Herrco is a trusted full-service beauty and cosmetics manufacturer based in the UK. Read this case study to find out how Compete366 worked with Herrco to build a scalable, accessible and flexible cloud infrastructure.


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The Business Challenge

As a rapidly growing business, Herrco develops the majority of it’s software to support the business in-house. The project range from Bulk Production Development systems, which manage the ingredients, timings, process, temperature, viscosity of the beauty and cosmeitcs products they manufacture, to the Quality Control software for QC spot checks on finished goods, and Warehouse management software which handles the dispatch of the finished products worldwide.

Herrco had made the decision to move their IT infrastructure to MS Azure, driven by the expansion of the business – they had scaled quickly from £18-30 million growth in terms of £ revenue.

This was of particular importance as the onsite ERP system was running on an onsite server which did not have the capacity to increase as these new software developments came to fruition. The decision was made to avoid further capital investment for a new server and Tim Entwistle (Head of Software Development) decided to look to the cloud – and specifically chose the MS Azure platform.

It was agreed by the business that all of the new software systems would be hosted in the Azure cloud, keeping the core ERP system onsite, thus ensuring its server wasn’t overloaded or performance impacted.

After the initial set up of the MS Azure platform, Tim was contacted by a Microsoft Cloud Engagement Specialist who offered to help with some assistance where Herrco had gaps in their knowledge.  At this point, Tim was put in touch with MS Gold Partner and Azure specialist, Compete366.

As Tim explains “We looked at the companies recommended by Microsoft, and Compete366 was by far the most proactive. We were immediately impressed with the advice that the Compete366 specialists in Azure Architecture were able to provide.  This was all new to us and we really needed some external expertise that we could use to get our questions answered.  The beauty of working with Compete366 is that we transferred our Azure consumption to them, and at the same time received all of their advice and guidance free of charge.  Other companies wanted to charge us on a project basis which wasn’t what we wanted at all.”

Current environment

  • Azure App Services – containerized
  • Azure SQL DB
  • Azure VMs
  • Azure Storage (Tables)
  • Azure DevOps with Github integration
  • On Premise Server hosting ERP system and databases
  • MS Teams + O365 suite.

Key business drivers

Scalability

Herrco recently opened a sister site with a brand-new warehouse facility for storing goods. Initially there was no internet set up at the new location and the software systems needed to be able to interact with this site.  Because of the Azure cloud infrastructure, this was possible without any issues by using SIM cards in the tablet devices, interacting via simple 3G.

Time savings in development

Using the Microsoft Containerised Azure App Services alongside Docker, Tim’s team has been able to recreate the Herrco live environment and test all of the software development work before deploying it to live.  This means that the in-house developers know that new software is going to work in the live environment, and they also don’t have the hassle of delivering new releases to on-premise servers– making the time to delivery of software much quicker.

Accessibility

As a business working with global brands, the senior team travel worldwide and with the cloud infrastructure can access the data that they need via their smartphones, wherever they are.

Next Steps

Business Intelligence is a big driver in the business. The Herrco Cloud First approach has meant that all of the different systems are able to easily exchange data with the ERP system.  The plan is to use MS PowerBI to take this data from the different systems, using the power of the cloud infrastructure to amalgamate it and then create a cloud-based Data Warehouse to allow for users to build analytics on whatever data they need.

From the get-go,the level of service that Compete366 has delivered has been amazing.  Initially Compete366 were checking in regularly to make sure we had everything we needed. And their technical experts focus right into the detail – so much so that I never had any doubt in my mind that they had missed anything – which took a lot of the worry away when moving to a new platform.  We are now ready to build on our successes in the cloud – and our strategy now is definitely MS Azure cloud first every time!”

Tim Entwistle (Head of Software Development, Herrco)

If you’d like to find out how our Azure experts can help you set up your IT infrastructure in the most effective way then do get in touch. We’ll be pleased to help.

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“It’s great to work with the Compete366 team, the team members are really knowledgeable, helpful and responsive. No question is too difficult for them. They have really helped us to manage our Azure costs and ensure we have the right environment. When we bring a new customer on-board we can scale up immediately via the Azure portal and quickly make environments available to our customers.”

“We also find that there’s never a heavy sales pitch from them – they are technically focused and recommend what’s right for us.”

Paul Coyne, Rusada

“We had great support from the Compete366 AVD expert, who was really helpful, and guided me through options to tackle issues that arose.”

“The great thing about our AVD set up is that we have a custom set up for each project which Compete366 showed me how to do. And with the scalability and flexibility of AVD – we can meet clients’ expectations and get project users up and running more quickly.”

Amir Dangol, Senior IT Manager, Integrity

“We were immediately impressed with the advice that the Compete366 specialists in Azure Architecture were able to provide. This was all new to us and we really needed some external expertise that we could use to get our questions answered. The beauty of working with Compete366 is that we transferred our Azure consumption to them, and at the same time received all of their advice and guidance free of charge.”

Tim Entwistle, Head of Software Development, Herrco

“Working with Compete366 has been like extending our own team – they are extremely and easy to work with. Right from the outset, it was clear what was on offer – everything was presented to us in a straightforward and uncomplicated way. They also provided just the right level of challenge to our developers and saved us time and money by suggesting better ways to implement our infrastructure.”

Oliver Mackereth, Project Director, Hanse

“Compete366 were able to help us leverage some useful contacts in Microsoft. We really value the expert advice and guidance that they have offered us in setting up a highly scalable infrastructure. We are also setting in place a regular monthly meeting which will allow us to further refine our architecture and ensure we keep on track as our requirements grow and change.”

Matt Brocklehurst, Technical Director - AWOL Adventure

“I have been delighted with the migration, where my team worked very hard, supported by expert advice from Compete366, and achieved everything in the timescale we had set out. Compete 366 made sure that we didn’t make any expensive mistakes, and guided us through the process”

Darrell Cann, Managing Director, APEX
Jon Milward
Director

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