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Amaro Group Case Study

Amaro Group

Amaro Group Case Study

The Client

Amaro Group is a leading provider of specialist signalling, overhead line equipment and low and high voltage distribution support solutions to the UK rail industry. Headquartered in Strood, Kent, and operating across the country, the company counts Network Rail, Alstom and Kier Group among its prestigious client base.

Business Needs

In 2019 Amaro Group split from its former parent to pursue its own ambitious growth strategy.

This meant that the company needed to decouple from a shared IT infrastructure and create its own network.
This needed to take into account the agile nature of the company’s management and workforce operations.

In addition, Managing Director Michael Ewart was keen to switch from its existing on-premise solution to the cloud. “We had a server failure down in Strood and at that point I said to Avoira I wanted rid and to go cloud-based and use Microsoft 365,” he says.

He turned to Avoira due to an historic and happy business relationship. This sees our specialist Managed Services team effectively acting as an outsourced IT department. Our team assists Amaro with day-to-day technical support, supplying hardware and software solution and mapping out the company’s future technology requirements.

Michael explains that he chose Avoira for the new project based on his experience of the company’s service.

“I’ve stuck with them because of their expertise and responsiveness,” he explains. “If you ring or email Avoira you get a response and a resolution really quickly.”

The Solution

Our Cloud Services team recommended deploying Microsoft 365 on the vendor’s Azure cloud, complemented by its cloud-based Intune management tool for mobile devices.

This solution embraces the Microsoft Office suite, including the powerful SharePoint collaboration tool and Teams conferencing platform.

The team scoped the solution well in advance, scheduling its implementation to ensure minimal disruption to Amaro’s operations.

“It went very well,” confirms Michael. “Avoira’s guys planned and executed the delivery over a weekend so that it did not cause any issues to the business.”

This solution enables all users to more easily work from anywhere at any time, a hugely important factor for a business that operates 24/7 across the UK.

“We have about 55 people, around 35 of them are on site and 20 in various management roles, some working from home, some the office and some doing a bit of both.

“We also work right across the country, Scotland, Newcastle, Kent, Wessex, Wales, Western regions. “The Microsoft Office 365 solution implemented by Avoira just makes life easier.”

Our continued provision of expert managed services also supports the smooth running of what is a fast-growing business. Having access to a fully managed helpdesk means Amaro can access unlimited support in order to swiftly resolve a wide range of issues.

In addition, an Avoira virtual IT manager runs monthly reports, fulfilling the role of an internal manager.

The Benefits

The integrated Microsoft solution has been warmly welcomed for its ease of use, flexibility, bolstering business continuity and its productivity-enhancing powers.

“It’s brilliant, it works like a dream,” enthuses Michael. “There’s no hassle with logging onto VPNs, we can share and work on files at the same time.

He’s equally enthusiastic about the service which supports this solution and Amaro’s wider IT operations.

“We’ve grown from a £2.3m business in 2018 to 7.3m this year. Avoira have supported that growth,” he says, noting how our specialists work with Amaro to ensure its needs are constantly met.

There’s one aspect of the managed service provision he particularly appreciates. “If we have a problem with a laptop, Avoira’s engineers can log-in remotely, diagnose the issue and 20 minutes later they’ve fixed the problem. That’s really useful.”

As well as the highly responsive service desk of which he is such an admirer, Michael also appreciates the monthly catch-ups he has with Avoira technical account manager, James Rooney.

These allow him to discuss how the company’s plans might impact its IT needs. As well as helping with things like the pursuit of ISO27001 information security accreditation, Avoira helps Amaro manage its continued expansion.

“Last year we moved into a new office in Stevenage and in January 2023 we’re looking to occupy a new-build in Maidstone. James assists us in doing surveys and setting up the wifi, routers and cabling.”

Even satisfying Amaro’s ever-growing hardware needs is made easier by Avoira. “With the business growing we seem to be buying a laptop every other week. With Avoira I get a quote as a PandaDoc so I just log-in, check the quote, click finish, date and signature and that’s it, done. The laptops are then delivered direct to wherever.  It’s dead easy!”

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If we have a problem with a laptop, Avoira’s engineers can log-in remotely, diagnose the issue and 20 minutes later they’ve fixed the problem.
Michael Ewart
Managing Director
5 stars
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