Case Study : Energy UK

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When a number of energy sector trade associations came together to form Energy UK, Zhero was chosen to migrate and unify the organisations’ separate IT systems onto one platform. Zhero now looks after the on-going management, running and support of Energy UK’s IT systems, cutting the association’s overall IT costs and helping improve operational efficiency.

Energy UK is the trade association for the energy industry. The organisation represents over 80 members made up of generators and gas and electricity suppliers of all kinds and sizes, as well as other businesses operating in the energy industry. Together, Energy UK’s members generate more than 90 per cent of the UK’s total electricity output, supplying more than 26 million homes and investing in 2013 more than £13.1 billion in Britain’s infrastructure.

THE CHALLENGE

Trade body, Energy UK, was launched in 2012, following a merger of the Association of Electricity Producers (AEP), the Energy Retail Association (ERA) and the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy (UKBCSE).

The newly merged organisation required new, single, common, technology infrastructure to run daily operations as well as IT related assistance for its office move. As IT services provider, Zhero was already successfully delivering IT provision and support for AEP, which made the firm a natural choice to assist Energy UK with its IT challenges.

THE SOLUTION

It was decided that the merged organisations’ IT systems would migrate onto AEP’s IT platform – as it was considered to be more modern, robust and effective. Zhero helped the merging organisations migrate their separate IT systems onto a single platform, including unifying all communication systems – such as email and web domains. Zhero also planned and managed the physical move of Energy UK’s IT to a new office in the heart of London.

When the move was completed Energy UK outsourced the running and management of all its IT systems Zhero. Key to Energy UK’s decision were three factors: cutting IT costs; removing an in-house IT burden; and benefitting from best practices and the latest IT systems. Zhero created an entire IT network with high speed fibre communications infrastructure for Energy UK. Reporting in to a single point of contact, the system aims to deliver as a full range of cloud-based, outsourced, IT services.

Zhero use highly modern tools to provide a 24×7 IT helpdesk, direct-to-engineer support, management and monitoring for Energy UK users’ workstations, servers, firewalls and Wifi. This controls costs and helps deliver enhanced IT performance and reliability.

Energy UK’s hardware, software procurement and licences are managed by Zhero so the organisation gets good prices and the best vendor aftercare. This activity prevents non-compliance fines and ensures that software is updated and renewed to prevent Energy UK’s key technologies being accidentally cancelled. Zhero also provides a unique hybrid-cloud-based backup system that delivers a tamper free mail archiving system and cloud email security service. All-in-all this means Energy UK has accessibility, continuity, security and compliance of its growing data stores.

RESULT

Energy UK said, “The smooth running of our IT depends on Zhero. Since 2012, it has delivered the IT we need so we are free to get on with the job of representing our members. Like Zhero, we run a 24/7 operation so it is vital for us to be able to rely on the IT or, on the occasions we have a problem, a friendly, dedicated service that gets things fixed, fast. Out-sourcing has been the right choice for us and Zhero has also helped by being proactive and pre-empting any IT issues before they arise.”
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