Africa`s largest starch and glucose supplier has revitalised its IT networking backbone. African Products has selected network integration specialist Integr8 IT to inject its network pipelines with speed and efficiency.
Utilising the basic raw material of maize, African Products has established itself as an international supplier of a number of products including speciality and modified starches, glucose, maltose, dextrose syrups, dextrose monohydrate and maize germ.
The company recently implemented SAP infrastructure across its head office and five manufacturing plants. Management wanted to follow this up with the assurance of fast, reliable connectivity and response times, especially to areas of the plants where SAP data would be captured at source. Integr8 IT network engineers were called in to help with the implementation and configuration. According to Jan Roux, Technical Manager at Integr8 IT, the best way for the company to ensure high performance, reliability, steady connectivity and hassle-free management was to adopt a 3Com backbone installation at head office.
"African Products are a formidable starch and glucose producer both for the local and international market. We felt that an integration of the stackable 4400 3Com switch with the 4900 Gigabit switch, and the connection of the file server would serve the environment well. It offers an increase in speed, performance and reliability. We have effectively opened up the gigabit pipelines to ensure a higher speed and reliable connectivity."
According to Donald Crookes, IT project manager at African Products, five sites have been identified for upgrades and so far installations at two of the sites have run well.
"Although we are at the beginning stages of the project, I am impressed with the overall service and proactive support we have received from Integr8 IT. Anyone can sell a product, but we base our judgement on the essential after-sales support and service. Having upgraded our LAN infrastructure and implemented a switched managed network, we are in a position to improve response times and offer our SAP users a faster service. Through the 3Com network supervisor management tool, we have a bird`s eye view of the entire network and this enables effective traffic management and troubleshooting," says Crookes.
Both Integr8 IT and African Products expect the infrastructure will go a long way in helping to prioritise traffic and thereby alleviate bottlenecks.
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Integr8 IT (Pty) Ltd is a wholly owned network technology services and solutions company in southern Africa. Based in SA, the company employs a wealth of highly skilled and certified system engineers who are directly involved in high level consulting, support and integration.
With offices located in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and representation in Port Elizabeth, East London and Port Elizabeth, Integr8 IT spans nationally across Southern Africa and Africa continent. It has the people and expertise to plan, deploy, manage and maintain an information technology environment.
Whether a client seeks better control of its networked environment or is in need of practical solutions, complex or simple, Integr8 IT provides the answers with enhanced information technology services.
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