A L Simpkin & Co Ltd | Server replacement project
Project objectives
About A L Simpkin & Co Ltd
A L Simpkin & Co Ltd is a third-generation family business that was established in 1921. Situated in Hillsborough, Sheffield, the company specialises in manufacturing high quality boiled confectionery, including sugar-free and gluten-free travel sweets. In their early years, A L Simpkin & Co Ltd primarily focussed their attention on the pharmaceutical market, stocking 80% of UK chemists and pharmacies with their unique tinned confectionary. To this day, the pharmaceutical market plays a huge role in the overall sales of Simpkin travel sweets, however, they now operate a much larger global distribution network, catering to wholesalers, direct customers, and online orders.
Project requirements
A L Simpkin & Co Ltd’s project aimed to address the imminent end-of-life status of their 2012 server and SQL platform for Navision 2016. Prior to the identification of their end-of-life server, their network had been plagued by speed and performance issues, exacerbated by the lack of proactive warning by their previous IT provider. With just 16 weeks’ notice, A L Simpkin & Co Ltd sought a new, reliable partner to handle the server replacement project and to deliver ongoing support moving forward. As an established managed service provider in the Sheffield region, DuoCall MSP emerged as the natural choice.
DuoCall MSP’s solution
DuoCall MSP proposed a comprehensive solution tailored to meet the specific needs and objectives of A L Simpkin & Co Ltd. The solution included a detailed audit of their current systems and network by MSP Solutions Lead, Tom Ward, ensuring our team had a thorough understanding of the challenges at hand. As a result of this audit, we recommended a comprehensive network upgrade, the installation of a SonicWall firewall, the deployment of a new server (including the configuration of a reliable data backup solution), and full IT support once everything had been implemented.
Upon agreement of DuoCall MSP’s proposed solution, seamless coordination between the DuoCall MSP and A L Simpkin & Co Ltd teams ensured that the project plan was followed and implemented effectively. The installation phase, led by DuoCall MSP engineer, Dave Wilkinson, ensured minimal downtime and a smooth transition to the new infrastructure, meeting tight deadlines along the way.
“During my initial meeting and surface level site survey, A L Simpkin & Co Ltd were concerned about the performance of their network. After detailed discussions with Andrew Creasey and Karen Simpkin regarding the operations of the business and how IT solutions were being utilised by their various departments, it was identified that their server’s operating system was due to expire and become end-of-life in the coming weeks, causing a pending upgrade for their Navision system to be put on hold.
We also identified that there was no onsite backup appliance operational for their cloud backup solution (3-2-1 backup best practice), backup failures were being reported on a daily basis without investigation, ageing switch and router equipment needed replacing, their UPS was failing, and they didn’t have a firewall to protect their network.
With so many concerns and the operational impact these were having on A L Simpkin & Co Ltd’s network, the DuoCall MSP team worked to technically scope a new replacement network and align their infrastructure with the Navision third party. We also proposed a solution that would meet their growing cyber security compliance and operational proficiency requirements, futureproofing their platform for further Navision developments over the next 12-16 months.”
Tom Ward
MSP Lead | DuoCall MSP
Key benefits
“We weren’t happy with the level of support we were receiving from our previous IT provider, and when we found out that our server was just weeks away from becoming end-of-life, we decided it was the right time to find another provider who we had full confidence in.
DuoCall MSP’s team were very knowledgeable and attentive during our initial conversations, and they were quick to propose a viable solution after auditing our network and IT systems. The installation phase was quick too – we had very little downtime (around ½ a day) during the switchover, and even though we were pushed to the limit by the end-of-life server date, all of our deadlines were met.
It was absolutely vital for us that we found an IT provider who we could deal with on a name/face level, and we’ve definitely received that from Tom, Matt, Dave, and the rest of the DuoCall MSP team.”
Andrew Creasey
Finance Manager | A L Simpkin & Co Ltd
