Company Name: Albion Stone Quarries PLC
Project Requirements: Albion Stone PLC requested the services of an independent and senior IT systems consultant brought in to assist in upgrading their IT infrastructure and delivering on the key company requirements. The findings highlighted the key issues and the need of the company to create a flexible system, centralised at their quarries based in Portland and linking to their head office based in Surrey.
To retire current accounting and manufacturing systems which appeared appropriate at last review but which could be vastly simplified through off the shelf packages and the use of simple spread sheet system.
The process involved the short listing of several companies through tendering eventually won by Interfuture Systems Ltd.
Issues Faced: As the core systems were to be based in the Portland quarries, consideration was needed around the remote location and the quality of communications to the site and the mining process that created very fine and invasive dust material which would impact on any mechanical IT devices.
Dependability, fault tolerance and scalability were all key areas of consideration and ensuring the distributed sites received solid access to the core systems based at Portland.
Current Systems: The core systems now incorporate rack optimised servers delivering centralised data, Exchange and SharePoint services, centralised accounting and thin client access from any location and isolation of the server base to prevent as little effect as possible from the mining dust. Remote disaster recovery through offsite backups using a premium service to enable fast systems recovery should the systems experience major failure and high level communications using Leased Line services through business only carriers.
