For more information on how our services could benefit your business you can browse some of our customer success stories below.
Northern & Shell group
FLEXIBILITY PUTS DCG IN THE NEWS
“With DCG Managed Services in place, we don’t have to worry about our data – we know it is being backed up securely and is in safe hands. Only DCG were able to offer us the flexibility in services which we need.”
Ben Dyer, Joint Head of IT at leading media group Northern & Shell.
DCG Group provides data backup and disaster recovery Managed Services to Northern & Shell, owners of Express Newspapers, Channel 5, OK! magazine and a host of other successful titles.
NORTHERN & SHELL GROUP
Northern & Shell was founded in December 1974 with the vision of becoming a significant force in British and worldwide media. That ambition was developed through a broad portfolio of magazines and broadcast interests and came of age with the acquisitions of Express Newspapers in November 2000 and Channel 5 in July 2010. Today, Northern & Shell owns four national newspapers and is a 50 per cent joint venture partner in two more in Ireland. In Channel 5 the company owns one of Britain’s leading national terrestrial television networks. It is also at the forefront of digital media as a key stakeholder in YouView, the world’s leading internet television service. Northern & Shell dominates important parts of the consumer magazine market both in the UK and worldwide, including OK! And Star! Magazines. It operates in all major areas of publishing and has diverse interests in new media, print, distribution, investment and property. As Britain’s leading independent publisher and a key player in both broadcasting and digital media, the future is brighter than ever for Northern & Shell, with the launch of the Health Lottery scheduled for this autumn.
GROWTH DRIVES NEED FOR CHANGE
Northern & Shell has offices around UK and overseas, with all operations run from the headquarters building in London. A team of 23 people run IT services for the whole group, operating at maximum levels of efficiency to provide everything from programming to front line support for an international workforce of around 2,000 staff.
Rapid growth in the business was bringing sharp increases in data volumes to be safely stored and backed up. Ben Dyer, Joint Head of IT at the Group, was looking at how best to manage backup securely in the future and provide for further growth in data volumes.
“We had previously used NetBackup on site here, managed internally, using our own hardware and purchasing necessary licences,” he explains. “However, the system was at the end of its life, already at capacity, with hardware due for replacement. We were going to have to upgrade and buy new software. We would need to continue to use internal resources to support and manage our backup.”
“We had also recently purchased a new finance system, which was not compatible with our existing backup, and the requirement from our auditors was that we must achieve a viable new solution for data backup and disaster recovery.”
OPTING FOR MANAGED SERVICES
Ben Dyer and his team reviewed the costs of investing in their own new backup system and managing it themselves but there would be major challenges.
“The costs of going out and buying a new system and operating it were high and we particularly wanted to free up internal resources,” he says. “Backup was very time-consuming for the team – a two hour task each morning changing tapes and dealing with any issues that happened overnight.”
“We need our team to be working on more high-level tasks.”
Ben decided to investigate alternative ways of managing Northern & Shell data backup, with a Managed Services provider, in order to reduce costs and save time.
A CLEAR SOLUTION
Northern & Shell maintains its products and activities as benchmarks of excellence to its readers, customers, advertisers and business partners. It was therefore important that Ben Dyer found a provider of Managed Services for data backup who would be aligned with the highest standards in its quality of service and customer focus.
After presentations from leading providers, Northern & Shell decided to award the contract for management of their data backup to DCG Group.
“DCG Group is providing a completed managed data backup and disaster recovery solution for the entire estate of Northern & Shell on an international basis,” confirms Ben Dyer. “This includes backup of all data for Express Newspapers, OK! Magazine, Star! Magazine, Channel 5, and now for the new Health Lottery to be launched this year.”
FLEXIBILITY IS KEY
Essential to the operations of Northern & Shell is the building of dedicated teams with pride in what they produce and a willingness to respond to customer needs. This spirit is matched by DCG Group, who demonstrated the willingness to offer flexible services to win Northern & Shell business.
“Only DCG Group could offer us the flexibility in Managed Services which we require, with several options which we can tailor to our needs,” says Ben Dyer. “This is a big factor for us, as the expectation is that we will grow, and need to adapt services. Other suppliers could provide us with only one fixed solution.”
