Back-Up Management

IT infrastructure was never in the centre of too much attention in DuoBad’s daily business. This changed, though, when the IT’s age and limitations started to become a constraint. Much of DuoBad’s IT infrastructure, software and support was reaching end-of-life. DuoBad was also seeking to modernise its IT in order keep up with its growing business. ​ Workplace Hub is now at the heart of DuoBad’s IT, integrating and maintaining all systems the company needs. Combined with Konica Minolta as a single point of contact, the company now has an enterprise quality ‘Intelligent Connected Workplace’ at its disposal, while being able to focus its investment in staff and skills needed for the core of their business.

A thriving rural business looking to upgrade its IT

As a small business, DuoBad focusses all of its resources on delivering exceptional products and customer ser­vice. This means, however, that its IT infrastructure was never in the centre of too much attention in the compa­ny’s daily business. This changed, though, when the IT’s age and limitations started to become a constraint. Much of DuoBad’s IT infrastructure and software was reaching end-of-life: support for the existing systems was running out. DuoBad was also seeking to modernise its IT in order keep up with its growing business. Further, it should provide its employees with a modern working environment – a truly digital workplace with easy and secure access to information from wherever and when­ever they needed it. The customer’s Microsoft Office solution was running towards its end-of-life as well and did not reflect those new needs anymore. For its e-mails, DuoBad was using one by its internet service provider and looking for a solution to integrate a mail server into its systems. At the same time, the company was search­ing for a solution that was easy to manage and able ensure protection against data loss with an automated, reliable backup solution in place.

With regard to connectivity, DuoBad struggled with an additional challenge small and medium-sized business outside larger metropolitan areas face in particular: “Our location initially didn’t have a local fibre connection. We therefore were very reliant on having a local IT infra­structure in place,” explains DuoBad CTO Rikard Karls­son. Poor connectivity could otherwise translate to interrupted, unreliable workflows, if significant amounts of data would have to be quickly accessed from clouds systems, for example. “We were relying on a local HP server, running with Microsoft Windows Server. Both hardware and software were approaching end of life, however”, says Karlsson.

With only one team member dedicated to maintaining the IT of the business, having one partner taking over responsibility for the IT and providing a fully functional, holistic solution was key for DuoBad. “We are a small, specialised company and appreciate a strong IT partner with a local service team and shared values,” says DuoBad CEO, Niklas Hult. Having a single point of contact was also important to the company as they wanted responsibilities to be bundled in one place.

A big partner with an all-in-one solution for a specialised business

The company was an existing customer of Konica Minolta, working with bizhub MFP devices for over 14 years. It was a positive relationship that had endured through much of the company’s history. During this time a strong founda­tion of trust and mutual respect had grown. “We have an Account Manager at Konica Minolta that we know and trust. He knows us, too, and understands our business very well”, says Niklas Hult, who also appreciated that Konica Minolta shares his company’s deep commitment to sustainability. “Konica Minolta has done a great job during time we have cooperated in the past. It is impor­tant to have this local knowledge on hand when we need to address our technical challenges.” So, when it came to finding the right partner for the implementation of the new IT solution, DuoBad relied on its existing partner Konica Minolta.

“From a day to day perspective, the technician I work with has a lot of knowledge and I have a lot of trust in him,” explains CTO Rikard Karlsson. “As he’s part of Konica Minolta, I also know that my contact can draw on this wider pool of skills and experience whenever needed and will always get back to me quickly with solutions.”

Konica Minolta was able to provide exactly what DuoBad was searching for: The IT services expert proposed Workplace Hub Advanced as a modern and future-proof all-in-one digital workplace solution that would be an ideal fit for DuoBad’s needs. By integrating the previous­ly separate server, software, and MFP, this Workplace Hub implementation provides DuoBad with a digital workplace solution – from a single trusted supplier, just as DuoBad was aiming for. “If we encounter a challenge or have a question, I instantly know who to call,” Karls­son points out.

Following further consultation with Konica Minolta, DuoBad agreed to proceed with the implementation at the end of 2019. The solution runs a Windows Server 2019 installation to fulfil File/Print/AD server roles. In terms of security and resilience, the solution also includes Konica Minolta Remote Care Antivirus and the Acronis Backup Service. The project started at beginning of 2020 and moved into its final phase within three months.

As DuoBad faced the challenge of not yet having a fibre connection, the hybrid nature of Workplace Hub helped to address this challenge: With a hybrid solution, data that needs to be quickly and reliably accessed locally is stored on-site. At the same time, a connection to the cloud makes external access to information possible, for example from a vendor’s or supplier’s office. This is a quite common scenario for many businesses that do not have broadband connectivity. DuoBad’s situation exemplifies how many SMEs can use a hybrid solution – not forcing them to choose either an on-site or a cloud solution. In DuoBad’s case, the mission critical GARP business system, which incorporates ERP, CRM and ECM functions, remains on premise. The same goes for the company’s file and print functions.

As a company we have a dedication to only choosing the best vendors, otherwise how can we provide our customers with the best? So when it came to upgrading our IT, quality was of the upmost importance to us. Konica Minolta’s Workplace Hub was the perfect solution for our needs: a simplified but robust architecture that will continue to evolve with us.

