Pictured above: Nigel Redwood

Telford-based IT outsourcing specialist e-know.net has announced further sales success with the signing of Arleigh International, one of Europe's largest wholesalers to the holiday home and narrowboat market. 

e-know.net has been awarded an initial three-year contract to deliver a fully managed service to forty staff across Arleigh's head office and four retail outlets. This will involve the supply and support of e-know.net's Managed Desktop complete with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, BlackBerry Enterprise Server and a range of legacy and line of business applications.

Darren Randle, Arleigh International's operations director, explains why the company has chosen to move to a managed service environment:

"The main driver was that our existing IT systems were simply not keeping pace with the demands of a growing business. Multiple sales channels and complex stock and ordering systems coupled with on-going expansion meant that we were having to regularly redefine our IT resources to ensure we were maintaining performance levels. That made planning difficult, there were serious cost implications, and we were also being distracted from our main roles and responsibilities as we wrestled with the demands of a sprawling IT infrastructure. 

What we saw was a future of spending more and more and achieving less and less; a move to managed services on the other hand, with its 99% reliability, 24/7 support and fixed monthly pricing, turns that future on its head. Instead there's reduced drain on capital expenditure, improved financial control and easier budgeting; we have systems that can effortlessly scale and flex with the requirements of the businesses; and we are freed up to focus back on front-line activities. In e-know.net, we effectively have our own class-leading IT infrastructure and IT department - but with none of the pain of ownership."

Commenting on this latest win, Nigel Redwood, e-know.net's managing director, says: "This is another strong vote for both managed services and e-know.net. Increasingly we're seeing firms struggling with this scenario of IT demand outstripping in-house supply, and turning to alternative IT delivery methods as a long-term solution. Why should companies turn themselves into IT specialists to support their businesses when there are already specialists like e-know.net on hand to take over the financial and operational burden of modern IT provision? It's a win-win scenario all round."