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Adaptive - a new dawn in Information Technology
Born from the successful deployment of a wall-to-wall Linux solution for its sister company Super Tramp, Adaptive is pushing the envelope with a new dawn in Information Technology implementation. Rick Timmis Managing Director of Adaptive recounts the benefits of Linux and Open Source Technologies.
Faced with an IT infrastructure creaking under the strain of a rapidly growing company and the looming deadline for Microsoft Volume Licensing, Super Tramp had to follow the herd or strike out on a new path. Founder of Adaptive Rick Timmis showed Super Tramp a different view of the world of IT.
The IT systems at Super Tramp were proving unreliable and ineffective. System downtime and data loss was causing as much as 20 man-hours of additional rekeying of data each week. Moving from their legacy fat client network to a thin client model using Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Terminal Services, had improved matters. A key issue was lack of integration, as Sage Line 50 was handling financial and stock control with a Microsoft Access database for CRM and despatching. This was increasing manpower requirements and creating data validation issues, in addition to join the Microsoft Volume Licensing program could cost Super Tramp a further £15,000.
After in depth discussion with IBM and Caldera, it was decided that a migration to Linux would provide a solution with a lower total cost of ownership and put Super Tramp in the driving seat with regard to its future development. It was clear that all the backend functionality could be handled easily on a Linux Server. E-mail, file and print sharing, along with domain control and user authentication were all robust and proven functions of Linux. The two key areas to providing a global solution were, an office application capable of handling MS Office documents and a data centric business application.
Rick was able to provide solutions in both these areas. Mobius an integrated ERM/CRM application with a long pedigree had recently been ported across to the Linux platform. Originally developed for Hewlett Packard in the 1970's Mobius boasted many users worldwide, the ability to provide an end to end Business Solution, and would scale to hundreds of users where required.
The open source community had just released OpenOffice.org an integrated suite of office tools, which offered support for MS Office documents and a similar look and feel.
Rick explains:
“The flexibility of Linux and Mobius allows us to concentrate on deploying all the backend technologies without interruption to users. Mobius provides interfaces for both Windows and Linux enabling users to get to grips with the application in a familiar environment. By utilising Virtual Network Computing (VNC) technology we are able to provide a Linux desktop with OpenOffice.org accessing the same data as the Windows machines, this provides a fall back scenario where users can drop back into the Windows desktop should circumstances dictate. After a probationary period we moved the users to a true thin client solution and Linux desktop.”
With this technology in place Super Tramp have been able to do away with proprietary licenses and now have complete control over their IT strategy.
Adaptive is committed to enabling business to benefit from the advantages offered by Linux and open source software, providing straight talking information technology solutions with excellent customer service.
For un-biased advice on how you can benefit from such a transition please feel free to contact Adaptive at:
Tel:
E-mail:
Website: www.adaptive-it.co.uk
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