"Sentis’ transparency, knowledge and willingness to go the extra mile left no doubt in my mind that they could deliver."
DataLase is a global leader in photonic printing solutions. The company is at the forefront of revolutionary inkless print solutions, using personalised printing to drive customer engagement and brand interaction. With the increasing demand for tailored brand experiences, DataLase is geared for growth. However, acquisition and fast-paced development presented challenges, especially for IT.
“When DataLase was acquired, we had a fairly traditional approach to networks and storage,” says Clare Lewis, CEO at DataLase. “One of the first steps we took in our new partnership was to audit our IT and cybersecurity. We found that our infrastructure and systems weren’t fit for purpose and change was needed.”
Clare’s experience told her that better functioning IT and tighter security meant greater efficiency and less risk. “DataLase’s commitment to R&D coupled with our promising growth trajectory meant that best-in-class, high performing and resilient IT was essential”, Clare shares. “I was also conscious of business continuity, being a real-time specialist.”
Clare continues, “In December 2018 I discovered Sentis Managed Solutions online. I was really impressed by what they’d achieved for clients in challenging circumstances and the level of care they exercised over projects. Sentis’ transparency, knowledge and willingness to go the extra mile immediately made me trust them and left no doubt in my mind that they could deliver,” says Clare.
DataLase needed a spec and select for a new ERP to prepare them for growth – and wanted to be up and running as quickly as possible to maximise opportunities. They knew that other requirements would be present but needed the skills of a service provider to identify these.
After a series of meetings, Sentis began the project and a three-month deadline was set for March 2019. Sentis built an entirely new hosting platform for DataLase – high performance, high resilience private cloud, on-premises servers for critical business functions and cloud backup and disaster recovery. This included moving DataLase’s Active Directory and data into this agile, easy-to-manage cloud environment. Extensive planning was required to ensure policies were correct, processing was compliant, and all information was retained.
Another significant change was a network migration of 50 users, including teams in the USA, to a new hybrid system that allowed for more efficient and secure collaboration. Moving business functions into the cloud-enabled colleagues to work from anywhere at any time, with improved cost-efficiencies for DataLase.
“I’d like to say a huge thanks Sentis for their help. They did a great job getting everybody up and running and have left management smiling – issues stemming from lack of IT investment and rapid growth had led to frustrations.”
“I could have never imagined how different our business would be,” Clare states. “Feedback has been great, and our IT now matches our world-leader status in photonic printing. We’re excited to take our next growth leap which is possible with our purpose-built systems. Knowing expert help is only a call away is a benefit we couldn’t live without.”
