Introduction

Rubiix is a Melbourne-based Chartered Accounting firm with over 50 staff. Rubiix provide a total accounting and financial service, tailored to servicing a diverse selection of small to medium business owners throughout Australia.

Word of mouth referrals led to an extensive client base extending well beyond Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria to include all major cities and most regional centres of Australia and New Zealand. Although, based in Melbourne, Rubiix’s staff travels to service its clients in other states and regional centres.

Clint Wardley is the IT Manager and is responsible for managing Rubiix’ head office and subcontracting IT services to clients around Australia and New Zealand.

 The Challenge

In 2008,Rubiix were faced with a number of challenges that prompted Mr. Wardley to search for a better solution.

"We had Managed Exchange hosted with a third-party supplier, and were unhappy with the speed and level of support provided.

"We realised that although we were following the proper procedures for back up and disaster recovery, should a disaster occur our down time would cause enormous losses to the company’s bottom line. We also wanted to reduce the constant expenditure on back up material and off-site storage.

"We also wanted to give staff the ability to work remotely from home and clients’ premises with the same operational speed as the office. Not being able to offer this option meant that a lot of hours were wasted with staff redoing work after visiting clients or working weekends in the office to keep up.

"In addition we realised that our servers required an upgrade in order to support our new APS software package, as well as new document management application - Interwoven. The expected cost to do this was considerable. At the same time we were challenged with the need to reduce the number of IT staff and still be able to provide a positive 3rd level support option."

However, the core issue was the realisation that managing IT was becoming a distraction to from our core. We wanted to reduce the cyclic cost of keeping up to date with the latest software and hardware. Not only was this an expensive exercise, it was immensely disruptive to the entire company as new equipment and upgrades were installed.

The Solution

"We selected Wavenet, an IntraPower company, as we were confident that they had the necessary experience with the virtual desk solution, ensuring it would be delivered successfully with minimum risk.

"The Desktop On-Demand solution provided access to Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, APS and Interwoven. As part of the solution, we gained access to a professional, enterprise-grade infrastructure without having to incur the cost of building our own IT infrastructure. I was also impressed by the fact that the services provided by IntraPower were backed by 24x7 support with the security of proven backup and disaster recovery processes and procedures.

"The system transition was a huge task and the IntraPower team implemented it from end-to-end. Once we approved the proposal, IntraPower built the system in parallel to our existing system. They duplicated our software and data into their data centre, keeping in mind our additional requirements for softwares such as APS and Interwoven.

"I was very impressed with the service delivery. We initially maintained our hosted mail exchange solution, but the Business On-Demand platform significantly improved response times.

"With our final transition into IntraPower’s hosted mail exchange solution, we immediately experienced speed improvement. I think the private network IntraPower installed has made all the difference as we are not relying on the public internet now to access this critical service. "

The Results

According to Mr Wardley, engaging with IntraPower resulted in a number of benefits:

"Our users are happy as their applications are now running much faster. Our onsite PCs have been reinvigorated and we will not have to upgrade them for the foreseeable future and yet we are running the latest Microsoft Office suite.

"Our previous in-house backup and disaster recovery procedure, though tested, always had lingering doubts if a full recovery had been required. Now we can sleep at night knowing that our On-Demand services also have a backup and disaster recovery regime that is 100% secure. 

"Cost is a major factor to us. I liked the fact that the Business On-Demand solution provided a cost-effective alternative solution to upgrading our local infrastructure and had the added benefit of secure remote access for our staff. 

"Best of all, we now understand our IT costs and in the long term will have saved significantly on our IT operating expenditure, which will go straight to the bottom line profit. Furthermore, that saving does not include the extra time that we are now able to dedicate to focusing on our core business."

About Rubiix

Rubiix is a Chartered Accounting firm with over 50 staff, providing a total accounting & financial service, tailored to servicing a diverse selection of small to medium business owners throughout Australia..

From our very beginning in 1978, the Company has focused on providing clients with pragmatic commercial advice in a unique style of no-nonsense and straight-to-the-point guidance on all aspects of their business.

Word of mouth referrals led to an extensive client base extending well beyond Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria to include all major cities and most regional centres of Australia and New Zealand. Based in Melbourne, our staffs travels to service our clients in other states and regional centres.

Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA)

Introduction

The Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) is the peak professional body for financial planning in Australia, representing approximately 12,000 individuals and businesses. Over 8,000 of FPA’s 12,000 members are practising financial planners. The FPA and its members strive to improve the financial wellbeing of all Australians. 

Ian Read is the Company Secretary & Head of Operations of FPA.

The Challenge

The Solution

“We went through a rigorous assessment of what we required as an organisation. A number of alternative solutions were considered; one possible solution was to increase the number of IT staff within the organisation. This was not our preferred option.  Aside from the cost, it was always a challenge to find skilled individuals with the range of skills that we required.

“When we were looking for a supplier, we wanted a partner who was able to grow with the FPA. We realised that our requirements are likely to change, and we needed a flexible solution because of this.

“From a cost basis, having a solution with a fixed cost pattern was very powerful. Being able to calculate the IT spend per employee, per month allowed us to project our IT cost accurately." 

Through IntraPower’s Business On-Demand, the FPA was provided with an end-to-end IT infrastructure solution. All of  the FPA’s applications such as Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, CMS, CRM, HR, Financial system and data were migrated into Desktop On-Demand, IntraPower’s virtual desktop environment.

IntraPower provided private network connections to the IntraPower High Availability Network to securely deliver applications to the FPA’s PCs and Thin Clients. The system can be accessed 24/7 via a secure portal page providing remote access and redundancy.

“What I liked about Desktop On-Demand is that not only did it duplicate what we needed on a daily basis, but it allowed us to upgrade key applications. For example, we were able to upgrade our HR system significantly, allowing us to introduce a web based employee kiosk.

 “All maintenance, management, monitoring, disaster recovery and support were provided as part of the service. Data and applications are still ours to own and manage, but we no longer have to worry about the time consuming task of keeping up with our IT infrastructure. I suppose it’s similar to the idea of driving a car. As long as my car takes me from A to B I am not interested in rebuilding or maintaining it. It is more efficient to have my mechanic do this for me.

“Once we approved the proposal, IntraPower built the system in parallel to our existing system. This ensured that the new system was fully tested prior to cut over. The cut over itself was done over a weekend, limiting the disruption to our organisation when we opened on Monday,” commented Mr Read.

The Result

 “Our expectations had been met completely. We reduced the need to maintain an internal IT infrastructure skill-set and have access to the 24x7 support we needed.

“We eliminated the need for capital investment in server infrastructure, but have the flexibility to upgrade our applications as needed. Having a fixed cost allowed us to plan our IT spending more efficiently.

“I am also confident that we have a solid Business Continuity Plan in place. Should anything happen to our office, we know that our data is safe and we can continue serving our members”, added Mr Read.

About Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA)

The FPA is the peak professional body for financial planning in Australia, representing approximately 12,000 individuals and businesses. Over 9,000 of its 12,000 members are practising financial planners. The FPA and its members strive to improve the financial wellbeing of all Australians. 

The FPA provides the leadership and professional framework that enable members to deliver quality financial advice to their clients. FPA members include financial planners from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, including over 5,500 CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals – the global symbol of excellence in financial planning. All FPA practitioner members are bound by a code of ethics, high professional standards and must meet continuing professional education requirements.

Introduction

Norwest Productions Pty Ltd is based in Sydney, with offices in multiple locations around Australia, New Zealand and China. Norwest Productions is Australia and New Zealand’s largest audio service provider, supplying big events such as Melbourne’s Commonwealth Games Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

Norwest Productions specialises in audio services for Special Events, Arena Concerts, Touring Bands, Theatre, Broadcast, Conferences and other corporate events. Currently consisting of 36 full-time and 45 part-time staff, the business has expertise in every area of the audio industry - from live production to broadcast to recording.

The Challenge

According to Adrian Riddell, General Manager of Norwest the search for a solution came with the realisation that their infrastructure and software were due for an upgrade in 2009.

“Our servers were due for a replacement within the next year, and some of our software was due for replacement too. I was looking at some rather large capital expenditure and also high operating costs, and was evaluating the options for how best to invest in our pending upgrades,” recounted Mr Riddell.

