Case Study

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Though previously a division of the Afrifresh Group, Berfin, a well established manufacturer, importer and exporter of packaged foods, boasting a solid 19 year track record, was recently sold by the group and now functions as a seperate entity.

The company operates in 42 countries across South East Asia, the European Union, Australasia, North America, South America, the Middle East and a growing number of countries in Africa.

In addition to just over 20 staff members who are situated at their central office in Cape Town, Berfin also supports agents situated across the globe who require 24/7 seamless access to sales and product data and an overall infrastructure that is unrestricted in terms of access via a broad range of both fixed and mobile devices.

Infrastructure As Berfin had been sold by Afrifresh, they required a brand new, robust and modern infrastructure including storage and software, at the lowest possible cost in terms of set-up and ongoing maintenance.

Data Migration

Berfin had accumulated 419gb worth of data over its 19 years as a division of Afrifresh and this data, being a critical operational asset to Berfin, needed to be moved from the Afrifresh environment to a new environment both owned and managed by Berfin.

Data Security and Backup

With agents and mobile personnel accessing and updating data on a continual basis from remote locations across the globe, Berfin needed to ensure that access would be strictly controlled, while back-up would be done automatically on a daily basis.

Technical Support

Berfin does not have an in-house IT department which meant that they needed professional IT expertise to help them manage day to day IT queries, as well as overall IT maintenance and strategic matters.

Data Availability

Because the central Berfin infrastructure would be located in Cape Town, South Africa, the ongoing power outages posed a potential threat to productivity for both local and international team members.

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Cost

Any rollout of a new infrastructure of the standard that Berfin requires, would traditionally cost hundreds of thousands of rands to procure and implement. From hardware for data storage to multiple software licences and an overall infrastructure, Berfin needed to try avoid these excessive capital costs as far as possible.

NAV Integration

Navision is the ERP software that Berfin uses to manage its finances, manufacturing and sales functions across the globe. This specialised platform needed to be seamlessly transferred from the Afrifresh infrastructure and incorporated into the completely new Berfin infrastructure and integrate with other software already in use, such as Office 365.

theCHALLENGES

theCLIENT

theSITUATION

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Cloud computing has matured significantly in the last few years and in South Africa, the cost and availability of data has improved dramatically. Because Microsoft Azure enables the roll-out of a fully reliable, robust and modern IT infrastructure at virtually no capital outlay, and because this revolutionary platform supports such a diversity of software and programming requirements, we felt confident that this would provide Berfin with the cost savings they needed, while still ensuring that they would be able to extend their infrastructure and licensing as their business grows. We arranged for automated daily data back-up, duplicated across two separate data centres for maximum data security and one on-premise server to enable easy access to data locally. It took just one weekend to move Berfin's data from Afrifresh, to their own new environment and this included email accounts as well as archived data. Their existing Office 365 infrastructure as well as Navision, their preferred ERP software, was also seamlessly integrated into their new environment. To ensure easy, yet secure access to the infrastructure by Berfin's personnel, we enabled single login access via Office 365 or Navision.

Case

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theAPPROACH

theSOLUTION

Automated updates to software &

licensing (maintains compliance).

Software Updates

Low capital outlay & predictable

operational expenses.

Cost Control

Multi-user, real-time access &

editing on all shared documents.

Efficient Collaboration

Periodic on-site technical support & unlimited help-desk

support.

Technical Support

Basic on-site server for easy access to local & archived

data.

On-site Data Storage

Automated & secure data back up

in 2 international geo-locations.

Cloud DataBack up

Encrypted user access to data & systems from any location, at any

time.

24/7 Access to Data

Rapid deployment of additional resources &

facilities.

Future Scalability

Implementing a predominantly cloud based IT infrastructure for Berfin helped them to avoid the excessive cost of purchasing hardware, software and the storage facilities usually required for an on-site solution.

With Microsoft Azure, Berfin has been able to easily connect their Cape Town and Stellenbosch based offices without the use of a VPN (Virtual Private Network), while providing remote staff and agents locally and abroad with seamless access to all data and systems.

International information protection and compliance considerations have been incorporated because Azure and Office 365 are both designed and developed according to international standards of best practice.

Despite not having an IT department available in-house, Berfin is able to manage all IT requirements through their managed service agreement with MMC, while day-to-day technical queries are swiftly managed via our 24/7 service desk.

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Case

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Chat to our expert team at MMC and let us devise a cost efficient, user-friendly, flexible and secure technology solution to help your organisation succeed.

theADVANTAGE

Talk to us

theIMPACT

Basil Karstel | IT Manager - Afrifresh

“ “We chose MMC to assist Berfin with the implementation of their new network because of the solid 7 year relationship that we had developed with them at Afrifresh. We feel that MMC is highly competent in their field and we rely on the diverse skill set that they have within their organisation.

Because cloud based IT services have matured in the last few years, I was happy to consider this as a possible solution to the IT needs that Berfin had. When MMC presented their more traditional infrastructure solution as well as their cloud based solution, we could see that on the grounds of both the vastly reduced cost and the extent of the infrastructure which Microsoft Azure could support, that cloud was the way to go.

The entire Berfin infrastructure has now been moved to the cloud and MMC is assisting them directly with all day-to-day IT management and support requirements.

Carl Middlekoop

Telephone: +27 (21) 530 1600Cellphone: +27 (72) 392 3117Email: carl@mmc.za.com

Dale van der Berg

Telephone: +27 (21) 530 1600Cellphone: +27 (82) 922 2430Email: dale@mmc.za.com