“DCG has already provided us with a seamless upgrade to the services estate as our data volumes have increased – it’s a great example of how scalable and flexible they are.”
“It’s a classic example of not knowing what’s round the corner. The DCG team understands our requirements, gives us options in services and a contract with flexibility.”
ACCREDITATION MATTERS
Another key factor for Ben Dyer in selecting DCG Group to provide Managed Services to Northern & Shell was the requirement of company auditors that data backup from the new finance system must be carried out to recognised standards.
“The auditors on their annual visit are looking at our finance systems to check that data is being backed up consistently and retained securely, and that we can restore data in the case of any corruption or loss,” explains Ben.
DCG proved that their technical skills and standards for data backup and disaster recovery were at the highest level.
“The fact that DCG Group holds the ISO27001 standard for information security was important for us and for the auditors,” says Ben.
COST BENEFITS
“DCG costs are also competitive in their costings,” adds Ben Dyer.
DCG Managed Services are charged on a regular subscription basis and this made it easier for Ben Dyer to get Board approval to go ahead with the DCG contract.
“It was going to be big capital expenditure project for us to replace our backup hardware and purchase new backup licences,” he explains. “It was a big advantage in winning our case with the Board that there are no big initial costs and regular predictable monthly instalments rather than a lump sum investment.”
“We are spending less and getting value for money.”
“Because of the flexibility of our contract with DCG, we know that we can adapt services as the business changes, without having to go back to the Board for increased payments.”
BUSINESS BENEFITS
“The biggest benefit for us in our contract with DCG Group is that we have freed up resources in the IT team which are expensive and which are valuable to us,” says Ben Dyer. “
“Routine backups are crucial and with the managed service provided by DCG, our IT support team are on hand to focus on business priority tasks – as a result we are getting added value from the service.”
“Also, we have peace of mind, knowing that our data backup is not only running but is being checked. DCG engineers are pro-active on any failures overnight and notify us in the morning – they fix it for us before we even know we have a problem.”
“We are comfortable our data is in safe hands and the business benefits from the cost savings as well,” concludes Ben Dyer. “Without question, I would recommend DCG Group and we are exploring buying extra services from them already.”
CUSTOMER OPTIONS
“We are committed to matching our customers’ requirements and have the technical skills to be able to offer flexibility to fast-moving businesses like Northern & Shell,” says Peter Wilks, Director, DCG Group.
Pace Plc
As a leader in the fast-developing world of digital television and high definition television around the world, Pace plc is using Managed Services from DCG Group to provide assured performance, secure backup and rapid disaster recovery for their vital IT systems.
With a high level of technical complexity in the business and an international scale of operations, Pace makes heavy demands on its IT systems and communications. With constant innovation and development in the business, the IT systems have to deliver consistent, high-quality performance to users globally while data has to be secured and available for retrieval. Downtime has to be kept to an absolute minimum, so rapid disaster recovery is essential.
The Result
“Switching to Managed Services has meant that our data backup and disaster recovery strategy has become an IT overhead, rather than a cause for repeated capital expenditure,” explains David Cawthray, Director of IT.
For David Cawthray and his team at Pace, the fact that DCG provide assured service levels is a major benefit. “DCG monitor our backups 24/7 and, if anything does go wrong, they sort it out quickly,” says David. “If any issue arises, you just ring someone at DCG and they fix it.”
“At a time of internal re-organisation, with reduced staff, it was a no-brainer to switch to Managed Services provided to this standard,” explains David. “It took one person on the team at least two hours each day to sort out all the backup tapes and fix broken backups – and now that is all managed for us.”
The Approach
For all its Services customers, DCG Group automatically refresh all software with the latest versions, so that best-of-breed, backup software is an intrinsic part of the solution. If there is a disaster, DCG can set up a standby replacement system quickly at a customer’s site or in an offsite facility, and DCG provide with all the equipment for restores.
All customers benefit from a dedicated DCG Service Centre Engineer as part of the Service Centre helpdesk which is available 24 by 7 by 365. The Service Centre provides proactive monitoring and reporting to all customers.
