04 April 2024

Riverford Organic Farmers Ltd has expanded from a one-man team of founder Guy Singh-Watson delivering homegrown organic vegetables to friends, to a national vegetable box scheme delivering to around 50,000 customers each week. Today, the company employs 1,000 people and has three regional sister farms and a farm in France.

With multiple sites and IT real estate to manage, there are a vast array of devices that are integral to keeping the business functioning at peak performance. It’s important for the IT team to have visibility of these devices from both an IT infrastructure and environmental monitoring perspective to ensure that food is kept fresh and at the right temperature and humidity 24/7.

04 April 2024

Countrywide Healthcare, a 27-year-old supplier of medical and janitorial equipment to the care sector, faced critical network performance challenges in their new warehouse with a Cisco Meraki network. The IT team struggled to gain comprehensive visibility into its performance, resulting in unresolved downtime incidents like the inability to download web orders and slow ERP system performance.

Supporting expansion

“When we moved to our current 110,000 sq. ft warehouse in 2021, the refurbishment included the installation of a full Meraki network. We chose Meraki because we didn’t need to be experts in Cisco networking, since Meraki is almost plug and play with control from anywhere,” said Jonathan Price, IT manager at Countrywide Healthcare.

07 March 2024

Sheffield Hallam University is one of the UK’s largest and most diverse universities: a community of more than 35,000 students; 4,500 staff; and more than 295,000 alumni around the globe. Of those students, 53% are the first members of their family to attend university and 23% are from low-participation neighbourhoods.

The University standardised on Palo Alto Networks ML-Powered Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) to safeguard its network some ten years previous. However, the education sector has become increasingly vulnerable to ransomware since then. Jisc’s Cyber Impact Report 2022 reveals that UK institutions spend an average of £2 million on responding to ransomware attacks – and ransomware is now the sector’s top cybersecurity risk, with more than 100 institutions falling victim since 2020.

07 March 2024

Westwoodside Church of England Academy school is situated in the heart of the village of Westwoodside, Doncaster. Each member of staff works tirelessly to provide students with an exciting curriculum and learning environment, with ICT in every classroom to ensure children are prepared for the modern world.

Addressing the limitations

Having invested in front-of-class technology and mobile devices to help improve curriculum delivery, Westwoodside’s wireless and network limitations needed addressing, and a planned for upgrade within the budgets available.

08 February 2024

Northern’s passenger WiFi service works by utilising the available cellular capacity in the geographical areas its trains pass through, to deliver data to those on board.

With over 340 trains travelling on its network, and an average of more than half a million users connecting to its WiFi every month, data usage (and, in turn, costs) could quickly begin to add up. What’s more, this data expenditure was largely outside the transport operator’s control, given that the provision of WiFi to rail passengers is mandated in the UK.

08 February 2024

East Midlands Railway (EMR) connects people across the East Midlands and through to London. Working in partnership to connect cities, support communities and create easier journeys for everyone, EMR is investing £600 million bringing customer improvements to its services, trains, and stations.

As part of this investment, the company is improving its trains and introducing a new intercity fleet, as well as refurbishing two new, faster, and more modern regional fleets. To keep passengers up to date, they have launched a new website, mobile app and ticket buying facilities, while encouraging Smartcard use to help reduce paper waste and streamline the travel experience.

07 December 2023

Town Legal is a boutique planning law firm with a diverse team comprising lawyers, former local government town planners and heritage consultants, which allows it to provide unique insight, understanding and perspective in relation to the challenges and issues that may arise from complex development proposals.

As the contract with Town Legal’s incumbent supplier came to an end, the firm reviewed its business objectives and began to reassess what was required – and expected – from a Managed Service Provider.

07 December 2023

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the administration of criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales and for non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland. It administers the work of magistrates’ courts and the County Court, Family Court, Crown Court, and Royal Courts of Justice, employing around 17,000 staff and operate from locations in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

HMCTS is an executive agency, sponsored by the Ministry of Justice, which follows the Ministry of Justice’s strategic vision for reform, to create a more effective, less costly, and more responsive justice system.

06 November 2023

CarGiant is the world’s largest used car dealership, with a head office, car showroom and processing plant workshop of over 45 acres located in White City, London. Since 1977, CarGiant has sold over 650,000 cars to customers all over the UK. CarGiant has approximately 450 staff divided into sales, customer service, finance, IT, technicians, and administration.

Upgrading end-of-life tech

CarGiant’s on-site expensive telephone system together with ISDN was quickly becoming end-of-life technology.

06 November 2023

ESCO (Energy reduction Support & Collaboration) is the energy-supporting function of Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK, with a remit to manage utilities and consumption, which is done in two ways: using Kaizen, a Continuous Improvement concept and foundation of lean manufacturing; and abnormality management.

Saving energy wirelessly

One of its tasks is to find out when too much energy is being consumed, either through abnormality or through equipment not being turned off.