a technology refresh. The majority of their infrastructure is onsite which we manage remotely, supporting approximately 150 users across 4 sites in Blackburn and Leyland. “Accrol Group Holdings plc is £140m turnover business, producing high quality, private label tissue products for Retail Sector in the UK & Ireland. Accrol established a formal relationship with ASL in December 2019, as the organisation was looking to significantly improve its IT infrastructure in terms of reliability, security, and future proofing. Accrol were also preparing to change their business system in terms of new EDI, ERP and WMS systems, which required a fundamentally more stable IT infrastructure than was present at that time. The partnership with ASL has been very strong from the start. ASL’s open approach, focus on getting things done at speed and flexibility to react when called upon, has been excellent. Together we have developed a clear IT strategy and have diligently executed key elements of this over the last 12 months. We have joint meetings every month to ensure system performance is improving based around a clear and concise performance report – this forum also allows us to raise new issues/future plans and ensure we are ahead of the game. When things do go wrong, ASL have a strong in-house team, who are able to react quickly and get to resolution very quickly. If the issues are major, I know that I can contact either David or John to ensure the correct level of focus is being applied, however, this is a rare requirement. Accrol have now moved to their new business system environment with minimal IT infrastructure issues – the process of transition was made much easier with ASL by our side. As COO of the Accrol business, I would strongly recommend John and the team as a partner.” Mark Dewhurst (COO)

Mobile devices improve engineering efficiency at inFAMous. Our Nexus 7 solution improved efficiency, enabled better stock control and reduced waste for inFAMous. Within retail and manufacture, the use of mobile technology has led to significant improvements in supply chain management and break/fix efficiency. Which is the reason we recommended Nexus 7 tablets, to our customer who was looking to overcome the issues they were facing in maintaining services to their extensive client base. Our customer, inFAMous (part of HB Clark), provide soft drinks and soft drink machines to pubs and clubs around the UK. Its installation and maintenance team service a 1,800-strong customer base, covering a geographic region extending from the Midlands in the south to the Scottish Borders in the north. The critical issue FAM engineers work directly with pubs and clubs, to service and fix both machine problems and to replenish stock. With a customer account base that is constantly changing, engineers need to be provided with new data. Engineers have in the past, relied on data in the form of a depot-by-depot paper print-out (of up to 120 A4 sheets), and the situation was becoming unmanageable. Engineers were working with out-of-date information. It quickly became apparent that the printed data was obselete within hours of printing. This system was both inefficient and  wasteful. ASL’s Solution After listening to the challenges engineers faced working with a paper system, it became apparent that the solution was to deliver information to engineers while out on the road.  We recommended that FAM trial a Nexus 7 tablet, formatted with the latest version of Android 6.0.1, with Outlook Apps, Adobe PDF reader and Canon Print Inkjet / Selphy. The efficiency improvements were so significant, that after a successful initial trial, the solution was rolled out to all engineers. The benefits of Nexus 7 for field workers FAM engineers no longer have to work with out-of-date information. As soon as the FAM customer account database is updated, and low stocks and faulty drinks machines are highlighted, engineers receive this information via their tablet while out on the road. This has improved efficiency, customer relations and reduced wastage caused by printing reports. Why choose Awareness? At Awareness, we listen carefully to what our customers’ say, to ensure that we develop the right solution to overcome the challenges and issues they face. Regardless of your business sector, we can develop a solution to help you improve employee productivity and increase operational efficiency. To find out more about how we can help your business call on 0345 862 0350 or email us on sales@aware-soft.com.

