Radicon Case Study

Case Study / Radicon
Radicon Takes IT
into the Cloud in
Record Time
How we help
Radicon is one of the most
recognised brands in the global
power transmission industry
and has been manufacturing
in the UK for over 150 years.
Now part of Indian industrial
transmissions group Elecon
Engineering Company, the
Radicon business broke away from
David Brown in 2010 and had just
150 days to separate its IT systems
from its previous parent company.
To achieve this deadline, Phoenix
advised that Radicon considered a
move into the Cloud.
Chris Riley, General Manager at
Radicon, explains: “Radicon’s
reputation with its customers is
one of a reliable, efficient and
quality service. As the business
depends so much on IT to
serve our global customers, it
was imperative that we got this
transfer right first time. To build
an entirely new IT infrastructure in
Call 0844 863 3000
house within the 150 day deadline
was an impossible task, both
time wise and financially. So, we
realised that we needed expert
advice and support to deliver
against this challenge.”
If our IT fails then we
can’t do business, so the
security and reliability of
Phoenix’s data centre was
a key decision maker for
us. A Cloud-based system
means that we are no longer
encumbered by proprietary
country-based systems and
can instead share the very
best applications across the
business.
Chris Riley
General Manager Radicon
Client
Radicon is a premier global supplier of high
quality off the shelf power transmission
products, with bases in the UK, The
Netherlands, Sweden, Thailand and the USA.
Challenge
Following its acquisition by Indian engineering
giant Elecon, Radicon had just 150 days
to separate its entire IT infrastructure
from its previous parent company.
Solution
Phoenix transferred Radicon’s IT system in
record time, hosting the entire new infrastructure
in the Cloud at its Birstall data centre. Systems
hosted and managed by Phoenix include
Radicon’s global Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) system, as well as all data, email and IP
telephony. Phoenix also provides a complete
back-up and monitoring service, as well as
service desk support to users globally.
Benefits
150 day deadline achieved, with new Cloudbased IT infrastructure creating a faster,
more reliable system with no outages. Shared
applications across the global organisation
reduce cost, increase business efficiency and
improve customer service. Cloud solution,
backed up by knowledge of Phoenix experts
ensures that Radicon will always have access
to the latest technology, but without major
investment in its in-house IT resources.
Email [email protected]
Visit phoenix.co.uk
Case Study / Radicon
Phoenix now hosts Radicon’s
entire IT system in the Cloud at
its Birstall data centre, hosting
both data and communications
systems. Business critical
systems hosted in the Cloud
include Radicon’s Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP)
system upon which it relies to
effectively manage its entire
global supply chain. The Cloudbased ERP system is currently
shared between the UK and
Chicago bases, with plans to
bring Sweden, The Netherlands
and Thailand online. All other
business applications, such as
data, email and IP telephony are
also hosted in the Cloud and will
be shared by all five global offices.
Riley continues: “If our IT fails
then we can’t do business, so the
security and reliability of Phoenix’s
data centre was a key decision
maker for us. A Cloud-based
system means that we are no
longer encumbered by proprietary
country-based systems and
can instead share the very best
applications across the business.
For example, now that our global
bases share one ERP system there
ismore consistency across the
entire global chain. Increasing the
efficiency of our inter-company
distribution orders has cut out a
lot of hassle as we now use the
same part codes and no longer
have to raise sales orders as if
we were separate businesses.”
As Phoenix hosts the entire IT
system, it is also able to provide an
extensive back-up service, taking
hourly snapshots locally within the
Phoenix data centre, with daily
and weekly back-ups vaulted at
a second Phoenix data centre for
security and offsite compliance.
This means, for example, that
if users accidently delete files
that these can be restored in
minutes. To prove the reliability
of the Cloudbased solution and
to maintain customer confidence
in the service, Phoenix also
regularly undertakes test restores
of different parts of the system.
The service desk currently
supports 130 IT users in the UK,
USA and Sweden, offering help
with both application usage
queries and system issues.
The Phoenix team has also
deployed and manages a WAN
which connects Radicon’s UK
headquarters with sites in The
Netherlands and Sweden.
About Phoenix
We are UK leaders in providing
IT infrastructure services to
help businesses innovate
and grow while cutting costs
and risk. We can host your
services in the cloud or in the
data centre, simplify desktop
management, and build secure,
reliable networks. Our business
availability services can keep you
working at all times. Whatever
your needs, our professional
experts can advise, plan and
deploy, while our nationwide
network of engineers are easily
available for your support.
Our business success has
been built upon exceeding
customers’ expectations and a
vital part of that is to be at the
cutting-edge of IT. Not only
does the Cloud solution allows
us to do that, it is backed-up
by a host of Phoenix IT experts,
that we could never employ
ourselves. We now have a
virtual IT team that can advise
us on the latest innovations to
ensure the Radicon business
never gets stuck with old
technology. Overall the
system is much faster and
more reliable as we’ve had no
outages and experience 100
per cent uptime. Moving into
the Cloud and outsourcing our
IT support to Phoenix has been
a no-brainer in terms of how it
will future-proof our business
Chris Riley
General Manager Radicon
More Information: If you would be interested in learning more about Phoenix and how we could support your business, please contact us.
Call 0844 863 3000
Email [email protected]
Visit phoenix.co.uk
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