Case Study – Day and Johnson
Quantity Surveying Company Improves Client Service with Dunston Solution
Day and Johnson was finding that its clients were increasingly conducting business by email. This put strain on the company server and the firm was worried about the consequences of this increasing workload. Following an analysis, Dunston Associates recommended an upgrade to Day and Johnson’s server hardware and its server software. The Dunston recommended hardware was HP whilst the recommended software was Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003. Following this upgrade, the company now has a robust backbone that supports further growth and allows the company to work effectively, even when out of the office.
Situation
Day and Johnson is a 12 strong quantity surveying firm working in the construction industry. The company is based in Wokingham and has clients across Europe including IKEA, British Airways, Oracle and Virgin Direct.
Keeping tabs on this international client base requires effective, reliable communications. Over the last ten years, the use of email has become increasingly important, explains Associate Director, Martin Anderson: “Like a lot of firms, the amount of post we receive every day has gone down as the number of emails we receive rises. We now use email as our main method of communication with clients, emailing them big CAD files for example.”
The company IT systems keeping control of this vital communication link were rudimentary and had been adapted over time to support their increasing usage. “We did have a server,” explained Anderson, “But it was really just a PC that we had adapted to the purpose. With the ever increasing volume of emails that we had to deal with, the server was beginning to collapse under the strain.”
The server was also running out of memory. “We did have a back up policy, but with the server constantly running out of memory, we had to resort to backing up vital company data on recordable CDs. These aren’t the most reliable media in the world and we were thus vulnerable by having to do this,” said Anderson.
The company was concerned that these issues with its server could cause a catastrophic collapse. “With workloads constantly increasing, we knew it was time to investigate another solution. Another reason for upgrading was that we needed an A1 printer for CAD files. We knew there was no way that our current server would be able to cope with this.”
Solution
Day & Johnson called in Dunston Associates to help. “Dunston advised us that we needed to upgrade our server hardware and our software,” says Anderson. “They recommended Microsoft® Small Business Server 2003. It does exactly what we wanted it to do.”
Benefits
Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 now provides a reliable backbone that supports customer service. With the new server, the memory problems that previously plagued the company are gone. The firm no longer has to rely on unstable recordable CDs. Small Business Server 2003 helps by preserving memory through incremental backups which only require the changes to be stored.
The robustness of the server means that the firm has been able to work with partners on new ventures, Anderson explained: “We don’t worry about the server collapsing now — it’s very robust. It has enabled us to collaborate in a partner extranet for example, that previously we felt our systems wouldn’t have been able to cope with.”
It has also meant that the company felt confident enough to buy an A1 printer: “Buying this printer has meant that we have been able really to improve the service we offer to our clients. Before, they sometimes didn’t even bother sending us plans via email, sending them through the post instead. Now we can respond far more quickly.”
Finally, remote working is also far easier than it was before. “Although we were able to dial into the server before,” explained Anderson, “it’s a lot more reliable now and it has more features. For example we can access each other’s email accounts and for a small business such as ours this is very useful.”
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