Our client is a major housing group based in central England. Through its four group companies, it manages over 18,000 homes across the region. Jon Cocker, IT Director, heads up the IT function which supports the groups 350 office and and mobile users based across six UK sites.
A working partnership was formed around six years ago when the housing group employed DTP Group to undertake an infrastructure update project. This collaborative approach to IT services and solutions has since continued, most recently to refresh ageing servers and storage. The pressures of a growing business began to place considerable strain on the accessibility and speed of group applications, highlighting the need to deliver a better user experience to the Group’s 350 IT users.
IT Director Jon Cocker, approached DTP to help with the installation of a new HP 3PAR storage area network (SAN), HP blade chassis and HP blade server solution that would host group applications.
With scalability a top priority due to continued business growth, DTP’s Technical Consultants designed a solution that would deliver an enhanced user experience to an increasing number of users. Superior functionality, performance and pricing combined with expert support and installation services from DTP’s Technical Team, made the solution a compelling option for the Housing Group.
DTP were tasked with the relocation of the Groups data centre from its site in Louth to a central site location in Birmingham. The project involved the installation of servers and a second data array to compliment a Disaster Recovery (DR) solution at a nearby site. A replication sequence was also created between the arrays to enable the delivery of their DR plan.
DTP Proactive Support offers flexible access to all of DTP technical resources, enabling clients to extend the capabilities of their IT Team and complement existing manufacturer support.
Jon comments, “By subscribing to DTP’s Proactive Support Service, we demonstrate our confidence in our IT partner. With DTP Proactive I have peace of mind that any issues will be resolved, and quickly. It also gives us future-proofed business continuity; even if a key member of staff leaves, DTP knows us and our IT set-up and can resolve any issues we might encounter.”
The housing group is now entering into a period of consolidation. It has implemented systems improvements to easily allow for business growth across all of its sites and is achieving cost savings from its investment.