Junior Explorers is a North Island-based, educational childcare organisation.
Junior Explorers operates in Hamilton, Tauranga, Te Puke, Papamoa, Rotorua, Taupo, Wellington and outer areas.
Childcare takes place in educators’ homes, where each child is provided with a personalised care environment in a group of no more than four children under the age of six.
The Challenge
Junior Explorers’ existing servers were site-based and at end-of-life. There was also a lack of standardisation across all of Junior Explorers’ offices and users were limited in their mobile access and remote access options.
For small to medium businesses, having a simple, lightweight and reliable IT environment is essential and even liberating. Junior Explorers didn’t the time or the resources to be constantly managing their IT, so the organisation needed an on-demand, ‘set and forget’ solution.
The Solution
Datacom spoke to Junior Explorers to understand their needs and discussed the range of opportunities available and market direction towards the cloud. Datacom suggested Junior Explorers move to a cloud-based infrastructure that could be accessed from anywhere on multiple devices back to a central system common across all offices to enable efficiency gains via standardisation.
The solution, which was implemented in May of this year, was based on Datacom’s LimeLite technology. LimeLite is a desktop as a service solution that looks and behaves like a regular desktop PC, but the software and data is hosted in Datacom’s NZ-based data centres and streamed to a variety of devices.
LimeLite provided Junior Explorers with a highly stable IT environment with remote and mobile connectivity. The organisation now has full helpdesk support, all new desktop equipment in Hamilton and Tauranga, and improved application protection because data is stored off-site. Having a reliable, on-demand IT environment in place meant that Junior Explorers could focus its attention on the needs of the families it supports, rather than the needs of an ageing server.
The solution also gave Junior Explorers peace of mind, as the organisation’s IT costs are now fixed and the solution was completed with zero upfront cost.
The Technology
LimeLite, Datacom’s desktop as a service solution for small to medium businesses, with data hosted in Datacom’s Kapua data centre. This solution involved thin clients, Citrix, managed backup, managed Wi-Fi, Internet, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft Office.
The Partnership
Datacom had an existing relationship with Junior Explorers which began when the company was first expanding. In discussions with Datacom, Junior Explorers talked about the direction the organisation was heading in, and issues hindering its progress.
Datacom investigated the various options available and worked out what the best, most financially viable option was for Junior Explorers. It had to be adaptable, easy to use and affordable.
Throughout the process, Datacom delivered on its promise and adapted quickly to changes in customer requirements. The owner of Junior Explorers was impressed by how Datacom handled the transition to LimeLite, and said the cloud had enabled the organisation to centralise and simplify. The company now enjoys a more efficient and user friendly IT environment.
“For us to migrate from our server to the cloud was a big decision for us and we one we don’t regret. The whole process from start to finish has been handled professionally by the entire team at Datacom. At all times we were kept in the loop with constant updates via emails, phone calls and, where appropriate, meetings.”
Jenni Ellis - Junior Explorers