Many companies have developed their IT infrastructure over a number of years. Through common projects such as fixing the year 2000 bug, or though business developments such as acquisitions or disposals, the IT infrastructure would have slowly been shaped. As the technology implemented over the years begins to date or if your IT infrastructure has had to endure business changes, the following symptoms may be experienced:
- New applications required by the business are held back due to infrastructure issues.
- Different server and client platform versions are in use, leading to increased support requirements and costs.
- Hardware failures are frequently occurring as devices approach their end of life. As a result the business has to cope with downtime to applications and possible data loss.
- Difficulty sharing data across the business.
How can Satchell Lowe help your company address some of these issues and move towards a stable and scalable IT infrastructure? How can we assist in avoiding Technology Refresh Projects in the future?
- We begin by assigning a Lead Consultant and/or Architectural Team to work with your decision making team to closely understand the business requirements.
- We develop the high level architecture for any projects which are identified as being beneficial, and work with the customer to identify the smoothest migration path. All of these steps are taken using our Standard Project Management techniques.
- A proposed infrastructure, project plan, estimated costs, and forcasted ROI are presented to the board of directors or steering group.
- If approval is given to proceed then we form the project and proceed. Key decisions are made at this point, particularly regarding the resource plan. The project team would ideally be comprised of members of the customer steering group,and supplemental resources provided by Satchell Lowe where needed. If required, Satchell Lowe can resource the entire project.
- The Project would then move into the detailed design stage. A Customer Acceptance Test will be presented at key points during the project and finally, prior to implementation.
- The migration stage of the project doesn’t necessarily follow on from the detailed design stage. This stage is responsible for developing the co-existence strategy, and migration procedures for moving the business across to the new infrastructure. This stage is completed once the migration has been completed.
- The final stage of the project is to complete the decommissioning of any legacy infrastructure components. Disposal of redundant equipment and the handover to the day to day support organisation for ongoing administration and maintenance of the new infrastructure.
Benefits
A Technology Refresh Project can bring many benefits to your business, in particular:
- A platform on which new business applications can be developed and deployed to improve efficiencies within the business.
- Improved collaboration and sharing of information.
- Reduced support costs.
- Improved stability
Satchell Lowe understands the disruption, impact and costs of such a project to a customer. At all times we consider future migration paths and aim to help customers avoid such complicated projects in the future.
