An engineering consultancy
The consultancy is a systems and engineering technology organisation based in Surrey, with two main offices and satellite operations around the UK. The company was formed in the 1970s as part of a larger engineering group and later became independent through a management buy out.
A diverse client base across defence, civil aerospace, power and transport & industrial vertical market sectors has supported the growth of the company since independence. The company numbers in excess of 160 permanent staff. As approximately 50% of its business is in defence, security of information is of prime importance. Trusted relationships and a tight ship are everything.
The IT manager has been with the consultancy for six years. Joining as a design engineer it was on the understanding that he wanted to develop his industry knowledge within the medium which made it all possible – namely IT. In those days the IT manager had a counterpart in another office who was responsible for all IT issues, with a specific focus on email, Linux, NetWare and Solaris.
The IT manager now spends most of his time considering strategy and planning the company’s future IT expansion. It is important that he has everything in place to meet the demands of their projected growth. Project Management and Accounts systems have completely different set of requirements to CAD and technical design software tools. “It’s all about careful, strategic planning,” he says.
Problem
Before the IT manager's role was created there was only one IT support person looking after about 70 users across two offices. “Everything was reactive – whoever shouted loudest got the support they needed.” Hardly conducive to an efficient IT support network. So, before the IT manager could start implementing the medium and long term strategies, he had to have a solid foundation in place. Ever since, there has been an IT plan published alongside the Company’s Business Plan.
Connectivity (or lack of it) was the next goal – a single PC in each office on a dial-up connection simply wasn’t cutting it, especially as customers were beginning to demand email as their preferred method of communication. The first step was during the lead up to Year 2000, and to upgrade their email system, just in case the existing one wasn't Y2K compliant. During this period the need was identified for internal email and shared calendars. It became ever more clear that one dial-up PC in each office was less than ideal, in terms of communication, but this in turn raised a lot of issues concerning security.
Security as an issue
With such a large folio of work for the Ministry of Defence, their network would need to be approved to carry restricted information. One of the reasons that the consultancy ran a single dial up PC for internet connection was because the MoD banned connection to the World Wide Web.
In order to improve upon this the Company had to meet a lot of criteria, which had to be carefully documented prior to submitting to a security advisor. They came up with a generic connectivity solution that matched up to the government approved list, in terms of hardware and configuration, together with the procedures that needed to be applied.
The Solution
It was during this period that Comino Connect held an Internet seminar to which the consultancy were invited. Following a number of subsequent discussions concerning all of the issues that faced the consultancy, a solution was created – one which centred around the ability to browse the Web from all desk tops whilst meeting the stringent criteria set out by the security advisor.
One of the requirements from the MoD was that they could not have an externally managed solution with people dialling in. This immediately ruled out a lot of bigger ISPs. Comino Connect was not only able to integrate its service into many different internal systems, but they were also able to offer an appropriate solution which took into account the consultancy’s geographical spread. The specification was challenging – scientists and technologist are demanding people in terms of communications! The IT manager was further drawn to Comino Connect due to the flexibility of a smaller ISP. They were able to demonstrate a level of expertise and understanding that impressed both the consultancy & the security advisor.
Nominated staff were given MoD security clearance – Comino Connect are no strangers to security; they are acclaimed for their knowledge and expertise. So once the decision had been made the priority was to get the system up and running, with on the job training to be rolled out to other users.
On-going support has been excellent. A flexible package has been created which includes several onsite days, as part of a total support package. This gives the consultancy a higher level of support than is typical if dialing in. From an administrative point of view the systems in place work very well indeed – for example it is no longer necessary to raise a purchase order and get justification each time something needs doing. Everything is done smoothly – and all in a pre-paid price. As the IT manager puts it “Comino Connect provides a package that has been developed to meet our on-going business needs, with the high level of quality support that we were looking for.”
As security really is of prime importance there is an audit every month. This essentially checks for what systems are inside, what ports are open, if there are any vulnerabilities and so on.This is organised and implemented through the security advisor. This IT foundation now supports a user community approaching 170, with a planned growth of c. 25-30 users in 2005.
Future Plans
Comino Connect are currently looking at a connectivity solution for the consultancy’s satellite office, which will need to be linked to the network on a secure broadband connection. The new offices, only recently occupied, are being prepared for about 50 users, which will take the company’s user head count close to two hundred. In addition they are implementing a more general remote access system for personnel out in the field with their laptops.
Projected growth is to continue at 20-25% a year, and the IT infrastructure will be scaled to cope with this phenomenal increase.
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