Ensuring business continuity during head-office relocation. Having an effective and up to date backup and recovery solution in place is vital to ensuring business continuity. Failing to restore data can have far reaching consequences, which is why we at Awareness, design and implement backup and recovery solutions that minimise service disruption and quickly get you back to work. We have 20 years of experience and have helped many UK businesses plan for disaster, which proved to be crucial during Boutinot’s office move. Established in 1980, Boutinot is one of the leading UK based distributors of quality wines from around the world. Distributing more than 1400 wine varieties, totalling 44 million bottles each year to UK and International retailers, restaurateurs and wholesalers.  Boutinot’s requirement is for an IT infrastructure that is as robust as their supply chain. Having worked with Boutinot since 2015, Awareness were engaged to help manage the IT systems relocation; when the company moved to a new head office in Cheadle Point, Manchester. The Awareness approach to Boutinot disaster recovery. A major hardware upgrade and virtualisation project was planned to coincide with the move. By upgrading at the same time as relocating, we could resolve any issues that arose using the new platform, which would minimise disruption. Our approach was to ensure the Boutinot back-up and disaster recovery environment was 100% up to date. We commenced work at 6pm on Friday evening, making sure everything was powered down and prepared for the move.  After Boutinot’s IT infrastructure was professionally moved to their new site, it was then our job to rebuild the server environment in the new location.  We re-attended site at 8am on Saturday, and within a matter of hours we had all of Boutinot’s servers back online, with one critical exception. The critical issue During transit damage had occurred which prevented a server from booting up. Our solution  Using our powerful Backup and DR solution, we were able to export out a brand new virtual copy of the server onto Boutinot’s new hardware platform. This was completed in under 2 hours, and all system functionality was fully restored. The benefits The new hardware platform has enabled Boutinot to embark on a series of Windows Domain upgrades, Exchange upgrades, remote desktop services upgrades and SQL server upgrades, which are all built on their highly available platform. Within 3 weeks of the office move, we had successfully migrated all Boutinot servers onto their new hardware platform. In addition, we also implemented our managed network monitoring solution, to actively inform Boutinot about all aspects of their IT infrastructure, hardware and networking. Call ASL’s Sales team today on 0345 862 0350 or email sales@aware-soft.com and let us help your business to remain up and running.

ASL design and implement a resilient network infrastructure solution for Leathams Ltd. Leathams is a food wholesale distributor with a turnover of more than £90m. It supplies customers across the whole food industry and has 160 users across 3 different sites. Its previous network design left the business exposed to multiple single points of failure, which were unacceptable for meeting the business requirements of a high-transaction fast order processing system. In addition to creating a redundant network, we implemented a first-class network monitoring solution. This provides Leathams with real-time information on the performance, availability, capacity and tracking growth trends of their network. In addition, our solution goes one step further by also monitoring the server infrastructure and applications. It identifies if there are any faults with these systems, to maximise uptime whilst minimising disruption. Our solution has ensured there is no single point of failure on the network, which means Leathams’ critical IT services are now available 24/7.  Dashboard access to the network monitoring solution Smartphone, tablet devices and large screen displays allow Leathams IT department to access real-time network/server information anytime, anywhere. The system is fully monitored and ‘alerted-on’, with Leathams having full visibility of this process. With our network monitoring service, issues are now immediately identified and resolved. We provide proactive network monitoring services to solve problems before they affect business capabilities The ASL network monitoring solution in detail The Problem As part of an infrastructure upgrade, Leathams requested that we analyse the network to highlight any potential weaknesses. In conjunction with Dell, we performed an audit of the current network topology. This review found that many network switches and associated uplinks were problematic, in that if they failed, there would be a knock-on effect to 80% or more staff members which would stop them from processing. This level of outage in a 24/7 fast moving high transactional environment, was deemed unacceptable and formed the basis of our design of a new resilient network. Working in partnership with Dell engineers, we designed a solution which was certified by Dell to ensure that it would meet Leathams’ requirements. The Solution In key areas of the building we installed multiple stacked switches, whilst also installing multiple fibre connections to increase network traffic throughput. Through the use of Link Aggregation Groups (multiple links connect devices together with redundant paths across multiple devices – LAGs), device failure or path failure means that now only the users on the failed device are affected, and not the rest of the staff. This reduces the number of users affected to less than 20% from the original network design. Supporting the Solution Not only did the solution require an update to hardware and connectivity, it also needed a means by which Leathams was able to monitor the system effectively. Our managed service network support ensures that any failures in these LAG’s are detected, as clearly a redundant system will continue to work even if there are failures. This is absolutely necessary to maintain the integrity of the system and the investment by Leathams. Leathams now have the confidence to know that any changes in their IT personnel, will not mean there will be any loss of knowledge. We still actively monitor the solution and report on any issues as they arise 365 days a year. Our network solution keeps Leathams’ IT running 24/7/365. Our networking solution offers: Real-time network monitoring to identify and resolve issues as they occur. A wraparound service to a leading industry product [PRTG], where we take care of the design, deployment and on-going support for the business’s IT team. Non-jargon-based reporting on the network infrastructure and entire server estate. Tracking and analysis of system uptime over a 12-month period to assess if management goals and targets are being met. Why ASL is the preferred managed network monitoring service partner. We have a proven track record in delivering resilient network solutions which are effectively monitored.  We have worked with multi-site, high transactional distribution businesses for over 20 years.    At ASL we pride ourselves on offering exceptional customer service through our pro-active approach to IT systems monitoring. The benefits of working with ASL: We have proven experience and expertise in the provision of networking and network monitoring systems. We are a leading disaster recovery and off-site back up provider. We have in-house, high availability, server infrastructure expertise. We provide accurate and detailed monitoring of all systems including the network. We take an holistic approach to providing a consistent external IT support function. We provide detailed management reporting that demonstrates the ROI on our services. Our team is always on hand to resolve issues as they arise. At ASL we take Corporate Responsibility very seriously. We help businesses to maximise uptime and minimise downtime. Our systems allow internal IT teams to report back to Senior Management, to make sure they are meeting their obligations to the business. Find out how our network services could enable your business to maximize its uptime –  call us on 0345 862 0350.

