Infrastructure Services
As organisations become increasingly dependent upon IT, so the availability, reliability and performance of IT infrastructure becomes increasingly important. IT environments have to be sufficiently resilient to handle the demands of round-the-clock availability, yet sufficiently flexible as to easily and quickly adapt to the latest technologies to provide real bottom-line improvement.
Lack of availability of computer systems costs money.
Selecting, implementing and supporting these environments requires expertise and experience in providing both technical and business understanding of the ways in which technology can make a real difference to your company.
PGMS and partners (a technology, services, and development organisation), technical knowledge and business expertise are key to our success. By building an experienced team of professionals with a broad range of experience, we are able to offer our clients a full range of infrastructure services to meet their requirements.
Services
We provide infrastructure services in six main areas:
Selection and supply of ‘best fit’ equipment and software.
We provide a single source for all IT procurement requirements. Our engineers can provide customised configuration and delivery services from thousands of product lines provided by many suppliers.
Our consultants and engineers specify, test and install the most appropriate technology for your business in a timely and cost effective manner.
We and our partners hold many industry accreditations and work closely with industry leaders in each field; in particular, Microsoft, Novell, Cisco, Compaq, IBM and HP.
We are completely independent of any particular hardware or software vendor and as such we will always offer completely impartial advice when selecting commodity IT products or services.
We can negotiate discounts with the main UK distributors to ensure your business can purchase commodity hardware, software and services at competitive prices. We can also manage your warranty, maintenance and replacement processes, leaving you free to concentrate on your core business.
Determining the best choice of technology
We can advise and design technical solutions using industry ‘best of breed’ components.
Procurement
We can manage the procurement, invoicing, financing and accounting for all your hardware, software and services needs.
Customised configurations
We can design desktop or server configurations for installations and rollouts.
Testing
From proof of concept to installation testing and customer sign off, the concept of system testing extends throughout our services.
Ongoing technical support and/or managed service.
System installation and integration.
From secure warehousing and hot staging, through network design and cabling to system installation and testing, we take the whole installation problem off your hands and deliver a total service.
We provide many different installation services ranging from the basic commissioning of a PC through to complex data centre server installations.
Relocations
We have extensive experience of office moves and changes covering everything from the relocation of a small department through to whole financial dealing rooms, and moves involving several thousand users. Full project planning and management is provided as a matter of course for relocations.
Server Installations
We have many years of experience installing, upgrading, migrating and expanding large servers and server farms. Our qualified engineers can install and configure servers to the high standards demanded by Compaq, IBM, HP, Dell, Sun Microsystems and others.
Infrastructure
A full range of cabling voice, data, power and commissioning services are provided. We are happy to assist with the project management of your installation utilising the services of our qualified project managers using industry standard methodologies such as PRIDE and PRINCE 2.
We also provide a full range of auditing services and the configuration of asset tracking software to enable you to keep control of your investment.
Migration
We will help you move from one platform to another whether it be to Windows XP on your desktop PCs, or a complex migration of a key application server to a Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 environment.
If your applications need migrating then we can help. We are experienced in migrating from one version of software to another, if the application cannot be directly migrated, then we will propose new, modern alternative systems.
Ongoing technical support and/or managed service.
Our integration service is based on customer requirements, not integration for integration sake. If interfacing - which is often more cost-effective than integration - provides a viable solution, we will recommend and deliver interfacing. If there is a genuine requirement for integration, we’ll recommend and deliver integration. Our experience with different technologies enables us to offer the best solution to our clients’ requirements.
Whatever your system integration needs, we can help. Our consultants have many years’ experience helping provide business solutions by bringing together disparate IT systems from many vendors, often running incompatible software and databases, into cohesive seamless solutions.
Integration tasks frequently involve bringing traditional IT systems into the Internet world. By the use of Internet technologies and ‘Web Enabling’ applications, customers and staff can be given access to ‘Self Service’ solutions that would previously have involved users being physically present in order to gain access.
Development of software-based business solutions.
