Irish resellers bring big-company IT to SMEs: ThePost.ie


TCH Archives > Sunday Business Post > 2006/10/01 > Irish resellers bring big-company IT to SMEs

Irish resellers bring big-company IT to SMEs
Sunday, October 01, 2006 -
CD Soft and Itomic have won the inaugural competition to find the Microsoft Ireland Small Business Partners of the Year. The awards - which are divided into two categories for partners and resellers of different sizes - recognise companies that have helped small and medium sized organizations (SMEs) in Ireland to increase their productivity using Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS).

CD Soft won the larger Partner/Reseller category selling over 50 SBS solutions between July 2005 and June 2006.

Itomic won the smaller Partner/Reseller category selling under 50 SBS solutions during the same period. The winning entries were selected for illustrating innovative examples of how SBS is helping Irish companies to increase their productivity and efficiency.

The chosen implementations included the provision of mobile e-mail, simplified website administration, better collaboration among employees, easier to manage networks, more secure and reliable networks and enabling staff to work remotely.

SBS in action

CD Soft has delivered a wide variety of different SBS implementations including:

Milish Foods, a producer of quality ambient and frozen baked goods worked with CD Soft to convert a basic PC-to-PC network to a fully fledged working network using SBS. The new network helps employees to collaborate more productively and work remotely translating into real efficiency gains.

FDM Ltd is the authorised adviser firm of Eddie Hobbs. CD Soft used SBS to help FDM Ltd to centralise its e-mail administration and storage, allowing for more simplified management of the IT systems, saving time and resources.

Itomic has implemented SBS for a variety of organisations including:

The Gaelic Players Association (GPA) is the representative body for Gaelic games players throughout the country.

Itomic deployed SBS for the GPA enabling them to centralise their IT systems resulting in greater administration efficiencies as well as facilitating remote access giving the GPA’s people access to their network anywhere and at any time.

Ignatius Greaney & Associates is a chartered consulting engineering practice.

Itomic worked closely with the company in devising an IT strategy based around SBS allowing more reliable and regular back-up of sensitive documentation and enabling more productive communications through collaborative tools like shared calendars and document management.

Commenting on the awards, Mary Ashe-Winton, Small Business Manager, Microsoft Ireland said: ‘‘SBS has brought big company IT to small companies throughout the country.

‘‘Small businesses can now have remote access, mobile e-mail and calendars, simplified management and a host of other capabilities that were previously the exclusive domain of large-scale IT departments.

‘‘Central to the success of SBS has been our partners. It’s these companies that are on the road bringing these capabilities to companies in every corner of the island. These awards have been designed to recognise the incredible work we’re seeing with small and medium-sized businesses.

‘‘CD Soft and Itomics have done a great job and have won the inaugural award in the face of stiff opposition. We’d like to thank all our partners for their work and commitment to SBS.”

Gerry Kerr, managing director, CD Soft, said: ‘‘Microsoft SBS has changed how small businesses can think about IT. In the past companies were restricted by their size, now they can deploy sophisticated networks that support mobile workforces, reduce administration and enable remote collaboration. Every day we’re working with customers who are amazed at what’s possible with SBS.

“This award is great recognition for the work we do with SBS.”

Keith MacHale, Director, Itomic said: ‘‘Small businesses are subject to a variety of pressures from competition to new business development and administration.

“SBS is one of those rare products that can make a material difference to a small business from the start. It helps companies to increase their efficiency and productivity and delivers big company IT without the cost and complexity.”