At the time, Norwest’s entire server infrastructure was housed and maintained in the Sydney head office. Norwest’s core business application - Rental Point was installed on a single Citrix server and accessed by users in the head office and all remote offices. The installation was limited to 20 users and was accessible via a single Internet connection, which was shared with the head office users. Due to constant access and an increasing larger requirement due to expansion, it often reached its limit and performance was often slow as a result – especially for Norwest’s remote office users.

Managing and maintenance of IT became a resource hungry exercise as Mr Riddell quickly realised. “l was spending a significant amount of time managing and maintaining our environment; meaning l couldn’t focus effectively on my core business. We knew there must be a more efficient solution out there". 

The Solution

“After researching l knew that not trying to build our own infrastructure made the most business sense for us, so l tried to find a provider who could truly deliver an end-to-end and highly reliable cloud based infrastructure solution. We needed to focus our core business and needed a professional provider who focused on enterprise grade delivery of our full IT solution and infrastructure.” commented Mr Riddell.

According to Mr Riddell, the combination of IntraPower’s innovative solution as well as savings presented by the solution was the main driver for selecting IntraPower.

“l was impressed with how IntraPower was able to articulate the savings we would make using their ROI tool. Being able to put a figure on a per user basis allowed us to plan for future requirements, instead of just paying for what we currently use. I was also reassured that IntraPower were able to host all the applications we require on a day-to-day basis. Not having to migrate to a different application or system was important to us, as we did not want the time and cost associated to retrain our staff.

Overall, IntraPower provided the best solution at a price that made sense”, explained Mr Riddell.

Norwest decided on the integration of IntraPower’s Desktop On-Demand, Managed Exchange and Application Hosting services, which were all parts of IntraPower’s complete Business On-Demand service.

“As part of the service, we gained access to professional, enterprise-grade infrastructure without having to build our own IT infrastructure. This is a marked improvement to our prior situation. In addition, the services provided by IntraPower are backed by 24x7 support with the security of proven backup and disaster recovery processes and procedures,” stated Mr. Riddell

Once IntraPower scoped Norwest’s business and IT issues,  a solution design was produced for Norwest’s approval. IntraPower then built the system in parallel to Norwest’s existing system including a new Managed Private Network for all of Norwest’s sites. Norwest’s software environment and data were duplicated into IntraPower’s data centre, and testing was done throughout the entire process.

“What we liked about this was that our business continued to run as normal throughout the process. There was minimum risk on our part, and the transition occurred in a single day. I was very impressed”, commented Mr Riddell. 

The Result

There have been many benefits to Norwest Productions as a result of engaging IntraPower, as Mr Riddell discovered:

The most obvious benefit was that we pay fixed costs per user based on our selected services. Our operating expenditure is transparent, allowing us to plan for any possible changes requiring us to scale up or down. Our infrastructure suffers from less downtime, we get access to enterprise level systems and we are more eficient as a result.

For myself personally, the most valuable aspect is the fact that l no longer have to manage our IT on a daily basis, and that means that l can concentrate solely on our core business. That’s made a massive difference.

About Norwest Productions

Norwest Productions Pty Ltd is Australia’s largest audio service provider. Offices are located in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Beijing. Recently Norwest Productions purchased Oceania Audio, New Zealand's largest provider of audio and lighting, as well as McLean Audio in Melbourne.

The company provides audio solutions for

• Special Events
• Arena Concerts
• Touring Bands
• Theatre
• Broadcast
• Conferences, Conventions and other corporate events
   

Norwest has a large full-time staff with expertise in every area of the audio industry – from live production to broadcast to recording.   

Introduction

Paragon Recruitment is based in Melbourne, and was formed in 1992. Paragon specialises in the recruitment of Project Directors and Managers, Change and Integration Managers, Business Analysts, Service Delivery Managers, Systems Architects and Project Office specialists. Paragon has operated as a niche player in the marketplace focussing on servicing the needs of a core group of clients. Although the business advertises positions through internet-based job boards, the majority of contractors, candidates and new clients come to Paragon as a result of an extensive referral network of satisfied contractors, former candidates and clients. Paragon’s reach, if necessary, can be extended through their membership of CareersMultiList (CML); an Australia-wide network of 120 Australia-owned recruitment companies. Through CML, Paragon is able to tap into an additional pool of quality candidates locally and nationally. Albert Kalaja is Owner and Founder of Paragon Recruitment. In 2008, he engaged Wavenet, an IntraPower company.  

