Aqua Evolution Case Study
21 March 2006
Aqua Evolution select Willow Starcom as long term strategic IT support partner and realise the return on investment in their IT
Aqua Evolution, one of the UK's top manufacturers of pumps and filters for ponds, is at last getting a real return on their IT investment after appointing Willow Starcom as their IT support partner.
The agreement has enabled Aqua Evolution at last, to start looking at IT as a way of moving their business forward.
This has not always been the case as Managing Director, Mike Shaw relates, "We have been disillusioned for years with IT. Like most small businesses we are ignorant of the technicalities of IT and rely heavily on those who supply and support our systems to ensure they are operating properly, we bought on price like anyone else but found it is so easy to get 'stitched up'."
Like many other companies Aqua Evolution thought that in buying a PC, network and server and then paying the supplier to make it all work together was all that was needed. And so it should be, but as they discovered to their cost the ability to supply at a keen price, and the ability to support an IT system don't always go together.
Mike explains the situation they got in, "We totally rely on our IT systems to run our business, when it is not working properly it disrupts the business and costs us money. At the heart of our business is our database of customers and partners. Our email system enables us to transact business with them in a competitive environment. Unfortunately our IT system rarely worked properly and for years we had problems with PCs not connecting to the network properly and email set up wrongly." Mike was unimpressed with IT support companies who kept coming out to fix problems which then would re-occur almost as soon as they left the premises.
With this background, when Mike met Andrew Unsworth, Chairman of Willow Starcom, whilst he was buying a pump for his fish pond, he was more than sceptical when Andrew asked him if they could help with their IT systems. "Andrew came across as all the others had done," claimed Mike, he was very sincere and apparently honest but I was very reticent. However at least he was buying products off me and that put him in a good position."This meeting was to prove the turning point for Aqua Evolution and their IT problems.
"Giving Willow Starcom the opportunity to prove themselves was one the best business decisions I have made," explained Mike. "Andrew deliberately under promised, once he heard my tale of woes, but his company over delivered and 'blew my socks off', where other IT support companies would spend 8 man hours on a single problem, Willow Starcom sorted our 4 major problems within 1 hour."
Phil Bramhall, Account Manager at Willow picks up the story, "Following Andrews call we sent in one of our technical consultants to assess the state of the IT system and to listen to the users to get a full history of all the problems and issues, he was able to sort out many of their issues there and then and at least leave them with a stable system." Aqua Evolution did not have a complex system with only 15 users with PCs connected to a local area network with a file server and printer. They then had an Internet connection for sending and receiving emails.
"Their set up was not over complex," claimed Phil. "It was just that it had been cobbled together with no systems knowledge. It was a matter of configuring each PC properly to access resources and sort out issues to do with virus' and spyware." Once the initial problems had been resolved Aqua Evolution took out a support contract on all their hardware and software with Willow and are still reaping the rewards of the relationship"
"The contract with Willow is actually saving us money and we are getting a superb service," explained Mike Shaw. "We are totally reliant on our IT systems and Willow understand that criticality. Being a small business themselves they understand our situation and act as our virtual support department anticipating our requirements."
As part of the support agreement Willow have set up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection from their offices over the Internet and into Aqua Evolutions network. Via this connection they are able to support and manage the complete site remotely ensuring the maximum up time of the system.
Phil Bramhall explains how the support service is working,
"Having stabilised the system and brought back some confidence in the IT infrastructure we are monitoring their site on a regular basis to ensure it operates at peak availability, we understand that their speciality is in ponds and pumps and ours is IT. We are their virtual IT department and, as such we talk every couple of months to talk technology and features."
The confidence is certainly restored as Mike Shaw explains,
"We are nothing but ecstatic about the support and the performance of the system. We are now confident enough to start looking at what more we can achieve with our IT, we hear about the way IT has transformed companies and how they operate and how it can enable new ways of doing business. Our experience was totally different, where IT was actually holding us back. We now realise that IT is at the heart of any modern business and that you have to treat it with respect and employ real specialists to configure it to your specific requirements. Buying purely on price gets you just the 'tin'. To make it do something you need specialist support."
Aqua Evolution is not alone in spending lots on IT without feeling the benefits of their investment. Andrew Unsworth comments,
"IT in a business environment needs professional support. Many small businesses fall into the trap of thinking that it is a 'plug and play' world, nothing could be further than the truth. IT systems are totally configurable so that they can be moulded to meet individual business needs. Whoever installs and supports the system needs to have been professionally trained on the equipment and software. Too many so called 'PC companies' employ gifted amateurs who spend hours tinkering with systems. At Willow Starcom we only used trained engineers and as such, we are able to configure systems properly from the start and maintain them so that they support the clients business."
Aqua Evolution have certainly seen the benefits of this professional approach.
"To say I'm impressed by Willow's professional, no nonsense attitude is an understatement. On top of their other attributes they have a 'nothing is a problem' attitude which is so refreshing and banishes all worries once they are on the case," concluded Mike Shaw.
