Abstract: Council staff at Ruapehu District Council (RDC) now have much faster responses on their desktop and laptop PCs, fewer system down times or service interruptions and enhanced helpdesk support when they do have issues, thanks to a Managed Services partnership with Eagle Technology. RDC has been able to initiate an overall upgrade to their servers and storage environment to significantly reduce the risk of system failure and have been able to realise these benefits without any interruptions to their everyday activities.
Customer Quote:
“The partnership with Eagle Technology has given us the confidence to move ahead with our IT investment. Before we engaged with Eagle we were hesitant to make major decisions on our IT infrastructure. I could not put hand on heart and have complete confidence that the investment advice was the right strategic approach for my Council – and we’re talking a lot of money in IT. As we became more and more reliant on IT for Council activities, the gap between what we needed and what we had became wider. But now, with Eagle as our Managed Services partner, we have been able to bring our systems up-to-date and plan for future growth. Importantly for my Council, I have confidence in the strategic IT investment advice.”
David Hammond, Chief Executive at Ruapehu District Council
Ruapehu District Council: More confidence, peace of mind with Eagle Technology’s Managed Services
Council staff at Ruapehu District Council (RDC) now have much faster responses on their desktop and laptop PCs, fewer system down times or service interruptions and enhanced helpdesk support when they do have issues, thanks to a Managed Services partnership with Eagle Technology. RDC has been able to initiate an overall upgrade to their servers and storage environment to significantly reduce the risk of system failure and have been able to realise these benefits without any interruptions to their everyday activities.
But more importantly, the partnership has given RDC the confidence to move ahead with their IT initiatives. “Before we engaged with Eagle” says David Hammond, RDC’s Chief Executive, “we were hesitant to make major decisions on our IT infrastructure. As a result, we added components to our network only as required. This approach met our immediate needs for the most part, but didn’t address any long term requirements. As we became more and more reliant on IT for Council activities, the gap between what we needed and what we had became wider, but now, with Eagle as our Managed Services partner, we have been able to bring our systems up-to-date and plan for future growth.”
Outdated infrastructure
“Our infrastructure had become outdated,” says Tim Leahy, Business Innovation Manager at RDC. “Our server room was jam packed with a mix of physical and virtual servers of various ages running a variety of operating systems. We had different versions of the same user applications installed in different places and we had regular issues with Exchange space. Our data was saved on different file stores, including local drives, and we had to manually copy data to different locations so that it could be backed up. Our server room was so full that we literally couldn’t add any more capacity.”
At the same time, human resource was an issue. “At RDC,” notes Hammond, “we value our staff and, within the IT department, we simply couldn’t afford to provide the level of career development for our team that I knew they needed. And, if we had staff out due to holidays or illness, we couldn’t provide sufficient cover if issues arose.”
To address these and other issues, RDC prepared an RFP that, rather than specifying an exact solution, laid out the facts and requested that vendors reply with strategies to help RDC resolve their IT challenges.
A ‘down-to-Earth’ approach
“Eagle instinctively understood our situation,” says Hammond. “Our best contracts are based around relationships and good-will. I recognised that would be possible in the Eagle team. Their approach was ‘down-to-Earth’ and they were quite passionate and highly engaged. We felt that they were more interested in helping us achieve our IT goals rather than simply fulfilling a contract. We also liked that fact that they had been in business for decades and had a track record of success with clients in local and central government. We also liked the fact that our distance from the main cities would not be a problem for the Eagle team. They would make sure we got the advice and expertise we needed.
Eagle also agreed to take on two RDC staff as employees to help RDC avoid making any redundancies as a result of the Managed Service agreement. “This was also a key point for us,” says Hammond, “as we didn’t want to see anyone become disenfranchised due to the initiative. This Council values its staff and they have families in our community.”
Once RDC made the decision to engage with Eagle, the Managed Services team took the initiative. “We spent about four weeks on site doing a number of audits and conducting user interviews,” says Eugene de Bruyn, Account Manager at Eagle. “We immediately suggested that we upgrade the server room by consolidating the various functions into three virtualised IBM ESX servers as well as a SAN (storage area network) server for data. We ordered the machines and hot-staged and pre-loaded as much as we could at our Auckland facility. We scheduled the actual installation over the Christmas holidays when all of the Council’s staff were on break.
Seamless change-over
“Eagle planned and managed the change-over very well,” says Peter Till, Deputy Chief Executive/District Engineer at RDC. “The whole transition came in on budget and on time. Our server room used to be a mess, with cables everywhere. Plus our UPS protection was so outdated we didn’t even want to test it. Now the room is neat and tidy and everything is under control. While we didn’t have any major outages or failures before, we felt we were vulnerable. But now, with the virtualised servers, fail-over routines in place and our storage issues sorted, we have a new sense of peace of mind.”
“The service we have received from Eagle has been exemplary,” concludes Hammond. “We have a relationship based on trust. If we have a request or change, they simply do it instead of running through a series of contract variations. They know what they are doing and we have full confidence that they have our best interests at heart. For a finance point of view, the exercise has been no more or less costly than before. But from a performance, reliability and confidence standpoint, the whole project has been extremely beneficial.”
Benefits for Ruapehu District Council
- Faster responses, fewer system down times, ‘peace-of-mind’ due to reduced risks;
- Confidence to move forward with further strategic enhancements;
- Total replacement of 27 outdated servers with three high-powered virtualised IBM servers and a SAN server;
- Server room upgraded, savings on power, air conditioning.
Why Ruapehu District Council selected Eagle Technology as Managed Services partner
- Eagle ‘instinctively understood’ RDC’s business and IT challenges;
- More than three decades of success in providing IT solutions to local and regional government;
- ‘Down-to-Earth’ approach and a high level of skill sets within the organisation.
