Product category:
Hardware
News Release from: Technology Services Group (TSG) | Subject: Range of IT support services
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial
Team on 05 June 2006
TSG builds IT solutions for Doig and
Smith
The IT system is now more reliable giving Doig and Smith the ability to realise its future goals.
TSG builds IT solutions for construction industry's Doig and Smith Airport buildings are some of the largest constructions in the UK
This article was originally published on Buildingtalk on 2 Jun 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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Such extensive structures require specialist construction consultancy from engineers and surveyors - an area that chartered surveyor firm Doig and Smith has specialised in for nearly 70 years.
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Headquartered in Glasgow, the company has additional offices in Edinburgh and London and employs around 80 people.
As well as its work with the Airport Authorities, on projects at Heathrow, Gatwick and Edinburgh worth more than £650 million, the firm has also recently overseen the new Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in Edinburgh and has been involved in major retail, historical, healthcare and residential projects.
This has resulted in Doig and Smith working on a portfolio with a combined value in excess of £1 billion.
The quality of its work and project wins such as these have led to the progressive growth of the organisation in the last five years.
As with many organisations that see this level of growth, the IT needs of Doig and Smith have grown with the company.
A local IT services provider was doing a good job at keeping things running, but according to Lorna Gibson, practice manager at Doig and Smith, 'We were not progressing.
It had got to the stage where we were just fire fighting'.
For this reason, several years ago, Doig and Smith decided to hire an internal IT manager - someone who could get to know both the organisation's business needs and its IT systems.
For a year, this approach worked successfully, but as Gibson explains, 'Finding someone with all the necessary skills is difficult.
One person can do all that is asked of them, but again they cannot necessarily provide you with further ideas on how to move the business forward.
'They also cannot be based in all three offices at once should an expert be required on-site.' Doig and Smith decided that it was time to look at outsourcing all its IT services to an organisation that could deliver the mixed skill set that it needed.
They drew up an initial request for information document, and asked five potential suppliers to respond.
The brief was detailed, covering everything from IT needs, wants and existing IT infrastructure, through to requesting details from suppliers on everything from staff turnover to the qualifications held by the engineers who would actually work on its system.
'It was an extensive brief', admits Gibson, 'but we understood our requirements and wanted to make sure we could invest in a long term partnership'.
Of the five companies that submitted information, three were invited for interview.
Following this stage TSG was selected as the IT services provider of choice.
'The proposal from TSG Scotland was the most compelling', says Gibson, 'They offered a quality team at a good price and had the ability to service all our sites from their own locally based offices.
'They could also handle the majority of our IT needs remotely from their service centre in Hamilton.
Our visit to this site to see at first hand the set-up and response times they were achieving for existing clients convinced us they were the right company for us'.
TSG spent the first few months auditing and understanding the Doig and Smith infrastructure.
File servers in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London have been upgraded or replaced, an audit that has streamlined the company's software licensing has been finalised and the first major project to upgrade email, transferring all users onto Microsoft Exchange 2003, has been successfully completed.
The initial work has stabilised Doig and Smith's infrastructure.
The IT system is now more reliable giving Doig and Smith the ability to realise its future goals.
'We want to open our organisation up to true mobility', says Gibson, "We expect that this year all our surveyors will be using mobile devices to send and receive email, submit billing details and access critical information relating to their projects online and in real-time'.
This entire technology progression will be covered by TSG's System Care service, which will support and maintain the whole IT structure.
Doig and Smith will benefit from on-site visits, telephone help lines and a proactive remote monitoring solution.
This allows TSG to identify problems in the system before they impact on the business, and either resolve them directly from the monitoring centre, or by dispatching an engineer to any of Doig and Smith's three sites.
Gibson concludes, 'We're delighted with the way TSG has engaged with us and look forward to working with them in the coming years'.
For more information on TSG's range of IT support services to the construction industry, contact your nearest local service centre.
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