IT Case Studies in the UK
Energist UK puts its confidence in Chorus IT for all of
its IT implementation and support requirements
A public facing organisation with a hosted CRM system
that was frustratingly slow, Energist UK chose Chorus IT to bring
CRM in-house and provide a single point of contact for IT
support. Chorus IT also carried out a complete IT systems
overhaul, giving Energist UK a scalable and supportable
infrastructure that would grow with its business.
Energist UK provides energy performance testing and compliance
services to the building industry. It has around 40 customer-facing
staff using its CRM system. It previously had two IT suppliers: one
that provided mainline IT support on a Time and Materials basis and
a hosted solutions provider that ran the CRM system.
Energist UK's relationship with Chorus IT grew out of a decision
to bring its CRM system in-house. As a largely customer-facing
organisation, CRM is fundamental to the way Energist UK manages
customer contact and to the levels of service it provides.
Struggling with a slow system
Because of poor internet connectivity the existing hosted CRM
system was painfully slow - sometimes taking as long as 20 seconds
to refresh a page. As a result there was little buy-in from staff
and processes were not followed. Helen Mistry, IT Coordinator,
Energist UK, says "Our biggest problem with CRM was speed.
Performance was very erratic and it was always down to our
telecoms. Although we loved the system, it was so slow that people
simply didn't use it."
Chorus IT was asked to quote for implementing Microsoft Dynamics
CRM. During requirements scoping it identified limitations in
Energist UK's platform that would need to be addressed before the
implementation could take place. Anthony Sherry, Business
Development Director, Chorus IT, says, "Energist UK had grown
beyond the capabilities of its existing hardware. It needed new
servers to support CRM and other existing business applications. We
also felt that it would benefit from more standardisation across
the business."
A new approach
Helen Mistry says, "We originally invited Chorus IT, amongst
others, to talk to us about bringing CRM on-site. But, the more we
discussed with them the more other options were made available, and
that included employing them to do all of our IT support. It wasn't
in our original scope but, because of their capabilities and the
requirements of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, we felt the time was right
for a complete refresh. We also felt we would benefit from one
supplier with the capabilities to manage both CRM and our day to
day IT
support."
Helen Mistry explains that at the time, internal IT resource was
fairly limited and expenditure was going up significantly. She
says, "We were having to go to an external provider for IT support.
They were fairly expensive and were unable to support our CRM
solution."
In talking to Chorus IT, Energist UK realised that it could have
a one-stop-shop for all of its requirements. "Helen Mistry says,
"The realisation that our hardware wasn't as strategic as it could
be, coupled with the opportunity to simplify our IT support and
pricing made us think again about our approach."
An important decision
With IT infrastructure so strategic to business growth, Energist
UK wanted to be absolutely certain of Chorus IT's capabilities
before making a final decision. Chorus attended seven initial
meetings and took Energist UK on-site to one of its customers, to
demonstrate that it was fully capable of handling the size of
business. Anthony Sherry, Chorus IT says, "They were extremely keen
on deliverables and ensuring that we were as good as we said we
were."
Helen Mistry says about the decision to engage Chorus IT, "Our
comfort level with the company was really good. We liked the
attitude. We liked the pricing. We went to a reference site that we
felt was very similar to the way we operate and they were clearly
delighted with them."
Strategic infrastructure upgrade
Chorus IT worked to extremely tight deadlines to upgrade
Energist UK's infrastructure and implement Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Energist UK had a short shut-down period over Christmas and wanted
to use this time to get everything in place.
Chorus installed two new servers for running CRM and other
business applications. Anthony Sherry says, "We put the new
infrastructure in and gave it a couple of weeks to bed down; to
check that there were no issues, that everyone had got their
profiles back and that the network was fine. We then brought CRM
in-house, migrating it from our own test environment." Chorus also
migrated all desktops to Microsoft Office 2007, to standardise
across the business and provide better integration with CRM.
Helen Mistry says of Chorus IT's approach, "They did all the
specification and administration for us. They even found us a good
lease scheme. They took us through the plan and paid detailed
attention to our requirements. They set up the environment as much
as they could on their own site so that they could test it before
implementation. Chorus IT realised that our IT infrastructure was
going to drive our business and ensured that we were
future-proofed."
Single point of contact for IT support
Chorus IT was asked to provide support for Energist UK's enter
IT infrastructure, including for 3rd party applications.
Helen Mistry says, "We liked their 'can-do' attitude. We were very
comfortable with their capability and their learning. Their
commitment is certainly high. They are extremely flexible and
always available."
Chorus IT agreed a fixed rate monthly support fee for both
infrastructure and CRM requirements. This gave Energist UK both
peace of mind and a much simpler budgeting model. Anthony Sherry
says, "We do a single fixed-price support contract for all our
clients. We charge per PC, per server or per laptop and, for CRM,
per user. This includes remote, onsite or telephone support." With
this model in place, Helen Mistry knew exactly what her IT spend
would be each month.
Of further benefit for Helen Mistry was that she no longer had
to deal with support issues herself. She says, "Staff are now
required to phone Chorus directly for any 'How do I?' questions or
to report faults. People only come to me now for issues that Chorus
doesn't handle or for changes that are required. This has really
freed up my time."
Improving CRM usage
Energist UK was very keen to exploit the full potential of CRM.
Because the previous system was slow it was used in a less than
optimal way. Chorus IT provided training and customisation services
to help users, across the business implement good working practice
and fully adopt the system.
Helen Mistry says, "The system is much faster and staff are much
happier to use it. Chorus IT is now helping us to ensure that our
use of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is in line with best practice in
preparation for linking in our accounting package, and other work
that we want to get done."
A very happy customer
"They certainly have the confidence of everyone here," says
Helen Mistry. "We know that if we contact them about a problem we
will get it resolved. They come up with good suggestions and
have the imagination and application to work around problems for
which the solution is not immediately obvious. We are
delighted."
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