Johannesburg, 14 Sep 2009
Recognising that uptime is critical to competitive advantage, Macadams International, a leading oven manufacturer in Africa and the rest of the world, has invested in an end-to-end integrated IP-VPN solution with quality of service (QOS), from EOH Western Cape.
Michele Campbell, Director, EOH Western Cape, explains that Macadams has over 100 network users. The core network infrastructure is located at the company's data centre in Blackheath, Cape Town, and while the majority of users are based at the head office in Cape Town, a large number access key applications from branch offices in Durban, Johannesburg and Airport Industria, Cape Town.
“The branches were previously connected to the head office via an ADSL network. As is widely known, ADSL connections are not guaranteed in terms of availability and bandwidth throughput; they are considered a 'best-effort' service. This was very real for Macadams, where the average monthly uptime for the branches ranged between only 70% and 75%. The connectivity challenges meant staff could often not connect to their core systems, such as e-mail and SYSPRO ERP. Apart from this, the ADSL infrastructure was provided by a third-party company, which made it very difficult for EOH, as the primary service provider, to manage and control.”
Macadams made the decision to replace the ADSL network with a Telkom VPN Supreme infrastructure, implemented and managed by EOH Western Cape. Campbell says the migration was seamless and the changeover did not result in any downtime to the client.
VPN Supreme is an end-to-end integrated IP-VPN solution with QOS, based on Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS). This service offers Macadams reliable, purpose-built VPNs that are designed for business data and multimedia application requirements. The solution not only provides improved network reliability and enhanced network capacity and speed, but also offers a single point of contact for all related services. Its flexible and scalable design will cater to the company's changing business needs.
Graham Noonan, Financial Director, Macadams, says the migration of the network to the new infrastructure has not only increased network uptime to 99%, but has also reduced risk and administrative time by ensuring ownership and management through one single service provider.
“In addition, all routers across the country have been configured for QOS, meaning that EOH is able to ensure that business critical applications receive priority on the lines. The entire network infrastructure is monitored and managed by the EOH Operations Centre 24/7/365, which gives us tremendous peace of mind.”
Campbell concludes that EOH Western Cape will continue to provide Macadams with outsourced IT services, as it has done for the past five years. Apart from wide area network connectivity, these services currently include project and service delivery management, technical administration and project services, and SYSPRO administration and project services.
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