The entire IT from a single source
TESTEX is an independent Swiss testing and certification company focusing on the textile industry and operating on a global basis. Founded as «Silk-drying Institute Zurich» in 1846, TESTEX is now an international company with 25 sites worldwide and more than 320 employees. The long-standing firm has its headquarters in Zurich and has subsidiaries of various sizes in Europe, North Africa and primarily the
Asia-Pacific region.
Initial Situation
TESTEX operates across the globe. Following the company’s explosive growth over the past decade, it has become increasingly challenging to effectively plan the annual IT costs and maintain control of data distributed around the world. This growth and internationalization meant that the company was compelled to employ a number of different external IT service providers. Because the different branches use different methods for data handling, the risk of data loss has increased and the issue of data security has become more crucial.
The possibility to work flexibly, independent of devices, outside the respective local IT infrastructure was very limited. For these reasons, TESTEX – together with the consultancy firm passion4IT GmbH – turned to isolutions to serve as a single point of contact for all IT issues, create a transparent and predictable cost structure, increase the productivity of the firm’s global employees and create a modern digital workplace.
Solution
A single point of contact for the entire IT infrastructure, including telephony, the modern workplace, a solution for collaboration and a comprehensive customer relationship management system (CRM). TESTEX opted for the forward-looking and scalable Microsoft technology platform, with isolutions as its strategic IT partner.
Based on an optimized network infrastructure with decentralized routers and switches and new notebooks managed from the cloud, the entire IT infrastructure was transferred to a managed service model in collaboration with Sunrise. Most servers were also migrated to the Microsoft Azure cloud and a global collaboration solution based on Microsoft 365, Teams and SharePoint was created. In addition, a central CRM was developed and launched, with its design enabling it to be seamlessly integrated into the existing ERP system.
Thanks to the high level of integration of all systems, TESTEX now has access to all relevant and essential information worldwide. Likewise, local and international collaboration have become measurably more efficient and mobile working has become the standard. Thanks to this upgrade, TESTEX could lay the foundation for its future growth. Management now has a management tool, while the employees receive the best possible support when it comes to handling day-to-day challenges – not least thanks to TESTEX‘s bold decision to invest consistently in digitalization.
Benefits
- A single point of contact for all issues.
- A modern digital workplace based around M365 guarantees stable operations during the COVID crisis.
- Increased efficiency in all processes.
- Fixed operating costs mean costs are transparent and predictable.
- No investment costs for hardware and always the latest devices.
- Rapid, inexpensive and efficient communication and collaboration with subsidiaries around the world via Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and ahead (intranet).