John Mitchell Haulage & Warehousing

A business with a heavy reliance on its IT systems

John Mitchell is a family owned haulage & warehousing company based in Grangemouth, Stirlingshire. Established fifty five years ago, the company has a purpose built ten acre haulage depot, a thirty square foot warehouse, over one hundred vehicles and one hundred and forty employees.

IT is crucial to the success of the business. As well as using warehousing, payroll and accountancy software, the company operates using TOPS, specialist software for the transport industry. Everyone in the company has access to this remotely via three servers. In addition to the TOPS software the company uses an internet based telematics system which allows full tracking of every vehicle within the fleet and communication with the drivers.

Bobby Rae, John Mitchell's Director and General Manager, says it is the lifeblood of the business: "We use TOPS and telematics every minute of the day; with over a hundred drivers we track every detail of every vehicle so it's crucial that we have good support".

Removing the risk & providing reassurance

Until two years ago John Mitchell's IT was supported by a small, local company but the service didn't meet Bobby's requirements for fully reliable support. "The company's engineer used to visit us on-site to fix anything if we had a problem, but because it was a small operation they were not always able to respond quickly enough. If their engineer was out on another job then we were stuck with the problem for a couple of hours which was no good to us".

At the time that Bobby was starting to explore alternative options one of Equanet's account managers called him to discuss the company's Managed Service. John Mitchell already bought its hardware from Equanet and had found the service to be reliable. One of Equanet's solutions specialists visited Bobby at his office in Grangemouth to explore how the company could benefit from Equanet's Managed Service, and they have now been using the service for over two years. As Bobby explains, "With Equanet I now have a choice of numerous support staff I can get hold of straight away".

Ongoing support & peace of mind

John Mitchell's I.T. is now supported remotely 24:7 which takes away any worries that business-critical systems will fail. For Bobby it offers complete peace of mind and frees up his time: "Whenever any of our employees has a problem with their PC or access to the servers they can phone up Equanet's support staff and get help immediately. That's the bit I see. What I don't see is all the other work that Equanet does for us in the background; they proactively monitor our systems and I simply see the results in terms of reliability and performance. Since I started using Equanet's Managed Service I have had far fewer problems".

In one instance one of the hard disks failed on one of the company's servers. Bobby was impressed that the problem was flagged and actioned straight away. "I didn't even know about it", he explains, "The disk failure was noticed through one of Equanet's routine checks. A replacement was organised and an engineer booked for the next day with no disruption to the operation". An additional bonus of using the service is that Bobby has found the company's PCs seem to last longer. "As all the problems are fixed, there is less need to replace them".

Equanet's Managed Service just keeps everything working well. New PCs are set up remotely, a job which Bobby used to have to do himself. This saves him several hours each time. "I have been pleasantly surprised that so much can be done remotely. As well as overall support, Equanet provides anti virus protection, and we use the mail controller to reduce SPAM. The people at Equanet are great too; very helpful, and we have never had any problems". Overall Bobby is very pleased with the service he receives. "The service has been very good. If the price stays the same I will have absolutely no reason to look elsewhere".

How Equanet supports John Mitchell

Equanet, as network administrator, uses remote tools to monitor the network in real-time, to identify and resolve problems before they occur, often before they impact John Mitchell's users. A managed, standardised anti-virus platform is deployed across the entire estate along with anti-spam.

Service Desk

John Mitchell does not have any dedicated IT Support staff. Consequently, all user issues are raised directly into the Equanet Service Desk where they can be quickly resolved remotely. Issues can be raised by telephone or via email. Monthly reports are issued to John Mitchell detailing all problems & resolutions which allows them to understand the positive impact of the service.

Disaster Recovery

Equanet manages the daily back-ups to ensure that the Disaster Recovery Plan is maintained robustly. As well as a local archive, this also includes a secure and encrypted off-site backup.

Systems Integration

A number of applications such as Exchange Mail, Microsoft Office and specific applications bespoke to the organisation have been integrated onto the network. This has included a managed email filtering solution which reduces spam, improves security and scans for viruses. A further anti-virus solution is deployed and updated weekly across the network.

Maintenance & Support

In conjunction with the Service Desk support, hardware support is provided by Equanet engineers operating to guaranteed service levels.

Remote Access Services

Equanet manages all aspects of the network; creating new users, configuring access rights and other network administration tasks. Installation of all patches and fixes are carried out either remotely or on-site as required. Other remote tools are used to monitor server status and performance. Equanet also provides secure access services for staff working remotely.