ASL design and deliver a backup and disaster recovery solution for Campbells Prime Meat Ltd. (turnover £50m+).  With our help the critical IT systems of Campbells’ high transaction, fast turnaround distribution business are now always working and available. Campbells’ IT systems play a crucial role in meeting the day-to-day challenges of managing a fast-moving business, where speed and efficiency are crucial to success. They depend on us to deliver a robust, reliable IT infrastructure and a secure, highly available IT system. The team at ASL have been Campbells’ trusted IT partner for over 10 years. Our understanding of distribution businesses is reflected in our proactive approach, we make certain the systems that support the business are up to the job. “ASL’s disaster recovery service provides us with unlimited backups, off-site replication and DR servers in the cloud for all our keys systems. It has replaced our traditional backup to disk, duplicate to tape and a basic stand-alone DR Service with an all-encompassing end-to-end solution.” Stephen Sweeney, Finance Director, Campbells Prime Meat Ltd ASL’s backup and recovery solution for Campbells We replaced aging, multiple servers with a single, highly scalable, fully virtualized environment. We provide a reliable on-site backup solution that is replicated to an off-site Data Centre for complete peace of mind. We provide a highly available, fully managed Disaster Recovery Solution located off-site at a leading UK Data Centre. We also provide a proactive network monitoring service to resolve potential problems before they affect Campbells’ business. The benefits of our virtualisation and managed recovery solution We reduced the time and costs Campbells were burdened with in managing and maintaining their aging hardware. We achieved this by removing and replacing multiple servers with a single virtualized environment. This had the added benefit of reducing their power costs. We significantly reduced the time it takes to commission new virtualised servers. In doing so we enabled the rapid implementation of new solutions to increase business efficiency. We eliminated downtime for server maintenance, which has saved Campbells’ the overtime costs that are often associated with ‘catching up’. We automated daily backups to increase reliability and reduce management and license fee costs. Campbells now have a simplified and fully automated process that is monitored by us. We ensured Campbells’ data security by utilising a complete off-site replication to a secure data centre with unlimited restore capabilities. We implemented a highly resilient, fully managed Disaster Recovery (DR) Solution, based on the latest Dell hardware. It replicates Campbells’ entire IT environment to a leading UK Data Centre. All key servers are on ‘live standby’ allowing the business to be fully operational within 4 hours of a serious failure. Campbells can be confident that if disaster strikes, access to their IT systems is no longer a barrier to their continued trading. We save Campbells’ time and money by identifying potential problems across their infrastructure. We then resolve these problems before they can impact their business. We enable Campbells to ensure their business processes are on track, and their customers receive their orders on time. We do this using our PRTG network monitoring service to ensure Campbells’ networks systems are highly available. “ASL Solutions has consistently provided us with a quality IT support service. Having a partner that can be contacted even out of normal business hours is of paramount importance to us.” Stephen Sweeney About Campbells Prime Meat Limited Campbells Prime Meat Limited is Scotland’s leading catering butcher, employing over 300 staff and a turnover of £50M+ pa. The company, based near Edinburgh, supplies traditional fresh meat and deli products to hotels, restaurants and public service organisations throughout Scotland and Northern England. The success of the business has been built on its reputation for supplying top-quality products to customers who rely on Campbells to always deliver on time. With 24/7 ordering and guaranteed next-day delivery, the company typically processes over 1000 orders every day rising to 1500+ during peak trading.  Why choose ASL as your virtualisation and disaster recovery service provider? We are a specialist Remote Backup and Disaster Recovery Solutions provider, and we work with companies that need high-availability systems and data security. We have the knowledge and expertise to enable you to protect your business from disaster in a cost-effective, secure and efficient manner. Find out how partnering with Awareness can benefit your business, call us now on 0345 862 0350.