Business critical IT Support for Glasswells

Glasswells are a well-respected and leading retailer with four stores in Suffolk and one in Essex. Headquartered in Bury St Edmunds, the business also owns and runs a large distribution warehouse. "We are well-known for our retail stores, but we also offer storage and removal services from our warehouse near Bury St Edmunds," explains Ben Crissall, IT Manager at Glasswells.

Not only does Ben direct IT strategy for the business but he also deals with all day-to-day IT issues. "With a large IT infrastructure there are always things to be dealt with. I resolve most issues and draw on Strident's server and network expertise when I need to. They are very professional so it's a good relationship and it's great to have that extra resource when dealing with business-critical systems."

Glasswells' operations are run from their headquarters. "We like to own and run the infrastructure ourselves where we can. We run the Swan Retail system, a powerful management, EPoS and eCommerce platform that takes care of virtually all our store operations from accounting, stocking and inventory through to supply chain, logistics and CRM."

Developing IT infrastructure

In addition to Swan Retail, the company runs its own Microsoft Exchange for email. "We have 30 servers running business operations. Most of these are at our headquarters with the stores remotely accessing services via high-speed dedicated broadband, but our Ipswich store and warehouse have their own servers too."

Having been recommend to Glasswells, Strident have already assisted Ben in reducing the number of servers. "Working with Strident, we will continue to develop our IT infrastructure. This covers everything from software licence management through to hardware replacement. We're delighted with the support they given us so far and look forward working with them a the business grows."