The Challenge

In 2004, Paragon’s Recruitment IT environment was set up with a single server - which all users were logged on to. This prove to be inefficient and difficult to maintain. In addition to this, back up and was a source of concern according to Mr Kalaja. “I was doing backup manually, which was extremely time consuming. Also, the backups were actually stored on the premises, so if there had ever been a fire, we would have lost everything. This was definitely playing on my mind, and I knew that we definitely needed better risk management. “

“However, the fundamental issue was – even though we had hired an external company to manage our file server and the network – it boiled down to the services being provided by one individual. Even though he was very good at what he did, there was no guarantee that he would resolve our problems in the timeframe we needed because there was just one of him. If he was away from the office for example, we would have no one to turn to.

This was manageable for non-critical problems, and we managed to work around this. However, in instances when significant issues arose we were hamstrung by not having access to our system and in particular to our CRM. And because everything we did relied on our CRM, business would virtually come to a halt. “Unreliable IT meant that everyone was affected – dramatically.”  

The Solution

Paragon shortlisted three managed IT providers, but quickly eliminated two of the potential providers as they suffered operational difficulties during the period of evaluation.

“Wavenet offered the best solution of the other two, because they were able to explain their solution to me in more detail – and I perceived that they had a stronger commitment to their solution, and a greater belief in what they were doing” commented Mr Kalaja.

“In the end, it really came down to my desire to focus on my core business. I was sick of managing IT, rather than focusing all my attention on what we as a business are really good at and should be spending our time on. Sourcing all our IT needs from a professional enterprise grade cloud computing environment also meant that we would improve security and reliability, and also have access to helpdesk support. As mentioned before, we had an onsite server maintained by an external party, however not all tech support was able to be provided remotely (nor was it always timely).

I was also very confident that Wavenet could dramatically improve the security of my data and the reliability of our IT environment in general. The other thing that impressed me was that Wavenet was able to host a couple of programs that we rely upon – there’s Tris (which takes care of all of our recruitment operations), MYOB (our accounting software) and Microsoft Office suite of applications.

We decided on the virtual desktop on-demand solution, as it provides us with access to all our applications and data. We access this virtual desktop from PCs in our office, but we can access it from any PC that’s connected to the internet. We liked this solution because it most closely resembled our previous setup, but provided a lot more risk mitigation” explained Mr Kalaja.

Once Wavenet had scope Paragon requirements, a solution design was presented to Paragon prior to implementation.
 “The actual implementation was a surprisingly smooth process. Wavenet managed the preparation over a period of a few weeks, and then the changeover occurred in the space of only 1 day, in fact by morning it was live. That was pretty amazing!"commented Mr Kalaja.

The Result

There have been many benefits to Paragon as a result of engaging IntraPower.

“The product definitely met our expectations; and whilst it’s not something that our customers see directly, the solution has significantly improved our ability to serve them – meaning we can work from different locations and much more smoothly. We have significant fewer interruptions (in fact I can count them on one hand). We also have less unforeseen downtime due to application upgrade or exchange errors."

“Internally, we’re now confident that our data is secure, and we have a comprehensive risk management system in place. “But, I think the most dramatic change has been the fact that I no longer have to manage our IT&T. I wasted so much time on something that was not my core business, and now I am completely free to focus solely on growing my business. That change has been really powerful.”  

About Paragon Recruitment

 Based in Melbourne and formed in 1992, Paragon has operated as a niche player in the marketplace focussing on servicing the needs of a core group of clients. In fact, we think of ourselves as being "Big enough to deliver, yet small enough to care". Although we advertise positions through internet-based job boards, the majority of our contractors and candidates come to us as a result of an extensive referral network of satisfied contractors, former candidates and clients. Our reach is nationally extended through our membership of CareersMultiList (CML), an Australia-wide network of 120 Australian-owned recruitment companies. Through CML, we are able to tap into the largest pool of quality candidates locally and nationally. The multi-listing technology lets us flag vacancies to over 800 recruitment consultants while the client retains just one point of contact within Paragon. The field of specialty of the recruitment companies within CML is Information Technology, Telecommunications, Engineering, Finance & Accounting, Building & Construction, Retail and Sales & Marketing.

