Fri, 19 Mar, 2010
Dynamic changes at industrial equipment supplier

Key Industrial Equipment was established in 1973. Now part of the Manutan Group, Key’s objective remains as it has for over 30 years. Beginning with speed of response for a quotation, through telephone response time from their contact centre, to delivery of goods to the customer’s doorstep, Key is committed to 100% customer satisfaction.


The Manutan Group’s business is based on a unique concept, which is to bring together in a single catalogue a wide range of high quality items at the most attractive prices to meet the requirements of businesses and local authorities. Currently, the group consists of some 23 companies located within 20 European countries. In all, the Group offers over 200,000 products on the European market. The Group’s offering covers all aspects of corporate life, including materials handling, lifting, storage, furniture and office and workshop supplies. It also covers all equipment, tools and products for production, maintenance, safety, quality–control and shipping departments and it supplemented by an array of services such as guarantees, assembly, returns and exchanges, customization and e–procurement.

The Challenge

As part of the group’s strategy to rationalise its infrastructure, Manutan elected to implement the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system. Key was scheduled as the lead for this project, being the first implementation in the group.

Major changes were needed to Key’s IT infrastructure before Dynamics could be implemented, and the short project timescales meant that the small inhouse IT team simply couldn’t provide the skills and resources needed. As Paul McFarlane, Key’s IT Manager recalls, “We soon realised that we needed specialist help and we began a search for a strategic partner”.

The Solution

Key needed a major redesign and re-implementation of their Windows Server 2003 architecture - involving Active Directory design, standardised workstation and server builds, login scripting, migration from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange and a myriad of other tasks – all without disturbing the normal running of the business!

“We began a search for a partner that could meet the challenge”, says McFarlane. “First and foremost, we needed a Microsoft Gold Partner with an infrastructure specialism, but one that could also provide really strong project management and change management experience”. McFarlane selected entrustIT. “Having met their people, we were confident that we had found a company that could provide the experience we needed – and with whom we could establish a long term partnership”.

entrustIT have extensive expertise in the delivery of Microsoft based infrastructure solutions. Their experience covers both SMEs and enterprise level national brand leaders – organisations of 10 through to several thousand users. As well as Microsoft Certifications, their team are also qualified in PRINCE2 project management methodologies as well as ITIL. On entrustIT’s recommendation, an initial infrastructure audit was performed across the business as a basis for a project plan. “This was really valuable”, recalls McFarlane. “We thought we pretty much knew what we already had, but the audit threw up some surprises.”

Having such a good grasp of their existing systems meant Key could be really confident about the detail of what was a very complex project. “As a result, entrustIT were able to plan and deliver the entire project at one of the busiest times of the year without any significant impact on the normal operation of our business”.