Challenge

Wettenhalls had a long-standing relationship with an existing IT services provider whose support capacity and capability was being stretched beyond the limit due to Wettenhall’s steady growth. This led to performance and reliability issues, in particular with Wettenhalls’ ERP system, so late in 2007 Group IT Manager Sean Khan began to look for a new provider. The challenge was to find a company that could provide managed IT services which met all of Wettenhalls’ needs, and which was sufficiently scalable to keep pace with Wettenhalls’ aggressive growth plans.
Khan contacted Blue Apache, whom he’d had some dealings with years earlier when working for another company, to do some project work to cover the gaps left by the incumbent service provider. ‘This gave us a chance to get to know their people,’ Khan says, ‘along with their capacity to deliver the kind of support we need. Helpdesk support for Wettenhalls’ users was later assigned to Blue Apache. We run a hybrid shop, which means we look after the core applications ourselves and outsource pretty well everything else.’

Solution
In June 2008, Sean Khan formally invited proposals from Blue Apache and four similar-sized companies based in Melbourne. Mindful of Wettenhalls’ rapid growth and annual revenues exceeding $100 million, he also asked one of the top national IT services providers to bid on the contract. Their proposal turned out to be off the mark in several key areas and Khan thinks it would not have been a good fit. So why did he choose Blue Apache?
‘Their pricing model was a deciding factor for us,’ Khan recalls. ‘It’s intelligent and really flexible, which means we pay no more than we need to and we know exactly what the service is going to cost us every month. The people from Blue Apache impressed us as well – they’re technically very competent and also have good people skills. But the clincher was a survey we conducted with our 150 users to evaluate Blue Apache’s Helpdesk support. When we tabulated the results, we came up with an astonishing 98% rating. At that point, we needed no more convincing.’

Results
Wettenhalls signed a twelve month contract with Blue Apache late last year for its emPOWER Managed Services, which include Helpdesk support, Network support, Server Farm support and Project support when needed. ‘We wanted to keep our options open,’ Khan says, ‘but Blue Apache’s team has delivered on all fronts. We now enjoy the performance and reliability we’ve been longing for in our IT environment, together with the helpdesk support our users have grown to like so much.’

When Wettenhalls needed technical support with one-off projects - major upgrades in its server farm for example - Blue Apache helped ensure that the process was as straightforward and pain-free as possible.

Feedback
‘We’re ready to sign for three more years with Blue Apache,’ says Khan. ‘emPOWER meets our needs today and it scales really well, so I’m quite confident that it will deliver the services we need over the next three years.