Niklas Hult

CEO, DuoBad AB, Sweden

A refresh of the company’s outdated mail system as well as Microsoft Office solution is delivered as a second phase of the project. The cloud-based Office 365 Busi­ness Premium solution that is rolled out once the fibre connection has been installed at the company premises, providing DuoBad’s team with the modern work tools the team needs in its daily work. It further runs the company’s mail servers, integrating them seamlessly with the other applications in place and replacing the mailboxes at the internet service provider. The migration to Office 365 will also give DuoBad’s employees access to improved remote working and collaborative possibili­ties. “Mobile access is certainly vital, as it is important to be able to work offsite and still use our main systems remotely,” explained Niklas Hult. This capability could also prove transformational. DuoBad is keen to explore new ways of working made possible by modern collabo­ration solutions such as Microsoft Teams.

Recognising the possibilities offered by Workplace Hub, DuoBad expanded the initial scope of the project to also include a remote desktop solution to empower system administrators and to facilitate offsite working. With the installation of fibre, the company is also able implement the Arconis Backup Service: a cloud-based disaster recovery solution – and a very important step for DuoBad. “Thankfully, we did not suffer a catastrophic data loss in our company’s history, yet. However, our design files, our customer, logistics, supplier and stock – all this data is absolutely business critical for us, and we simply cannot afford to lose it in case of a fire, for exam­ple,” explains Karlsson. With the disaster recovery system in place, an automated process will generate a regular backup of this critical information, making quickly accessible, if the original data is lost.

Further, thanks to Konica Minolta’s 24-hour managed IT services, the company now has a dependable solution at its disposal, ensuring smooth operations around the clock. With only one team member responsible for IT at DuoBad, this provides considerable peace of mind and greatly increases the company’s resilience. Similarly, the ability to pay for leading edge services on demand via Workplace Hub allows DuoBad to access Sophos XG Firewall as part of a monthly subscription. This world-class solution has stepped up the company’s security, minimising risks as the company’s sales force connect remotely via VPN. Threats and hidden risks can quickly be identified and neutralised, infected systems are automatically and instantaneously isolated.

Workplace Hub is now at the heart of DuoBad’s IT, integrating and maintaining all systems the company needs. Combined with Konica Minolta as a single point of contact, the company is now has an enterprise quality ‘Intelligent Connected Workplace’ at its disposal, while being able to focus its investment in staff and skills needed for the core of their business. “We are very excited to further explore the full potential of Workplace Hub,” concludes Niklas Hult.

With its 17 experienced and highly skilled employees, Sporrong & Eriksson Revisionsbyrå AB is an auditing firm based in Kalmar, Sweden. Deeply rooted in this southeastern region, the company is proud to provide its more than 600 small and medium-sized business customers with the highest level of professional auditing services – always combined with a personal, individual customer approach. Using the possibilities digitalisation provides in the service of their customers has been a key goal for Sporrong & Eriksson from early on, winning the firm the ‘Future Agency of the Year 2017’ award. Together with Konica Minolta, the company decided to take a new, bold step on the path towards becoming truly digital.

When business is personal, time is money, and security is paramount

Since its foundation in 2000, Sporrong & Eriksson has grown to become Kalmar’s leading accounting firm. It has achieved this by providing its customers with uncompromising pro­fessionalism in its work – and by setting itself apart from its competitors with a highly personal level of service. Being there for – and with – its customers is a key component of the company’s strategy for success. Hence, the firm’s employees spend a significant part of their work outside the office at their customers’ premises, or on the way to them. An IT enabling remote work is therefore not just ‘nice to have’ for Sporrong & Eriksson, but a vital factor for its business model.

For a business whose single product is its employees’ time, the IT solution enabling this has to work seamlessly and be absolutely reliable. At the same time, due to the sensitive and confidential nature of the data they process, this solution needs to ensure the highest levels of data security. Håkan Sporrong, one of the firm’s four owners, explains: “Both our own and our clients’ time is very valuable, so we needed a system that supported how we work. We needed to be agile but at the same time heavily protected.”

Setting up a care-free, reliable and secure IT infrastructure

Having been a dedicated and trusted long-term partner of Sporrong & Eriksson since 2011, Konica Minolta first provided a deep analysis and consultation for finding the best-suited solution to take this next step in its partner’s digitalisation process. The previous on-premises solution did not live up to Sporrong & Eriksson’s expectations anymore. They were look­ing for an IT system that is always up-to-date – from server to workstations – with the highest level of security and 24/7 reliability. At the same time, this solution should relieve internal resources as best as possible from any IT tasks. In the past, Sporrong & Eriksson staff had to manually perform back-ups after working hours. With regard to optimised work processes, when working from outside the office with customer data, Sporrong & Eriksson employees first needed to check out the relevant files from the local system and then afterwards check them back in again. This process made teamwork on these documents highly difficult and cumbersome, particularly from different locations. Last but not least, Sporrong & Eriksson was also looking for a partner to provide external help desk support and new workstation equipment.

