The local operation of Bucyrus International, a global provider of mining products and services, has opened its new head office in Linbro Park, and is one of the first in southern Africa to deploy Cisco's Unified Communications Manager (UCM) 8.0. This forms part of the company's expansion strategy and continued investment into Africa.
Bucyrus partnered with KSS Technologies (KSS), a local converged network provider and Cisco silver partner, to deploy a range of technologies as part of the total solution.
These included a full Cisco IP network, VMware virtualisation, Hitachi storage, CommVault data management solution, CISCO IPT, videoconferencing and wireless technologies.
Additionally, it also subscribed to KSS's Remote Systems Management (RSM) solution that includes various service level offerings and provides affordable proactive and remote desktop and server end point management and support.
Fernando Armas, Bucyrus SA general manager, says KSS provides a single source of professional expertise and resources needed to streamline system management and support functions through its Remote Systems Management. “It also provides a range of proactive services designed to optimise technology investment and maximise the productivity of our staff and business.”
Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.0, the IP telephony call-processing component of the Cisco Unified Communications solution, offers a variety of benefits, including reduced deployment time, quicker Return on Investment, lower ongoing operational costs and improved business continuity.
Armas says Cisco's UCM helps Bucyrus become more efficient and responsive. “It creates a unified workspace that encompasses every combination of applications, devices, networks, and operating systems. It also provides a dynamic, flexible, network-based call admission control engine for voice and video and also improves cost savings and collaboration by extending Unified Communications capabilities outside the organisation.”
The company's IT manager Willem du Toit has a longstanding relationship with KSS for more than 12 years. “With vast experience and product knowledge, KSS offers a range of turnkey solutions that allows Bucyrus SA to set the standard internationally. More importantly, KSS has extensive experience in the mining, safety and security industries.”
“IT is now our strongest pillar; it allows us to improve our service delivery and productivity. Although we aim to improve our IT support throughout the organisation, the new solution will certainly improve our links with the US and other offices around the globe. Our inter-branch connectivity, through our IP network, will result in improved productivity and huge cost savings,” he explains.
KSS account manager Lyn Andrews says a growing number of companies like Bucyrus are realising the need for an IT service provider who can effectively manage their IT infrastructure, identifying or pre-empting potential issues before they become a problem, so that they can focus on their core business.
Du Toit points to network virtualisation as a new IT paradigm that challenges existing assumptions and IT deployment models. “Network virtualisation is presented as a new approach to network design and IT service delivery, we need to explore network virtualisation as a strategy to make our company more agile and IT expenditure efficient.”
He says this will change the current management mantra of balance expense reduction with business growth initiatives to provision services when needed. “The technology to deliver this new dynamic IT infrastructure is called virtualisation.”
The CommVault solution deployed, a complete data management solution with infinite scalability and unprecedented control over data and costs, will improve the way Bucyrus organises, controls, protects and accesses information.
CommVault simplifies Enterprise Data Management (EDM) with a unified software architecture that increases flexibility, scalability and security, allowing IT to regain control and focus on meeting business needs. The tremendous operational and cost advantages of a holistic approach to data management has become a reality with CommVault, it employs modules for Backup & Recovery, Archive, Replication, Resource Management, and Search - all built on a single unifying code base and platform.
“Bucyrus required a centralised data management system with modules that share a common set of back-end services and advanced capabilities. We needed a common platform without the need to purchase fragmented, expensive third-party tools. This truly unified, or singular, architecture performs all data management functions quickly, easily, and reliably from a single console. Managed data, content indexed into a single virtual pool, can be viewed across all applications, platforms, devices, and locations,” Du Toit explains.
Benefits of the RSM service include improved efficiency of IT staff and automation of daily monotonous manual tasks. In addition, there is better control and standardisation of what software is allowed on business owned assets, this allows Bucyrus to know where its hardware assets are and whether they have been changed.
Du Toit says RSM increases user satisfaction with less downtime and provides management with more time to focus on strategic initiatives. “Increased security ensures that IT systems are compliant, perform better and are more secure. Monitoring is key to delivering high value efficient support services throughout the company.
“Traditional outsourcing IT services are extremely costly due to the labour intensive approach used. The benefits of KSS's remote IT management and support services, built on a foundation of standardisation and automation, are enormous. RSM uses a series of 'Best Practices' that have been developed over years of collective experience,” he concludes.
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