Bandai Co. Ltd was formed in 1950 in the Kikuya-bashi region of Asakusa in Taito Ward, Tokyo, Japan. Bandai Co. Ltd now has 22 companies within its Japanese Group as well as 12 companies overseas. Bandai Co. Ltd is now the third largest toy company in the world.

Bandai UK Ltd was established in 1982 and markets a variety of toys and related products, notably Power Rangers and Digimon series. Bandai UK Ltd is based in Hedge End, Southampton Hampshire.

In 2000 Bandai UK Ltd embarked on a long term plan to upgrade its ICT infrastructure with the aim of increasing its business performance using new technologies.

Bandai UK Ltd approached TMB Solutions to provide them with a proposal to upgrade their existing Microsoft NT4 based internal network. Bandai UK Ltd also required a proposal to increase the performance of their  external connections to the other companies within the European group of companies.

After a thorough audit of Bandai UK Ltd requirements, in the Summer of 2001 TMB Solutions installed HP Proliant Servers with Microsoft Windows 2000 Server to provide File, Print and Mail services. The desktop PC’s were also replaced with HP Evo desktops with Microsoft Windows XP.

In the Autumn of 2003 TMB Solutions transferred Bandai UK Ltd’s internet connection to an ADSL broadband system. TMB also implemented a VPN solution to allow users to work from home remotely.

In 2005 TMB Solutions upgraded the network infrastructure to Windows Server 2003 and installed rack mounted servers increasing the performance and resilience of the network.

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The British Universities Sports Association (BUSA) provides a wide ranging sporting programme in over 40 sports to member institutions all over Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

BUSA first approached TMB in 1999 to request a Year 2000 audit and recommendations for their whole network. At the time the network consisted of a clone Novell 4.11 server with GroupWise 5.2. There was about 15 client PC’s on the network.

To provide for the needs of the Sports Administrators who regularly traveled to sporting events around the country TMB supplied Compaq Notebook Computers for all the Sports Administrators and configured remote dial in solutions to enable access to email whilst on the Road.

TMB Solutions has brought BUSA forward by providing ‘up to date’ HP Proliant servers running Windows 2003 with Exchange 2003. All laptops and PC’s have been upgraded to Windows XP Professional to provide a common base.

BUSA have also greatly increased their usage of the Internet and Email over the last five years and TMB Solutions have provided a managed ADSL Service running at 2MB with no call charges. This has resulted in a considerably faster service at a fraction of the cost of the previous ISDN dial-up service.

The net result of the relationship between BUSA and TMB Solutions now means that BUSA have a considerably more robust network with far lower support requirements. They have had Zero downtime from their HP Proliant Server solution and are now looking forward to more developments with internet based solutions for remote connectivity and other projects.

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Martin Thomas Associates is based in West Wellow in Hampshire. In May 2006 Martin Thomas approached TMB Solutions to provide them with a proposal to upgrade their network as they were unhappy with the quality and level of support provided by their  network support company at that time.

A site survey by TMB Solutions revealed that the network server had not been maintained properly and that the server had various issues resulting in numerous network problems.

After a thorough audit of Martin Thomas existing network and a series of consultations regarding their business requirements, TMB Solutions proposed a server solution based on Microsoft Windows 2003 Small Business Server utilising an HP Proliant Server and HP Desktop PC’s.

In June 2006 TMB Solutions installed a new HP Proliant Server and new desktop PC’s. At the same time TMB Solutions installed a secure VPN infrastructure which would allow secure remote connection to the Martin Thomas Associates network from remote sites while also allowing remote email access from anywhere on the internet.

Martin Thomas Associates now has a reliable & stable network infrastructure which is resilient and provides excellent performance.

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Corralls Coal was formed over 160 years ago and is now the oldest and largest retail coal company in the country. It’s a market leader with a healthy turnover of over six million pounds. Corralls head office is based in East Sussex with ten depots located around the South and South East of England, each with their own sales office. It employs 100 members of staff with service and experience scaling more than 20 years.

Challenge

Corralls was a long-term user of Pegasus Opera, running on a DOS platform. However, as a forward-thinking business, they recognised the need to keep pace with changing technology and required a Windows-based solution. Easy migration and stability were the two main criteria, for their replacement business system, however they also seeking a system with more functionality to ensure they stayed one step ahead of the competition.

Solution

Opera II proved to be the obvious solution for Corrals – the rapid and straightforward migration meant there was limited down-time and the disruption to the business was minimal. And, with the staff already familiar with the software, training them took no time at all. Malcolm Rogers, Company Accountant, explains: “I have used many different software packages during my 35 years as an accountant and have a good idea how to distinguish the good from the bad. While functionality and keeping a tight reign on the numbers is essential, the most important aspect to a user is stability - the less disruption to a business with software down-time, the better for the users, customers and the figures!” “Deploying Opera II was a very simple process; it was installed, and the data transferred within the hour. Training was also straight-forward because the users already knew their way around the system and the Windows platform was so familiar; it was an effortless learning process.”

