Shilton Sharpe Quarry (SSQ)

Both Shilton and Sharpe were used to “big company’ mentality; in previous roles, each had had worked with huge IT departments and infrastructures, but they were poorly integrated internationally and unwieldy from a user perspective. Technologies such as remote access and Blackberry’s were unavailable at the time and they knew that if they were to grow their new venture as fast as they wanted, they would need the right IT infrastructure and technologies to support them.

“That’s not an easy thing to achieve as a start-up,” acknowledges Shilton. “We considered drafting in our own IT manager, but didn’t feel that one individual would necessarily have the expertise required to give us a scalable network that would support expansion into other geographical territories. Nor would one person be able to give us the 24/7 support required to do business in multiple jurisdictions. So we started looking for a partner that would support that growth."

“Some of the vendors we spoke to in our quest to find the right partner looked at us with scepticism when we talked about our plans. Others just saw pound signs...that we didn’t have at the time.”

During the course of this process, Shilton came across The Internet Group; a company that approached the challenge in a very different way. Founded in 1999, the company specialises in offering its professional services clients a fully managed IT service.

“Like us, The Internet Group had ambitious plans, and they understood the need for an infrastructure that was scalable to support future growth but not over-engineered at huge expense,” comments Shilton.

The solution implemented by The Internet Group comprises a wide area network which is hosted at The Internet Group’s secure data centre facility. Every office accesses information held on the servers through a virtual private network using private leased lines, ensuring that performance is identical across the network internationally. Remote access is facilitated by laptops and Blackberries, and the whole solution is support 24/7/365 by The Internet Group.

Performance is measured through metrics including network uptime, how service calls are dealt with (e.g. percentage resolved at first point of contact), cost per fix and response times. There is constant communication between The Internet Group and members of SSQ staff and a quarterly site visit enables the teams to work together to resolve an issues.

SSQ now runs offices in Milan, Rome, Madrid, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and New York - as well as the three original offices in London, Frankfurt and Munich. The need for comprehensive support from The Internet Group has never been more evident.

Nonetheless, Shilton believes regular “IT healthchecks” are an important part of the relationship: “We put the contract out to tender a couple of years ago, to ensure we were getting the best possible support at the best price. As it happens, this process reassured us that The Internet Group was the right partner for the business and would help support any future growth.”

“It really is a partnership, and that’s the best outcome that we could hope for” concludes Shilton.