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Introduction

A prominent organisation within the funeral industry reached out to KubeNet during a critical period when they needed comprehensive support for their entire IT function.

The main objective of the project was to deliver a Managed Services solution designed to stabilise and future-proof their server and network infrastructure. This service was subsequently enhanced by integrating support for end-user computing and related requirements, ensuring a robust and scalable IT environment.

The Company

Our client is one of the UK’s largest providers in the funeral sector, regulated by the FCA. They collaborate with over 2,900 partners across the UK and serve approximately 1 million customers. The company had been managing its own IT, server and network infrastructure internally; however, during COVID they were encountering a range of challenges including vendor management, cloud migration issues, lack of processes across the estate, limited staffing and a shortage of experience personnel. These difficulties were significantly impeding the company’s ability to provide a professional, consistent, and reliable service to both their users and customers.

Objective

To address the challenge and with tight timescales, the customer sought a reputable Managed Service Provider that could provide access to experts and ongoing support from a team of skilled professionals who would take a ground-up and sleeves-rolled-up approach - working collaboratively with their team to provide a tailored service that met their current and future technology requirements.

The Challenge

The first major challenge was the lack of time, due to some critical infrastructure failings. Triaging the situation was crucial. KubeNet deployed a team of experienced engineers and, working closely with the company’s senior IT team, quickly identified a

number of vulnerabilities and root causes, enabling us to stabilise the environment.

Additionally, the lack of processes and handover documentation from the client’s departing infrastructure team proved problematic, so understanding the IT & Server environment was gained through investigation supported by stakeholders in the

organisation’s wider team. A root and branch approach was implemented, resulting in KubeNet carrying out a full audit to establish a sound understanding of their infrastructure in order to recommend a customised solution tailored to their business.

Approach and Solutions

After initial triage, KubeNet ensured that all tasks were carefully undertaken on a step-by-step basis, to secure the environment and ensure that all user platforms were operational. Crucially, data loss and corruption was a significant risk so a new backup platform was successfully deployed and RMM was rolled out across the estate. After this initial discovery document was complete, a new PID was created, and we increased our involvement across the estate, gaining valuable experience on

the client’s operations, pain points, and importantly, end user needs.

To support all client needs, remaining service desk staff were tuped across to create a 1st, 2nd and 3rd line support structure, on-boarding to our CRM and developing meaningful SLAs. Now in our 4th year of working in partnership, the MSA has evolved

to include critical infrastructure vendor management, including OCI, Security SOC, voice infrastructure, end user computing, MDT, full server/virtualisation estate, back-up and recovery, vulnerability management, LAN/Wi-Fi and device management,

procurement including licenses and more, creating an environment that is both healthy and flexible.

Understanding our Client

Our approach to working with this client was characterised by a sleeves-rolled-up attitude and collaboration, listening to and supporting to wider organisation team who were under incredible pressure to keep their critical infrastructure up. Triaging with the client and vendors enabled us to quickly understand what they needed and how it was delivered to both the customer’s internal users and their clients. This often meant early mornings and weekends spent on-site, fostering trust and respect

between both parties. This approach allowed us to build an agile service

that could address challenges that arose quickly and efficiently.

From Reactive to Proactive

The beginning of this partnership was understandably reactive, to secure and stabilise the environment. Once the initial challenges had been addressed, the managed service and wider solutions implemented allowed us to create a flexible and scalable IT environment with a robust foundation.

With our dedicated on-site presence, supported by remote engineers and a dedicated service delivery manager, we have been welcomed by and integrated with the client’s wider team to create a collaborative, proactive environment of continuous improvement.

Conclusion

The partnership between this client and KubeNet has been a resounding success.

Built on collaboration, a can do approach and mutual trust between both teams, the solution, which is continuously evolving, provides our client with a client-led managed service that has improved their infrastructure, ticket turnaround and SLAs, and

importantly, the end user experience.

Our engineers and service delivery manager have worked closely with the client’s team, introducing new tools to improve process and document control, increasing vendor management, and the stability and the longevity of their VM, cloud and

LAN environments. This has resulted in vastly reduced downtimes, increasing efficiency and performance across the business.

Overall, the client’s team have the confidence that the KubeNet Managed Service offers stability and security now and in the future, particularly with increased compliance pressures in achieving and maintaining FCA approval. As a company we are delighted and humbled to be trusted in delivering services to what is one of the leading companies in their sector.