If a bespoke solution is required, we will analyse your problem, document a solution and then, once agreed, produce a functional specification for the proposed solution. Once the functional specification has been agreed, work will commence producing the programme code to the agreed timescales as defined in the specification.
After the code has been written, a testing and user acceptance process will be carried out to ensure the software meets the specification and the users’ expectations. Following installation, and any necessary training, software maintenance support will be provided for the lifetime of the solution.
We utilise a variety of programming languages, toolkits and development environments including, but not limited to those shown below.
Software Skills
Languages:
C, C++, C#
Assembler (MSAM)
Visual Basic & Visual Basic.Net
Visual Foxpro
Java
Fortran
VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)
Environments:
Navision (Axapta)
.Net
Visual Studio
Microsoft Office Internet Technologies:
HTML
XML/XSL
ASP & ASP.Net
SQL & MySQL
Perl
PHP
Ongoing technical support and / or managed service.
Key to our success is our ability to provide high-quality technical support across the broadest range of technologies. Our capabilities include the following:
Technical SupportSystems Support
We can ensure continued efficient and cost effective performance of your network, applications and hardware through onsite, remote operation or callout-based support options. We provide fully accountable, scalable support backed by experienced engineers and technicians. Onsite or telephone support can be provided on a proactive or reactive basis up to 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Training
Learn from our experience. We offer the highest levels of hands-on training. We can provide PC application training at your premises using our equipment, and financial training in PC software packages for non-specialists.
Managed Service
IT is probably not your core business. Let us run, support and develop your IT for you while you concentrate on your key business objectives.
Support ServicesTime and materials contracts
These are provided where the support need is not extensive, or is sporadic in nature. In this case an agreed response time and a dedicated service telephone number are provided.
In the event of a problem an engineer can either dial-in to your site remotely or attend personally depending on the nature of the problem.
Regular attendance contracts
Where the amount of support required is higher, a regular site visit for a number of days per week / month as appropriate can be set-up and any problems resolved at the time of the visit. In this case, unscheduled call-outs are available above and beyond the regular maintenance contract.
Project contracts
Where there is a need for specific support or consultancy for the duration of a pre-defined project, such as say the migration of a server to Windows 2003, then a suitably qualified engineer can be provided for the duration of the project.
Full time support
Where the support need is high or your organisation is large, we can provide on a contract or employee basis, full time staff that are trained and qualified to the relevant industry standards such as MCSE, CNE and CCNA.
These staff can range in function from help desk support engineers through programmers to senior project managers and technical experts.
Security.
In this Internet age protecting your data has never been more important. Unprotected networks, storage and documents can be damaged, erased, copied or altered resulting in disruption or complete business shutdown.
How well your company safeguards information can be a competitive asset or a liability. A solid PC security plan is the foundation of your technology security policy.
We can advise on everything from a single security component such as a network firewall to a complete company Security Policy and Implementation Plan incorporating the latest standards in encryption, data protection and intrusion prevention.
Disaster RecoveryDisasters have no respect for the size or location of your business. Whether your business is operated from a spare room or an office headquarters, it is just as critical to keep it running no matter what adversity effects the operation of your company.
We offer a range of business solutions designed to keep your operation running should the worst occur.
If your business premises were flooded tomorrow, or all your computers stolen, could you cope?
What services would you need immediately to keep your business running? Have you analysed this properly? How do your customers contact you? How do you contact your suppliers? How long could you last without your present facilities?
Where is all your critical data stored? On paper, on a single computer, on a file server, wherever it is do you have a reliable, regular and fully tested backup?
If you do not know the answer to any one of these questions your business is at risk.
A disaster recovery plan is a business necessity.
Disaster Recovery.
All our services are modular and can be taken individually or, more typically, as integrated packages that incorporate offerings from two or more services.
Our aim is to create long-term partnerships that deliver real value to your business. We have been successful at creating lasting business benefits for many customers over the years and would welcome the opportunity to provide similar benefits to you and your organisation.