Tucker French is a rapidly expanding independent plumbing and heating merchants with 9 branches across London and the Home Counties serving mainly trade customers. Selected branches also have bathroom showrooms serving retail customers high end bathroom brands. Current headcount is approximately 60 staff.
THE CHALLENGE
Tucker French has aggressive growth ambitions, with plans to open several new branches in the coming years as suitable premises become available. A robust IT infrastructure was key to successful expansion. The company felt that their existing IT set up was not scaleable and therefore not able cope with the planned growth and new branches coming on line. In addition, their existing IT supplier did not demonstrate a proactive attitude and was deemed unable to service their requirements going forward. Following an introduction from Tucker French’s telecoms provider, Pro Drive was approached to discuss the planned expansion and suggest and deliver a solution.
“We needed an IT supplier that had a good grasp of our business and IT needs and crucially, that could explain these requirements in layman’s terms so that all parties were confident that the systems installed would meet the needs of the business as it grows.” Said Matt Watt, Tucker French’s Commercial Manager.
THE APPROACH
Pro Drive met with Tucker French to gain an understanding of their business and its requirements. Given their superior grasp of the issues faced, it was decided Pro Drive should take over the delivery of IT to the business. With Pro Drive’s wide experience in the field, the handover of IT responsibility from Tucker French’s previous supplier was seamless and trouble free.
Having mapped out the requirements it was decided that the solution was to move the hosting of their servers to the Cloud and refresh their wide area network (WAN). The move to the Cloud provided an easy to manage OPEX model for IT, with a simple additional price per user and a fixed price per site allowing for easy expansion.
“The Pro Drive team went out of their way to ensure that we were fully informed throughout the process and addressed any issues quickly and efficiently” said Mr Watt.
In addition, Pro Drive has provided a service desk for all Tucker French staff to contact should there be any day to day issues. This has relieved pressure on their internal IT staff allowing them to focus on more strategic projects.
“Fortunately, there are not too many calls, but those that are placed are always dealt with promptly and competently” said Watt.
Finally, Pro Drive worked with the incumbent telecoms provider to move the business onto a new WAN which has delivered business efficiencies and generated significant cost savings.
THE RESULT
Working closely with Tucker French executives, Pro Drive have helped to shape and develop their IT strategy to ensure that the business is poised to maximise their growth potential. They have implemented systems which make business planning simpler, ensure effective cost control and deliver significant cost savings throughout the company. The IT strategy and systems in place mean that the Tucker French has a solid backbone from which to launch their expansion programme.
“We now have everything in place for our business to expand successfully. We have worked with the same key Pro Drive people throughout the process and the excellent relationship we have with their team allows us to add to our premises portfolio confident that each new outlet will be quickly and professionally brought on board” concluded Matt.
