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South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue (SYFR) needed a trustworthy and knowledgeable partner to help develop and support its core IT infrastructure. Axess Systems provides technical expertise and on demand support to help SYFR maintain a secure, cost effective, compliant, and reliable IT infrastructure.
Client
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority (SYFR) provides fire and rescue services for around 1.4 million people in South Yorkshire. This includes Barnsley, Rotherham, Sheffield, and Doncaster. It employs 1,000 people, most of whom are firefighters, and operates 22 fire stations.
“We provide the ICT facility for all aspects of the fire service,”
“It’s not a typical IT team, as well as desktop and Office, it also covers mobile phones, sat navs, 360⁰ CCTV cameras on every fire engine, fire ground radios, mainstream radios, and electricians to deal with electrical faults,” explains Steven, joking, “everything with a plug on is my responsibility!”
Steven Locking, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue’s, ICT and Digital Services Manager.
SYFR has been using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops for its firefighters since 2009. It now also uses Citrix to provide other staff with secure remote access.
“We use Citrix in order to maintain a secure, reliable, and cost-effective service throughout the county,” notes Steven, adding “it can be controlled and managed very smoothly.”
At a glance
SYFR tenders for a technical partner to help develop and support essential IT infrastructure.
Axess wins and provides Citrix, Microsoft, and VMware technical expertise.
→ Develops IT backbone for SYFR
→ Secure, reliable, & compliant Citrix & VMware infrastructure
→ Professionalism + technical expertise
→ Available, responsive, & helpful service
→ Value for money
→ “I’m very happy with Axess.”
Business driver
“We are a 999 service, operating 24 by 7, we can’t have downtime, and I need to make sure IT always works,” says Steven.
Although Steven’s team takes care of day-to-day infrastructure management, it needs high-level technical expertise to help with upgrades and complex support issues.
“We use a third-party supplier to help with implementations and to provide additional support and put the contract out to tender every 5 years,” outlines Steven.
“The best way for the Fire Service to save money is to have a supplier that can work with us to maintain the systems we’ve got and ensure that they provide what we need,” declares Steven. “And to have a partnership with a supplier that we can trust, that understands us, and is aware of what our problems are.”
Solution
Axess won SYFR’s tender and now provides technical consultancy and specialist support for SYFR’s IT infrastructure.
This was back in 2014, and Steven reflects on the reasons why SYFR chose Axess. “Not only the price, but the service they presented, how they approached it, and the understanding they showed.”
Since then, Axess has helped SYFR to virtualise its data centre with VMware vSphere, significantly reducing its server count and hence its operating costs. Axess has also enabled SYFR to optimise security and resilience during a subsequent upgrade.
“Axess has provided us with a virtual environment and the latest releases of Citrix that allow us to keep our systems up to date and compliant,” states Steven.
“Axess support us when we encounter difficulties and as part of that they conduct quarterly Health Checks to make sure everything’s OK,” he clarifies. “I want to be absolutely sure that everything is running smoothly because the Fire Service depends on it.”
Benefits
“The infrastructure that Axess provided is the entire backbone of the Service,” remarks Steven. “Citrix is good for management, especially with a small team and multiple locations, and it’s easy to manage updates and changes quickly.”
“We get reliability and that’s down to the professionalism of the implementation and the way it’s been configured by Axess,” reveals Steven.
“The Health Checks make sure that the system is running effectively, that we’re not missing anything,” describes Steven. “Axess has really helped us maintain our compliance with Cyber Essentials Plus and Fire Service standards and also provides me with an incident response service in the event of a disaster.”
“I’m very happy with Axess, they are always available, they are always keen to help, and they are responsive, especially when we have issues,” observes Steven.
“We’ve had a lot of dealings with them, I’ve spoken to many different people in the Axess team, and I’ve got nothing but praise: they’re available, want to help, and come up with solutions and options,” adds Steven. “They understand that we’re an emergency service, why I want something, and that I need it now.”
“They listen to us, we’re not just a number, they’re very open and honest, all friendly and nice, and a supplier that’s there to help,” he expands. “I don’t have to chase them, they’ve definitely got their communication procedures nailed.”
“It’s fundamental to all government agencies that we use the public purse appropriately and I’m more than happy with the value for money and service provided by Axess,” explains Steven. “I don’t think I can ask for much more.”
He concludes, “The work Axess has done with us has been first class, they have provided the support, knowledge, and knowledge transfer for us to manage the system effectively and for it to be reliable.”
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