Pennypinchers implements corporate domain

Leading building materials, hardware and home improvement products specialist Pennypinchers Group recently entered the "corporate domain" - thanks to its value-adding partnership with EOH Western Cape.

Exceptional growth on the part of Pennypinchers meant that its "workgroup" environment was no longer sustainable. Michele Campbell, director of EOH Western Cape, explains that, as the strategic IT partner for Pennypinchers, EOH was tasked with the project of migrating the current network to a corporate domain; the benefits of which are already being felt.

Pennypinchers was previously operating in a "workgroup" environment, where workstations throughout its massive network were not logging on to a central point.

Campbell says this kind of infrastructure was not only making administration very difficult, but also limiting the company when it came to standardisation in terms of things like e-mail signatures, screensavers, and the deployment of applications from a central point, among others.

In addition to this, the company was not able to benefit from the offerings of enterprise applications such as Microsoft Exchange, for example global address books, shared calendars etc.

"Business growth within the company meant it was becoming increasingly difficult to manage, maintain and monitor standards and corporate policies throughout the organisation," says Campbell.

"In addition to this it needed to implement standard 'branding' throughout its various brands (Pennypinchers, The Tile House, Unitraco, Timbercity, Trusses and Timber, PP Sand, and Stone & iGlaze to ensure that things like e-mail signatures and desktop screensavers were standardised and that deployment thereof was automated."

The EOH implementation team started work on 6 August 2007. Its task? To move 26 stores to the new domain (including server installations at 24 sites), and migrate 543 users to the new network. "We were extremely proud of what we achieved as a result of this project. The entire implementation took just 43 days, and was achieved by our team of 12 dedicated experts working across the country," says Campbell. "During this time, all deadlines were met and only two sites experienced minimal issues."

Campbell cites communication as crucial to the project's success: "As with any implementation, it's absolutely vital to speak directly to the people who are going to be impacted both directly and indirectly. Our priority was to ensure constant communication about the project - before and during." EOH thus targeted a number of sources, including weekly communications to key staff as well as regular updates on the Pennypinchers Group portal. "We ensured that everyone was informed and understood the process."

As to the benefits, Pennypinchers Group is already enjoying a whole new world of network opportunities and applications. "All stores have received a very powerful file and print server. This server will act as an integral part of its Wide Area Network, storing network specific data, applications, and user documents, and acting as a form of back-up never used before," says Campbell. Users can additionally now access their e-mail from anywhere in the world by using Outlook Web Access. They can also access their e-mail from their cellphones, among other things.

And, while employees are just discovering and starting to try out the new set of offerings available to them, EOH is already planning the next phase of the project. "2008 will no doubt prove just as exciting at the Pennypinchers Group. It has a number of new stores coming on board in the next few months, all of which will need to be corporate domain-enabled. Above and beyond that, users can also look forward to a new and improved IT roadmap - ensuring IT enables the business to grow and simultaneously builds its competitive advantage."