GFI Group
GFI provides competitive inter-dealer brokerage services in a multitude of global cash and derivatives markets, including credit derivatives and fixed income, foreign exchange and financial derivatives, equity, energy and commodities.
The business runs 24 x 7 from offices around the world and is supported by a powerful IT/communications infrastructure.
To support its international operations and provide the necessary speed of response for brokerage services, GFI Group has powerful and sophisticated IT systems carrying many terabytes of valuable commercial data as well as confidential client data. Rapid, reliable and secure data backup and recovery is of critical importance. The latest version of financial and other data has to be immediately available around the clock in offices worldwide.
The Result
GFI currently use DCG Managed Backup and Recovery services in offices from Hong Kong and Singapore to Sydney, Seoul, Tokyo and London.
“The data is generally backed up and taken straight offsite electronically but there are different requirements in some of our overseas offices,” explains Steve Gray, IT Systems Team Leader. DCG have adapted their solution, so that the backup and recovery works with varying requirements in our different offices. We also have a leased line into our DR site, so that DCG can restore the DR site as well if we have a complete system breakdown.”
“We have confidence in the backup service that DCG provide, If there is any issue, it is always DCG that alerts us before we are aware of it. We use the recovery service nearly every day to do basic restores – anything from complete file servers to individual emails. The DCG Service Centre is always available and reliable when we call them and easy to work with.”
The Approach
As DCG Group already provides Managed Services to a number of global businesses and has the technical expertise and resources this demands, they were an ideal choice for GFI. DCG were also able to tailor their Managed Backup and Recovery Service to meet the pattern required by GFI.
DCG Group were able to provide the technical excellence and flexible delivery to adapt services for GFI’s specific requirements, meeting demanding schedules and rigorous service level agreements across several time zones.
Kuwait Investment Office
As a financial institution, the Kuwait Investment Office has specific requirements connected with security, business continuity, regulatory issues and service levels.
By entrusting the management of its data to DCG Group, the Kuwait Investment Office (KIO) is able to meet its required financial and audit regulations with assured performance and quality.
As an investment organisation, there are stringent security standards KIO have to adhere to, as part of their business requirement and due to the nature of their organisation, data has to reside on their premises. Faced with a high level of effort and time in support staff and expertise to maintain new versions of the existing data backup and archiving solution, KIO began to look at alternatives.
The Result
This important financial institution in the City of London now has a data backup and archiving solution which has been matched exactly to corporate requirements for security, business continuity, assured performance and quality.
“The main driver for us in switching to Managed Services was that we did not want to have to maintain specialist expertise in-house. The service we have from DCG guarantees our backup and, ultimately, DCG has the flexibility of installation to meet our requirements from a services point of view. We have been impressed by what DCG can provide for our business in terms of Managed Services,” concludes Tim Raworth, IT Service Manager.
The Approach
The DCG Managed Service solution for backup and recovery was implemented with a stringent Service Level Agreement. DCG could adapt their Managed Services to fit KIO requirements, in a way that other providers could not. The requirement for backup to be handled on KIO premises, together with the requirement for accessing long-term archive material, could both be met by DCG.
DCG Managed Services work from a base set of products with each implementation designed to fit the customer infrastructure and processes. DCG have the engineering skill to adapt flexibly to each customer’s requirements.
Codemasters
Codemasters, a top international games developer, selected DCG Managed Services to address key priorities in data management, assuring service levels and efficiencies, saving on costly IT resources and ensuring global backup is expertly managed 24/7.
As well as the high cost of re-creating a video, the company would suffer severe financial consequences from any loss or damage to one of its products, so that assured business continuity is vital. “The physical entity of our IP is the most important asset we have and our data volumes in Codemasters’ international daily operations are vast,” stresses Jonathan Humphrey, Director MIS.
Providing secure and resilient storage for such large quantities of data is a challenge in itself and faultless back up is much harder. “With double digit terabytes of data growth of such magnitude, you need assurance,” says Jonathan. “Creating large amounts of storage is comparatively easy but backing it up is not. We would be very exposed if we were to lose any data and not backing up is a massive problem.”