Benefits

Not only do Corralls now run a technology-led Windows solution, the additional functionality in Opera II is proving to be very insightful. It’s giving them access to up to the minute financial data; efficiently tracking and analysing key information. Impressed with the reliability of the system and the intuition of the software, Malcolm enthuses: “Opera II is more powerful than our old system, and it hasn’t let us down – it enables me to track the data I need whenever I need it. I am a fan in particular of the reporter module and XRL – both of which are simple to use and provide excellent results.” With Reporter, Corralls are able to easily create their own reports in addition to those included. And XRL provides real-time integration with Microsoft Excel. “XRL is a very useful analysis tool. The laborious task of copy and pasting into Excel is no more. I’m sure all accountants would be happy not to have that chore on their agenda!” To protect their investment, Corralls purchased an Annual Maintenance Contract. Malcolm recognises the importance of such an investment: “The AMC is great value for money: we get regular software updates to ensure we are using the most up to date technology and it allows us to spread the cost rather than paying large sums of money on an ad-hoc basis – much more sensible than costly outlays when things go wrong”.

Partner Connection

Pegasus delivers Opera II via a network of certified Partners - Corralls chose TMB. In addition to their Opera II and XRL software, Corralls purchase on-going support, training and hardware from them too.

Malcolm comments: “We have built a strong relationship with TMB over the years. They provide a great service, and we trust them to lead us in the right direction for all our business IT needs.”

 Number of Users: 15 Modules: System Manager, Sales Ledger, Purchase Ledger, Nominal Ledger, Stock Control, Toolkit, Reporter, POP, Cashbook and XRL

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Sheppard Moscow Ltd has been a leading force in organisational consulting, team and individual development and the strategic management of change for over 40 years. With offices in London, Edinburgh, Dublin and Singapore, they provide this service to hundreds of organisations and thousands of individuals spanning the globe.

Challenge

As a modern, forward thinking business, Sheppard Moscow didn’t want to be limited by their business software. Replacing their DOS software was fundamental in achieving control over its business processes, which would in turn ensure that they had the edge over their competition in this competitive market. They wanted an intelligent and intuitive solution; which could provide real-time visibility of their performance instantly.

Solution

When selecting a new accounting solution, Sheppard Moscow looked no further than Opera II: Windows-based, user friendly and familiar with the promise of quick and easy migration – all important criteria for their selection. Changing any system that is at the heart of the business may seem like a daunting task, but with today’s technological advances it’s also essential. And, it’s one that Vicky Seeley, Company Accountant, and her team at Sheppard Moscow haven’t looked back on. Installation was quick and straight forward, and the old system became instantly redundant despite insistence by the team to run the old system in parallel for three months. Vicky explains: “It’s only natural to worry when changing something that has been an integral part of our business, and we wanted to ensure that if anything went wrong, we could instantly revert to our old system and continue processing immediately. Looking back, I know now that we didn’t need to cater for such eventualities – we couldn’t have asked for a smoother upgrade and we had no teething problems with Opera II and its integration in the company.” While all this meant that Opera II was an ideal solution, it was XRL that was the main deal breaker – it provided them with better reporting and communication transparency, which would in turn give them greater access to financial information to make informed business decisions.

Benefits

The benefits were noted immediately – little training was required to get up and running and it was advantageous to start with freshly deployed data. Vicky enthuses: “All the users, including myself, are extremely happy with Opera II, in fact we think it’s brilliant! It makes perfect sense and goes hand in hand with how you’d expect an accounts package to work.” Analysis and monthly reporting with XRL saved time, effort and the margin of error due to the elimination of manual processes and double entry – one of the many efficiency gains they noticed soon after migration. “With XRL you can get hold of all the information you need – it makes once arduous tasks simple and less time consuming. I noticed the benefits immediately – Management reporting has never been this easy!”

Partner Connection

Pegasus delivers Opera II via a network of certified Partners – Sheppard Moscow chose TMB who also provide on-going support and training. “We trust TMB to steer us in the right direction with regard to our choice of software. Their input was fundamental in our decision to upgrade, and we had 100% confidence in their abilities to manage the project.”

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Styropack (UK) Ltd is the leading moulder of EPS (expanded polystyrene) packaging in the United Kingdom. It is also a major manufacturer of expanded polypropylene (EPP) and expanded polyethylene (EPE) mouldings and an expert in fabrication techniques. Its top quality products protect and enhance a vast array of goods from computers to vehicle parts, electrical equipment to fish, pharmaceutical to horticulture. It has 9 production plants and 150 machines strategically spread throughout the UK and employs some 450 people. Styropack has ISO9000 accreditation and a reputation for quality and reliability that's been built over thirty-five years in the field.

Local networks at all Styropack UK offices are Microsoft Windows NT based with servers at all its UK locations, and is a single domain model. Microsoft Exchange Server is the chosen groupware product, which has been utilised to form a single Exchange Organisation with an Exchange Server at each location. The benefits of such a Domain and Exchange organisational structure has meant that the Styropack UK staff can enjoy a high degree of inter-communication through the email structure, including use of replicated Public Folders for disseminating group wide information. Whilst security is an important feature in any network, the Microsoft NT Domain structure has meant that staff from all locations are able to readily access information and data from servers in other locations where necessary.

TMB Solutions are playing a major role in the development and ongoing project work for Styropack's UK based WAN and LAN infrastructure. This includes ongoing support and maintenance of both the back office network and backbone, as well as its user base where requested. TMB solutions are also an integral part of the decision making process in the design and implementation of planned future upgrades to the network infrastructure.