South African law firm, Adams & Adams, specialising in trademark and patent law and representing global brands throughout Africa, has successfully replaced its aging IT infrastructure, a strategic decision made to coincide with the launch of the organisation's new corporate image and the move to its upmarket new premises in Lynnwood Ridge, Pretoria.
The new HP servers, SAN and desktop PCs were all provided by Datacentrix, a provider of high performing and secure ICT solutions.
The ever-growing commercial, property and litigation department of Adams & Adams ensures it delivers a holistic service to its clients. The firm comprises 150 attorneys and 300 support staff based in offices throughout South Africa, Mozambique and Angola.
Says Colin Short, Adams & Adams Senior IT Manager: “Adams & Adams has been around for more than a century and periodically reinvents itself to ensure we remain attractive to both our clients as well as up and coming new lawyers. I would say that recently, we have certainly gone from being a traditional law firm to a cutting-edge organisation, marking a massive leap forward for the firm.
“After aligning our IT needs to our new business plan and formulating a technology strategy, we went out to tender and decided to bring Datacentrix on board based on the company's top level after-sales support, commitment and favourable pricing.”
“After seeing HP's development roadmaps, Adams & Adams was happy to go with our suggestion of HP solutions,” explains Deon Insel, senior account manager at Datacentrix. “As an Authorised Select HP Value-Added Reseller, which entitles Datacentrix to import and resell the entire range of HP products, we are in a strong position to leverage better pricing and also have the backing of HP from a support point of view.”
Datacentrix's national support footprint was also a clinching factor for Adams & Adams as it meant that all offices across the country would have access to the same level of support.
The organisation's need to move from physical to virtualised servers was based on the benefits of lower power consumption, more available space and a reliable business continuity platform. Adams & Adams also opted for the HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA) 4400 SAN and HP PCs, which, in terms of performance versus cost, it believed to be very competitively priced.
“The implementation went very smoothly,” says Short. “The SAN and servers were built from scratch by Datacentrix and migrated by the Adams & Adams IT team once stable. We retained a 99.84% uptime during the move period, thanks to both parties. It truly is rare for such a seamless transition.
“The past six months have been very uneventful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay in IT terms.”
Short adds that, in terms of support, Datacentrix's commitment and availability have been commendable. “Datacentrix has certainly gone the extra mile and has proven itself not only to be a powerhouse that can flex its muscles, but also humble enough to go to any length to keep the customer happy. They have certainly had our best interests at heart.”
“The continued success of Adams & Adams' new IT infrastructure serves to underscore Datacentrix's transformation into a credible total services and solutions provider,” says Ahmed Mahomed, Datacentrix CEO. “By placing a greater focus on the provision of a solutions-based offering and the related value-added services, rather than product alone, Datacentrix is strongly reinforcing its status as a trusted IT partner for the long term within the local market.”
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