To meet these requirements, Konica Minolta identified the im­plementation of its one-stop solution Remote Care Workplace Premium as the perfect fit. At the backend, the servers now run from Konica Minolta’s high-security data centre, ensuring maximum reliability and access from anywhere. Backups are now performed automatically and periodically, minimising the threat of any data loss and relieving the firm’s staff of this ar­duous, repetitive – and non-billable – task. Antivirus protection is also at the highest level and always up-to-date. New laptops were provided for the employees, with Konica Minolta ensur­ing that operating systems and applications always run with the latest versions. Furthermore, this package includes a 24/7 helpdesk with experienced Konica Minolta experts always ready to provide support and quickly resolve any issue that may arise. Ultimately, the goal was for Konica Minolta to take over the role of the firm’s external IT department.

Mastering a challenging environment and starting point

For Sporrong & Eriksson, it was absolutely crucial for its employees to be able to continue their work for their demand­ing customers without interruption despite the migration to the new system. In addition, as an auditing firm, the company works with a number of highly industry-specific applications. Konica Minolta had to ensure that they would integrate seam­lessly into the new IT system and provide all the remote work capabilities required of them.

Konica Minolta’s experts’ high dedication, commitment and expertise were crucial for turning this project into a success. “The service people who ran the implementation were very professional and we felt that they were highly skilled. When­ever there were issues or problems, Konica Minolta handled them quickly and with great respect for the process,” Håkan Sporrong explains. He is highly satisfied with the result and Konica Minolta’s support: “Now, it doesn’t matter if we´re at our office, at home or at the clients. We have the same pos­sibility to access all of the programs, files and applications that we need to do our job. We are very happy with the service that Konica Minolta delivers.”

Continuing together on the path to digital everyday work

Implementing Remote Care Workplace Premium has thereby helped Sporrong & Eriksson make a big leap forward in turning their bold vision for digitalising their business into reality. And it doesn’t stop here: future projects together with Konica Minolta for achieving a truly paperless office and workflows with the customers, for example, are already underway.

Varri imports and distributes climbing and outdoor equipment, with customers in the sports industry, rescue industry and building industry. The company has a wealth of expertise in climbing and fall protection equipment but its original three employees had to depend on a more restricted source of IT knowledge when the company was founded in 2008. “A friend helped me to set up our own server and I was responsible for operating and maintaining it. It was housed in a toilet and a cupboard at various points”, explains founder and owner Marius Olsen. This solution worked fine for many years. The company’s data backup routine consisted of taking a copy home on an external hard drive at somewhat irregular intervals. However, the setup was not without its challenges, particularly as Olsen alone was responsible for all IT operations. “I remember one day when I had finally taken some time off to do a bit of climbing but I had to go back into work to fix the server because it had stopped working. That time the power supply was the problem; another time it was the CMOS battery.” Olsen explains that a new start-up company can probably get away with more than an established organisation. However, as the company grew and employed more people, supplied more products and worked with more suppliers and customers, there came a point when finding more professional IT solutions became necessary.

Choosing HydraCloud from Konica Minolta

“We had to choose between building on our existing setup, investing in better equipment and perhaps employing an IT consultant to operate it, or we could outsource the work to professionals who could guarantee stability and security. We chose a cloud solution from Konica Minolta called HydraCloud. We’ve now been working with it for seven years”, says Olsen.

The HydraCloud solution allows the company’s order systems, accounting systems and everything else to run on servers located in Konica Minolta’s ISO certified data centres in Norway. Varri employees log into these systems via a remote desktop. Varri no longer operates its own servers, and the only IT equipment left in the cupboard is a firewall and network switches provided by Konica Minolta as part of the cloud agreement.

Olsen is especially pleased that this setup has freed up a lot of his time to focus on the core business instead of on technical IT solutions. “I now have more time to focus on our suppliers, customers and markets, and I sleep well at night knowing that all of our IT equipment works properly at all times,” says Olsen.

“A friend helped me to set up our own server and I was responsible for operating and maintaining it. When our company grew, we had to choose between building on our existing setup, investing in better equipment and perhaps employing an IT consultant to operate it, or we could outsource the work to professionals who could guarantee stability and security. We chose a cloud solution from Konica Minolta called HydraCloud. I now have more time to focus on our suppliers, customers and markets, and I sleep well at night knowing that all of our IT equipment works properly at all times.”

Marius Olsen

Founder and owner, Varri, Norway

Well-prepared when the company was targeted

Varri has actually experienced first hand how important it is to have a secure setup: It is one of a very large number of companies to be attacked by ransomware in recent years. One Monday morning, the employees discovered that the systems had been hacked. All systems had been locked down and encrypted, and on the printer there was a ransom note from the hackers demanding a hefty amount for unlocking everything again.

“The incident was not too much of a problem for us because a data backup every night is part of the service from Konica Minolta. We were able to roll back to a backup from just a few hours earlier so we were up and running again as normal in just a few hours”, says Olsen.

The incident was a good reminder of how vulnerable Varri was when it was running its own server in a cupboard with an old backup lying around at home on an external hard drive.

“I hardly dare to think about what would have happened if the ransomware attack had happened before we moved to the cloud solution. The backup could have been two weeks old”, he says.