Integr8 IT, the national network integration and support specialist, has been contracted to assist The Exim International Group, international manufacturer and supplier of spices, natural casings as well as other meat and food industry requisites, with an upgrade on IT infrastructure and full connectivity.
Headquartered in Maitland, Cape Town, Exim International enjoys a majority share in the Western Cape market and has an established network of trade throughout southern Africa, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia.
With its focus predominantly on the butchery trade, the company operates its own delivery fleet to ensure timeous distribution and service excellence. It houses a substantial quantity of stock that is regulated through a system called Pegasus Opera. This system is used to handle stock control, manufacturing, ordering, invoicing and full general ledger with Pegasus Gateway, with e-commerce ability to follow soon.
Managing this process through a single system has presented the company with a few challenges, most notably the ability of all branches to connect to and leverage off a single database. The Exim International Group brought Integr8 IT on board to help manage the upgrade to Pegasus Opera II and Pegasus Operations II, centralise the data at head office and allow for a centralised national connective framework to enhance the management of a VPN infrastructure.
"We were called in to upgrade the 16-bit Pegasus Opera to the new 32-Bit Pegasus Opera II. We consulted with the client in order to ensure that our design and deployment of the new architecture would remove the WAN administration overhead by deploying VPN connectivity to the regional office through our networking partner, MTN Network Solutions. This allowed Exim to concentrate on their key business without having to worry about managing the WAN infrastructure and troubleshooting connectivity problems," explains Gerhard Conradie, senior technical engineer at Integr8 IT.
Exim International has now implemented a centralised infrastructure through Integr8 IT`s deployment of Opera II on Microsoft architecture. This incorporates a Windows 2000 Server farm together with a combination of Microsoft Terminal Services, complemented by Citrix Metaframe XP.
"The benefits of running thin client for Exim International are clear. The financial investment allows for easy and cost-effective administration via their service level agreement (SLA) with us, on a national basis. They can also manage all their branches centrally and with additional benefits such as central backups," adds Conradie.
Christopher Wasserfall, Group Operations Manager at Exim International, says this project represents a massive leap forward for the company.
"This is only the third time in the history of our company that we have attempted a project of this magnitude. We are immensely impressed with Integr8 IT`s professionalism, commitment and service level - they have gone out of their way to cover all the dynamics with us, from start to finish. We are approaching the last phase of this project, and we look forward to being able to benefit from a centralised infrastructure. Integr8 IT really believe in empowering their clients to achieve the maximum out of IT," says Wasserfall.
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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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