Allied International

Having grown very quickly, Allied International acquired a number of other companies during a period of acquisitions in 2006-7. Following the purchase of PRA Destination Management, a number of other takeovers were made along with the introduction of a franchise system, giving several new global outposts. In 2009 Core Capital bought the group from the founder Jim Hensley and made a major investment of working capital and top flight resources. Andrew Meyrick was appointed CFO CIO. Very recently he has moved to special projects.

The cluster of companies forming Allied International was fragmented, with each office continuing to operate independently, in multiple countries and in multiple languages. As Andrew Meyrick, at Allied International explains, “The group was fragmented with each country doing its own thing with POP3 email connections and a variety of hardware and software. There was no standardisation, no proper back up and poor firewalls.”

“We needed a global platform which provided full serviceability remotely and fail over with a single point of failure. There was a need for rationalisation of servers and data centre management as well as managed services. The Internet Group had the skill sets to run this.”

The Internet Group conducted a mini audit of the global infrastructure in 2009. It uncovered a number of serious concerns including a failure to perform crucial backups, equipment being used that was out of warranty, non-compliant software licensing, no compliance, a lack of IT management and IT strategy, servers running with disk failures, no central email system and a complete absence of inter-staff communication between various locations. Challenges were identified at local and global levels, requiring a dynamic and panoramic solution capable of unifying the many isolated entities.

Having identified problems in all areas of Allied International’s IT function, The Internet Group went back to the drawing board. A complete overhaul of every system and process was required. The Internet Group, worked with a specialist accountancy software provider to roll out a global ERP package, creating a single international infrastructure for the software to sit on and handling integration across Europe. This streamlined most back office processes.

Significantly, a standardised, company-wide email system and file system was introduced as part of this process, whilst rationalising all data centre usage to two regional hubs, both managed by The Internet Group.

Adam Maurice, Managing Director of The Internet Group explains, “Each individual entity was very much accustomed to doing their own thing. The MD of each office had all implemented their own IT systems and email addresses and it there was no global address book. Introducing email and getting each office online using the same file system allowed them to start communicating with each other, making workflows more effective and efficient.” Mr Meyrick confirms, “With the introduction in 2010 of a universal email domain and archiving facilities, filtering and email control became very effective.”

With the Allied International platform in a poor state due to a lack of investment, a comprehensive programme of hardware replacement was conducted, along with the virtualisation of all IT infrastructures. Diverse internet and dual failover-firewalls were implemented at both the UK and US data centres and site to site links between the two locations set up.

Allied International continues to have a European headquarters in London and a US headquarters in San Diego. A new CEO has been appointed, based in New York. An in-house IT support person is based in the US office and handles the US Service Desk, supported by third line 3rd line support from The Internet Group. All other IT issues in Europe are dealt with by The Internet Group’s award-winning, SDI accredited Service Desk in London.

As Allied International continues to grow, a number of exciting IT projects are planned for deployment. Emphasising the benefits evidenced already, Mr Meyrick comments, “Since engaging The Internet Group we have found their managed services, service desk support, strategic advice and creation of our new global platform to have been particularly helpful. Our IT Infrastructure and functionality is much improved. I now know its all being looked after properly.”

“The return on investment has been excellent and the business overall has benefited from the transparent monthly costs associated with the service and rapid resolution of incidents.”