Options Group provides specialist integrated services for children, young people and adults with autistic spectrum disorders and behavioural, emotional and social difficulties. It is a large, progressive organisation with numerous individual sites, employing 1000 people. The company continues to grow rapidly and, therefore, is reliant on dependable IT support from Netmetix to ensure its systems run smoothly. When it became clear to the Options management team that its server hardware and software needed replacing to keep pace with its business strategy, they turned to Netmetix for assistance.

The Options Group has grown strongly over the years and has been subjected to the IT issues that many other companies will face as they expand – managing disparate systems, trying to integrate and develop common platforms and so on. Before the new management team took over, IT had also been relatively low priority. The new management, however, had a different view to the group’s IT and began investigating how Options could service internal demand, provide support and how IT fits with the commercial strategy of the organization going forward.

Following the review, it became clear that all was not well with its IT support provision. Suzy Green, Group Finance Director, comments:

“We have a small IT department and, therefore, we rely on external partners to provide systems monitoring, user help, system integrity, and disaster recovery. We concluded that from a service level and efficiency point of view, our existing IT support was inadequate and so we went to formal tender with our IT support contract. One of the contenders was Netmetix, a company I had heard about from a trusted colleague working for another organisation. His company had worked with Netmetix services for many years and he was very happy with the relationship.

“We took his comments onboard and invited Netmetix to tender along with several other providers. Our criteria were to contract a company that we could have complete confidence in and could demonstrate tangible value for money and cost efficiency. We also needed to find an IT provider that we hoped would become a long-term partner that had the capability to support our growth strategy. Netmetix won the contract and we are pleased to say that the service we receive is excellent.”

After establishing the IT support partnership, the management team turned its attention to the pressing issue of the IT infrastructure – the ageing servers scattered across the organisation being the most urgent agenda item. These were causing problems for maintaining optimal service levels and limiting the ability to developing the various systems that the group was keen to expand and deploy. The servers were also nearing capacity rapidly and so their replacement was urgent. This high-risk project could interfere with the business so the project would have to run like clockwork.

“Replacing our servers was the first large IT project we undertook with Netmetix and it demonstrated the confidence we have in our partnership. The work that the firm had done for us over the previous year in providing IT support showed us that we were in safe hands. Our experience had been that the Netmetix team do what they say they will do and most importantly, from a risk-management perspective, they would quickly resolve any problems that would arise, doing whatever it takes to rectify the issues,” says Suzy Green.

The server replacement project is now complete and entailed replacing all the main servers with more powerful HP technology, running Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Microsoft® Exchange Server® 2010.

“Technology has moved on and so we have replaced 13 old servers with only eight new HP servers that are much more powerful and efficient. These will consume less power and will help to reduce our IT carbon footprint too. Also a ‘care pack’ with warranties is being provided to give us further peace of mind. The way the team has handled the project so far has surpassed my expectations and they have delivered far beyond what we have ever experienced before,” says Wayne Withorn Options Group IT Manager.

“Communication from the Netmetix project team has been good and the working relationship between our staff and the Netmetix people has proven to be excellent. There is full transparency in the way they work and in the information they share with us and I believe our relationship has been enhanced,” added Suzy Green.

However, building strong relationships goes much further than supplying quality IT hardware, software and support. One of Netmetix’ USP’s is its approach to customers and the way their people make it easy to establish and maintain a good working relationship comments Suzy Green.

“Netmetix has invested time in gaining a good understanding of Options Group. The team appreciates the speed of growth and the direction we are heading in and apply this to the project – and this level of understanding is crucial to us. The team are proving to be very good at managing the business relationship with us. I’ve needed less involvement in this project because I feel confident that they are managing it well and this has enabled me to keep my focus on our core business, without the distraction of micromanaging an IT project.”

As to the future – going beyond the full roll out of the new server technology – there are many more projects for Netmetix in the pipeline.

“There are a lot of things happening within the group and so long as it continues to demonstrate value Netmetix will be the first choice for us. I see the relationship going from strength to strength as we face our future IT requirements with the knowledge we are in safe hands,” concludes Suzy Green.

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