Sheppard Robson Architects is associated with landmark design — from the Royal Mint Court in London and the Interserve UK Hub in Birmingham, to the Middle East Headquarters of Siemens in Abu Dhabi and Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg. The company has refined its approach over 80 years, with a special focus today on socially and environmentally responsible architecture that adds value to clients and communities.

The company's newly-appointed IT Director realised the software asset landscape needed attention — fast. Licensing with major vendors was unclear and the company was struggling to get answers from its incumbent IT partner, but were instead met with lists of SKUs and part numbers. Sheppard Robson wanted an IT partner that was less focused on shifting boxes and more committed to delivering a great service and helping it to grow.

Bytes provided exactly what was needed — pragmatic expertise on licensing, managing assets, purchase paths and optimising the budget. Even though Sheppard Robson had a relatively-small IT operation, Bytes delivered a corporate-grade service and provided sound advice to make sure the business was secure, legal and ethical. The Bytes team reviewed all major software lines — including Microsoft, VMWare and Adobe — and then identified the best paths for license consolidation and savings. Next, Bytes helped to introduce infrastructure changes, such as the procurement of Veeam software so the company could back up its virtual estate. The focus then shifted to helping Sheppard Robson to migrate away from costly storage that failed to meet its needs. Bytes arranged a 'beauty parade' of recommended storage vendors that were disrupting the marketplace. The Bytes team opened doors, attended every visit and enabled Sheppard Robson to leverage its buying power to get the best outcome.

Thanks to expertise from Bytes, Sheppard Robson now has a compliant software estate that delivers value for money and supports its business goals. Its datacentre has best-of-breed hardware and software — and zero unplanned downtime. The company has also migrated successfully to Office 365 without losing a single email. Processes have been streamlined to make the business more agile, while expert advice from Bytes and savvy licensing has improved the budget stance, year-on-year. Looking ahead, Sheppard Robson can make now make IT decisions quickly and wisely — accessing subject experts at Bytes, whenever new challenge or opportunity arises.