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Case study

Quick turnaround: Print services provider embraces cloud storage to sustain success

How Just Digital overcame a slow, outdated IT system using Microsoft’s Azure cloud storage solution to ensure secure growth.

Just Digital are specialists in time-critical, quality print, taking projects from concept to completion with their inhouse creative design teams and state-of-the-art printing technology.

Kocho met Just Digital in the Autumn of 2018 when they were looking for a technical solution that would speed up their work processes and allow for continued expansion of their business.

The problem that Just Digital was facing was that its IT system was no longer able to cope with the increased workforce and office space, which had respectively doubled and quadrupled in the five years since it had been implemented.

Their old system just wasn’t viable any longer, either for their current level of expansion, or their plans for growth.

Just Digital had ambitious plans to expand the business, so it was also crucial to find a solution that would enable their growth as a company whilst also maintaining the security of their data and systems.

Results

Updated disaster recovery ensuring protection against data loss and slow system restoration.
Increased productivity as wait times are reduced/eliminated for staff.
Scalable solution that can grow alongside the company’s future expansion plans.

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I suppose the biggest difference we have noticed so far is that our people have stopped complaining about not being able to get their work done!

Jane Saunders

Company Secretary, Just Digital.

Slow load times and inefficient working practices in a time-sensitive industry

The company’s large number of corporate clients request high-quality products and expect them to be swiftly delivered, so up to 90% of Just Digital’s jobs are produced and dispatched the same day. Deadlines are short, and expectations are high.

This needed a system that supported the design team’s ability to create artwork and send it to other departments for editing and printing in an unbroken chain.

The outdated IT system meant that users were experiencing slow storage performance. This became worse as their storage capacity filled, creating wait times of up to five minutes during peak workload periods.

There was also no disaster recovery plan in place and a high risk of permanent data loss with only a single server handling the workload. This often meant taking up to 72 hours to restore their systems and data after any outages.

Slow load times and problematic systems had not yet started affecting customers, but it was certainly affecting staff morale.

Updating the network was business-critical as staff were not able to work efficiently, regularly being left frustrated as they waited for their computer to stop showing them ‘the pinwheel of doom’.

Cloud storage and disaster recovery solutions for the next generation of Just Digital

The solution provided by Kocho transitioned Just Digital’s storage onto the hybrid cloud, speeding up the network and including disaster recovery in the Azure cloud.

This created a secure and flexible platform that will be able to expand alongside Just Digital as the company grows.

As load times reduced, job satisfaction has increased across the business and all teams, from internal IT technicians to Creative Designers, have been able to focus on the job at hand.

“By putting better systems in place to allow for quicker decision making and team working, we can forge forward at a faster speed, to replicate what we do already and grow as a company by developing into other markets. From the outset, Kocho took time to understand what we were trying to achieve and gave us suggestions that will support the next generation of Just Digital.” – Jane Saunders, Company Secretary, Just Digital.