Financial Services Institute of Australasia (Finsia)

Membership organisation implements managed IT solution and saves 60% on internal solutions management costs.

About Finsia

The Financial Services Institute of Australasia (Finsia) is Australasia’ s premier membership organisation for the financial services industry, with more than 20,000 professional members. It was formed in 2005, following the successful merger of the Securities Institute of Australia and the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance. In 2007, Finsia sold the education component of its business to Kaplan Professional. Finsia is the only professional association to represent the entire spectrum of financial services across Australasia – including the wealth management, banking & finance and capital markets sectors. Finsia employs approximately 36 staff and has offices throughout Australia and in New Zealand.

The Challenge

The sale of Finsia’ s education business in 2007 provided an ideal opportunity for the organisation to reassess their IT strategy and needs. They undertook extensive research and analysis to establish the IT needs of the business and the costs of managing a new IT solution
internally.

“ We conducted research to establish the costs of internally managing a new IT solution. The potential costs we needed to assess included building a robust data centre, communication links, network and server infrastructure purchasing hardware and software and training staff to implement and maintain it all,” said David Kennedy, Manager IT Services, Finsia.

“ When we broke down the potential cost of building and managing an internal IT solution, we decided to explore the option of managed IT services.”

The Solution

Finsia decided to conduct a full Request For Proposal (RFP) process to review and select a suitable end-to-end solution. They selected Wavenet, an IntraPower Group (ASX: IPX) company to provide a tailored Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution.

“ We selected Wavenet, an IntraPower Group company, as the best provider overall. Wavenet was able to manage the entire solution and implementation without outsourcing to an array of partners. This provided us with one point of contact, which ensured a smoother
transition process,” said Kennedy.

SaaS is an on-demand, scalable software solution that provides applications via a private network (or the Internet) for a monthly subscription fee. The applications are hosted by IntraPower in a secure data centre. The hosted desktop also means that applications and data are securely accessible from any PC – anywhere in the world.

The Finsia solution links all office locations to IntraPower’ s secure managed private network which hosts the SaaS solution. All Finsia data and applications including Microsoft Office as well as finance and membership systems are delivered centrally through this secure private network, which reduces the headache of managing the IT systems internally. Wavenet also deployed thin PC’ s and notebooks across all sites as well as a complete IP PABX solution throughout the Finsia network.

“ Overall the implementation was incredibly smooth. After signing contracts, we agreed on a timeline and work schedule which Wavenet adhered to during the entire implementation. The solution went live in December 2007,” added Kennedy.

The Benefits

“ Wavenet’ s proposed SaaS strategy offered a phenomenal 60% saving on the cost of managing our IT internally. Their flexibility, understanding of what we wanted to achieve and competitive pricing made their solution compelling,” said Kennedy.

“ Apart from the undeniable cost benefit of SaaS, the greatest benefit is being able to outsource the maintenance, upgrades and data protection with full confidence. Our downtime is significantly reduced – with all maintenance and upgrading scheduled for off-peak times – which has also made a considerable difference to our overall productivity,” he added.

As a result of the implementation solution, Finsia has had negligible downtime, maximum efficiency and productivity for a Fixed IT Cost per month – with no additional capital expenditure for the entire IT future.

With a SaaS model applications, system upgrades, maintenance, data protection and disaster recovery strategies are outsourced, freeing up resources and in house IT staff. This is a major business benefit, with in house IT staff able to focus on driving the broader IT strategy across the company as opposed to undertaking

Summary

With the Wavenet solution in place, Finsia has saved 60% on the cost of managing their IT internally. The flexibility provided by the solution ensures continued business efficiency, adaptability and compliance. Wavenet’ s SaaS solution gives companies of all sizes an opportunity to pass-on the burden of software maintenance, upgrades, licensing,
disaster recovery planning and troubleshooting so they can get on with expanding their businesses.