Price Bailey
Enabling a 25 x increase in Network speed for leading accountancy firm.
About Price Bailey
Founded in 1938, Price Bailey is a leading firm of chartered accountants and business advisers operating throughout the UK, with global connections. Their clients range from high net worth individuals to publicly listed businesses.
Price Bailey has 26 partners and over 300 professional and support staff. It has eight offices situated in East Anglia, London, the Channel Islands and the Caribbean - serving local SMEs.
Solution
A key requirement for Price Bailey was the need to review their existing WAN. Exponential-e took on the project of implementing a new WAN which enabled Price Bailey to benefit from improved connection speeds of up to 25 times faster than their previous Network. Plus, by utilising Exponential-e's Network they were able to increase the control over their bandwidth and access services privately and securely.
Their in-house Data Centre was no longer suitable and so Price Bailey agreed to move in to one of Exponential-e's Data Centres. Not only did this mean that they now receive a managed service which flags up any issues pro-actively and is within a state of the art secure facility, but it also provides enhanced disaster recovery facilities – enabling Price Bailey to have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place should they need to use it.
Their aging phone system, which had been in place over 20 years, was no longer fit for purpose and so the process of moving their existing telephone system on to a hosted system began. This process continued across the business's estate of offices and has enhanced communication functionality for employees. The new phone system also provided the firm with additional reporting metrics and enhanced security.
As their existing Citrix server farm could no longer handle the speed of growth and requirements for use, Price Bailey instead implemented a Desktop-as-a-Service solution. This allowed them to increase the number of seats that they could provide whilst lessening the strain on their existing legacy infrastructure. In future it will also allow them to increase provisioning of virtual desktops as required - meaning that they can easily match the growth of the firm, and adjust spend aligned to this.
Solution benefits
- The ability to have a number of services managed by Exponential-e is a key benefit for Price Bailey. This enables their internal IT team to better focus on other projects, and also reduces the risk for them surrounding the management of an internal Data Centre.
- With the implementation of the Cloud based solution – VDI - the firm is able to better manage their growing number of employees, whilst not adding further strain on their Network or server farm. Price Bailey was also able to leave behind its legacy phone system, which had been in place for over 20 years, instead providing their employees with a telephony system that offers additional functionality.
Challenges
Price Bailey had an existing Wide Area Network (WAN) that had been in place since 2008 and, despite upgrades, it couldn't cope with the growth in their business – both in terms of staff and office locations. As the firm continued to grow they were faced with issues of slow speed and poor connectivity, which led to frustration for users and also a decrease in productivity.
Their IT services were primarily based in-house, but with their fast paced growth this was no longer the ideal solution. Instead Price Bailey decided that they needed to outsource some of this and instead rely on managed services that would be able to support their business growth.
In 2014 Price Bailey were looking to relocate one of their offices, and merge it with another, to create their largest site yet. This involved a great amount of work and was not something that could be managed internally.
As part of this move and merger Price Bailey needed to review their existing WAN, relocate their in-house Data Centre, review their Disaster Recovery plan, upgrade their telephone system (which had been in place since the 1990's) and review their struggling Citrix server farm.
Not only was there a requirement for all this to be done, but it had to happen within just 3 to 4 months, a timeframe that was too tight for the Price Bailey team to handle themselves - and why they instead looked to Exponential-e for assistance.
Features
- Network is up to 25 times faster.
- Managed Data Centre services replace an in-house Data Centre, enabling the IT department to do more whilst the company's key assets are protected.
- Migration to the Exponential-e telephony system has allowed employees to embrace the benefits of more advanced features and functionality.
- VDI has enhanced the opportunities for employees to work in remote locations, and also reduced the strain on their legacy systems.
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