The Sovini Group: medium-sized registered social landlord with over 13,000 homes. Formed in 2011, The Sovini Group owns and manages over 13,600 affordable homes.
Offering a unique end-to-end service that spans the property and construction supply chain, the company covers everything from the provision of trade supplies, building and refurbishing properties for habitation, and undertaking maintenance tasks such as the removal of asbestos.
THE CHALLENGE.
Having seen a change in preferred working styles as a result of the pandemic, the Group was keen to offer increased flexibility to its employees via a hybrid model.
This decrease in occupancy led the company to vacate its offices in Liverpool, which meant the relocation of its existing data centre to a hosted location.
In addition, with an ageing IT infrastructure, the hardware was in need of an overhaul to better accommodate the business’s forward-thinking, increasingly cloud-based approach.
Seeking recommendations around the most suitable solutions, as well as an install at the new location, Central was appointed as its chosen tech partner.
THE SOLUTION.
Central facilitated the relocation of The Sovini Group’s IT infrastructure, sourcing highly trained specialists to dismantle, protect, and transport the business-critical equipment, while making sure that all associated health and safety and insurance requirements were in place.
The team also advised on and sourced modern alternatives to the company’s ageing IT infrastructure. Having explored several different options – ruling out Microsoft Azure due to the length of time that it would take to migrate, plus the number of applications that the company hosted internally — the team identified new servers and storage to meet the organisation’s evolving needs.
With the servers, storage, and hardware safely unpacked at the new location, Central’s team of engineers were on hand to manage the installation – ensuring that detailed blueprints were provided for data centre staff, as a means to swiftly implement any updates or maintenance provided as part of the offering.
THE OUTCOME.
Having faced a series of unexpected delays, most notably due to a backlog with the telecoms provider – meaning that they were unable to install the lines within the original timescale – Central was able to consistently re-evaluate and re-resource the project as needed. The team implemented regular check-ins and delivered to new timescales where required.
While external delays meant that the project took place over a nine-month period, rather than the three months originally planned, the team at Central utilised their experience in overseeing projects of this kind to ensure the activity was completed on budget and with an unwavering customer-focused approach.
Having successfully relocated and modernised its infrastructure, The Sovini Group was able to sell its previous premises and achieve its goal of saving money while offering increased flexibility to its workforce.
