Forkway Group

With over 50 years’ experience in the industry, Forkway Group are a forklift truck, pallet truck and materials handling specialists. They were a founding member of the Fork Lift Truck Association (FLTA) and have always strived to lead the way in technological developments in the forklift industry.

During their lifetime they have seen continued growth, with 3 bases situated near London, Leeds and Southampton. Thinc were introduced to Forkway in 2011 when it was identified that their legacy systems were holding them back from reaching their full potential. They realised that effective communication and integration between these three sites was crucial if their operations were to run smoothly and efficiently.

Requirements:

• Modern ERP system that would adapt to their growing business requirements
• Improve the slow IDSN connection between 3 sites – running at a rate of 128 kbps
• Update legacy systems to help eliminate security cyberattacks
• Improve ability to evolve and upgrade their IT infrastructure and hardware over time
• Integrate systems in order to collaborate and share business data to improve decision making

Solution:

• Sage 200 ERP Financial and Commercial modules replace a legacy Linux system called Uniquip
• Protean Field Manage Software
• Desktop PC hosted email relying on POP3 mail migrated to Microsoft Exchange environment for better collaboration
• Virtualised servers to enable remote working
• Fast broadband connections to replace slow ISDN links
• Secure Next Generation Firewalls providing ‘one’ network across 3 geographic locations
• VPN link for travelling users to have ‘at the office’ functionality
• Arcserve comprehensive data protection back-up solution
• Kaspersky Advanced Endpoint Protection, protecting all PCs and servers

Results:

• Significantly improved inter-site performance and productivity resulting from modern communications, improvised bandwidth and remote desktop technology
• Enhanced perimeter security using a Next Generation Firewall technology helping to protect against viruses, malware and ransomware
• Virtualised server implementation provided an agile platform allowing for business expansion and simplified software upgrades alongside improved backups and data resilience
• A Return on Investment in excess of £7,000 per year compared to the legacy IT provider
• Simplified and consolidated hardware, resulting in a lower capital expenditure, compared with replacing like-for-like on replacement servers
• Back up solution that allowed for periodic image backups to be taken to an on premise NAS

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