When Nous Group, an award winning management consulting firm with over 250 consultants across six locations in Australia and the UK, went to tender for a new IT managed service provider, there was no better fit than blueAPACHE.
Challenges
In 2015, Nous Group went to market seeking a technology partner who could not only support their current ICT environment, but also guide them into the future as they matured into one of Australia’s premier consulting houses. According to Tristan McMichael, Chief Information Officer of Nous Group, they were seeking a partner who could offer a fresh way of thinking and the best return on investment.
Nous was looking to migrate to the cloud and transition to a 24×7 support model. With offices around Australia and halfway across the world in the UK, creating a connected culture with round-the-clock IT support was crucial for Nous. In addition, there were existing issues with their network that needed to be resolved.
“blueAPACHE were able to demonstrate a high level of technical capability and good value for money. We were impressed with the people that we had met through the process. They had some great references too which helped.”
Services
Initially, blueAPACHE were tasked with migrating the existing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) environment to the enterprise-grade blueAPACHE emPOWER Cloud platform (powered by Hewlett Packard Enterprise infrastructure) and supported by blueAPACHE’s fully-managed emPOWER Managed Services.
“We have very good access to people when we want to discuss something without having to go into a formal process. blueAPACHE are not transactional, they are a more human company”, said McMichael.
During this process, blueAPACHE were able to address other existing issues such as a poorly configured Wi Fi solution that was causing instability and poor user experience. blueAPACHE were able to identify and resolve the issue with an Aruba Wi-Fi optimisation and management solution.
With the launch of Nous House, Nous Group’s co-working space operating across Australia’s eastern seaboard, blueAPACHE have designed, deployed and managed a segmented network model that maintains a secure Nous Group network separated from all other Nous House users.
Within the first 12 months of the engagement, blueAPACHE also took on the relocation of three office sites across Australia, followed by the substantial uplift of two others. This required significant planning, deployment and project management from both sides and was handled flawlessly.
“Even when some of the other vendors where dropping the ball, blueAPACHE rose to the challenge”.
Outcome
McMichael emphasised the high level of support blueAPACHE offered Nous. “The blueAPACHE team were fully supporting us through the process in a hands-on approach that was truly impressive. They did more than they were required to do”.
In the future, McMichael looks forward to working with the blueAPACHE team on several projects, “We would like to have blueAPACHE as a partner and move with us on our journey as a business”.
With many ongoing projects and a goal to move away from virtual servers towards the cloud, McMichael is excited about their future with blueAPACHE.
“It’s great to have someone who actually understands our goals and offers the technical insights required to make it happen.”
About Nous Group
Nous Group is an award-winning, Australian-owned management consulting firm that partner with leaders across Australia and the UK to shape world class businesses, effective government and empowered communities. Established in 1999 with the aspiration of delivering bold and personalised consulting services, Nous now has over 250 consultants across six locations in Australia and the UK. Nous Group offer a broad consulting capability that allows them to solve the most complex strategic challenges of their clients and were named Best Management Consulting Firm by the AFR in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
To learn more, visit www.nousgroup.com
About blueAPACHE
Built upon a foundation of engineering excellence, blueAPACHE are trusted to deliver business-critical IT (on-premises and IT as a service) that help our clients improve business efficiency, increase agility and drive innovation. We specialise in delivering comprehensive IT Management, Cloud, Network, Voice, Software and Consulting as a converged service that clients can leverage when they need, as they need it. Each of our service pillar is underpinned by our dedicated security practise that enables organisations to align their security investments to meet core strategic and operational objectives.
To learn more, visit www.blueapache.com
View the full Nous Group case study.