The Results
“Having DCG managing our backup takes a huge weight off our minds and a huge workload off our plates,” says Jonathan Humphrey. “Our most experienced and expensive team members had to take responsibility for backup and now they don’t do that anymore, so that high-value time is released.”
“All the old problems of coming into the office in the morning to find inaccurate or incomplete backups have gone. With DCG, we come in to find it has all been done, any issues are dealt with before they become a problem. This is absolutely the right solution for us. It works for us and we know it’s working for us. It’s crucial to our business.”
The Approach
The DCG Suite of managed backup and recovery services secures organisational data whether it resides in a data centre, remote sites or laptops and desktop environment. This data is stored, protected and managed by DCG in alignment with best practice processes.
The DCG Services Suite provides offsite best practice services in data backup, recovery and archiving, so that customers benefit immediately from access to expert and secure data management technologies, without any need for capital expenditure. Internal resource is freed up for key projects and development.
With the critical nature of Codemasters data, a robust service level agreement was devised by DCG to match the requirement for 24 x 7 performance internationally.
HARVEY NICHOLS
Harvey Nichols needs seamless efficiency in the systems that underpin its fast-moving and increasingly global fashion retail empire.
The security and availability of its corporate and commercial data is vital. By entrusting the management of infrastructure data issues to DCG Group, this illustrious UK brand is enjoying the benefits of secure data backup, a very high level of service from the DCG team and cost savings from DCG’s flexible approach to meeting customer requirements.
With Harvey Nichols growing successfully both in scope of its operations and its global spread, IT Operations Manager Lee Smith and his team focus on the major IT systems that will enable and support business development. Day to day tasks, such as data backup and recovery, are essential to secure infrastructure management but can take up a significant percentage of team time which is more profitably employed on new projects. Due to Harvey Nichols’ rapid business expansion, data in the past few years has been growing even faster than predicted. As a result, the cost of backup and recovery of data was becoming very costly.
The Result
Harvey Nichols’ business growth and change is not an issue – the Managed Services provided by DCG can adapt flexibly to meet new requirements. Costs are clearly perceived and managed.
Lee Smith and his team can focus on the key projects that support growth and profitability for Harvey Nichols, confident that the important infrastructure tasks of data backup and recovery are being managed by DCG experts.
“Many suppliers have lots of red tape and we have no time for all that,” says Lee Smith. “We get in touch with DCG and they respond immediately. We’re very, very pleased with DCG and anticipate a long relationship with them.”
The Approach
DCG Group has broad experience of providing Managed Services for Data Backup and Recovery, with a unique technological edge that allows services to be adapted flexibly to meet customer requirements precisely.
DCG can backup data securely for customers across national and international boundaries, to their own data centre, to one of the DCG data centres or across a complete customer network. The data volumes being handled very often increase or decrease with business changes and DCG services can adapt flexibly to match requirements. DCG offer stringent Service Level Agreements to give customers maximum support and automatically update services with new software releases.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
As the Charing Cross Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital join St Mary’s Hospital and other institutions in the new Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
IT partners DCG Group are providing the specialist expertise in data storage and information availability with which they have supported the vital work of the hospitals in the past, ensuring that confidential patient data is accessible as needed to hospital staff for patient care.
Issues around secure storage of patient records and immediate access to data for clinicians are increasingly important for NHS Trusts committed to the highest standards of patient care and have been complicated by rapid growth in data volumes, with continuing requirements for increased storage capacity and effective backup.
“We used to measure our data in shared services in gigabytes but now we measure it in terabytes,” says Guido Giancoli, Project Support. “All this data needs managing, and backup is especially important so that data is secure in case of system breakdown.
The Result
“DCG’s ongoing support and professional services has been very important to us. DCG services help us to keep up to date with current demands for secure storage and backup.”
“They also helped us to develop an improved disaster recovery dimension to our data backup, so that we had secure systems for managing data in case of any emergency. We built a good working relationship with DCG and came to trust their expertise in data storage and backup.”
The Approach
DCG have earned Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s confidence through their specialist expertise in data management and information availability, their independent approach and responsiveness to the NHS environment. As the importance of IT in healthcare has increased and data volumes have grown, DCG are partnering with many Trusts to help with important projects and services.