M&I benefits from updated ICT infrastructure through outsourcing partner, Datacentrix

IT services and solutions provider Datacentrix has successfully rolled out a new, more flexible ICT infrastructure for M&I Group, a subsidiary of Remgro, as part of its recent appointment as the organisation's new end-to-end ICT outsourcing partner.

Says Lieb Swiegers, Manager: Information Technology at M&I: "Our previous service provider was no longer focusing on general IT, so it became imperative to find another company that could provide the services we required, as well as to assist in establishing a modern, flexible ICT infrastructure. We found that Datacentrix' offering was the closest match to our requirements of all of the companies that responded to our request for proposals."

"As part of the outsourcing agreement, we were required to dramatically improve service delivery and efficiencies, deliver a new enterprise-grade infrastructure, provide connectivity to the back-end applications in use and deliver a user support infrastructure to meet the high expectations of users within stringent service levels," explains Celma Marcus, outsource executive at Datacentrix. "We also needed to achieve these objectives within a defined timeframe, an agreed budget and with minimal interruption to business."

Datacentrix devised a set of best-of-breed, industry-standard building blocks to build a solution addressing these requirements, including an HP StorageWorks centralised storage solution, HP Proliant with VMware virtualisation software to form a virtualised processing platform, an actively managed wide area network (Verizon Business MPLS solution) and local network connectivity through Enterasys.

The company has also implemented an onsite service desk and desktop support service for both VIP and regular users.

Datacentrix and its subcontracting partners' capabilities to establish a modern, flexible, easy to maintain and low-risk ICT infrastructure for M&I within a relatively short period were aptly demonstrated during the transition project, says Marcus. "M&I's IT service delivery in general, as well as resilience against technology obsolescence or failure, has been improved substantially over the previous scenario," she adds.

"We have been very pleased with our dedicated Datacentrix team," says Swiegers. "The quality of the service we have received is of a good level and we feel that the company has an innate awareness of our company culture."