ARK Group Case Study

The ARK Group of Companies Limited ( ARK ) operates an exclusive trade agreement with Arpel Ltd, Rivco Ltd and Kamtech Fasteners Ltd. ARK provides a wide range of ARK branded rivets, rivet nuts and structural rivets. The complete range of products offered suit the needs of a diverse range of customers who rely on functionality and quality.

We at Pinfield’s I.T. Ltd have been working with ARK Group for the past 8 years, and we have seen them grow from single site to now a multi-site operation, that started with 5 members of staff and now employ 22 staff members.

Specific Needs

The ARK group need a robust ERP provider that has the capability of scaling up to meet the demands for the modern office services, which include, a bespoke business operating system, IT support, Antivirus, Email solutions, back-up and data storage solutions both on premises and in the cloud.

The Solution

IT support is a crucial business requirement, as a growing Company needs a high quality robust ERP solution to ensure data is accurate, and the I.T. support team understand and react to problem solving to ensure business processes run smoothly, and no outage issues degrade customer service. We constantly maintain and monitor their systems 24/7, and carry out regular in-depth reviews across their IT network.

Security and anti-virus software is a key component across the companies’ IT strategy. It helps to protect their local computers, servers, software and data from dangerous malware, viruses, hackers, spyware, and spam emails. We use ESET anti-virus to ensure we identify any risks and secure them to prevent possible cyber-attacks in the future. This has given the ARK group minimal disruption to their businesses and has given their employees confidence when emailing and browsing online.

Sending and receiving emails are a critical part of our day-to-day business life. Being Microsoft partners we utilised Office 365 for their email solutions, giving them a cost-effective option that makes the most out of the cloud and increases employee productivity.

All the ARK businesses need back-up solutions that cover physical data back-ups on the premises and online data back-up solutions through the cloud. Pinfields I.T are the Midlands distributors of the ‘Backup Everything’ product and this solution gives the ARK Group a smart and affordable cloud backup solution. Back-up everything backs up all your data automatically to a remote location using the internet. This allowed the ARK group to choose what data and which device to be backed up, whether this was files data from PCs, Macs, Physical or Virtual Severs plus Databases and exchange.

All of the ARK group businesses required a common ERP system that was capable of managing accurate stock data shared across all companies, in order to maximise the physical stock held within the central distribution warehouse. Also the business operating system has streamlined all of their business processes, CRM, purchasing and logistics and manages the full suite of the groups accounting requirements. Pinfields IT offered a bespoke package called dk Business Solutions, this system is a user friendly, highly integrated, all-in-one solution for businesses. The range of functions on offer in the system allows the ARK group to manage all the key parts of their business.

Testimonial

"The Pinfields IT team have a very professional attitude when dealing with all IT issues and are able to remain very affable with all staff members, a trait which is key and welcomed when delivering their services. No matter the issue, they will always find an appropriate and proactive solution.”

Steve Auld, Managing Director

The ARK Group of Companies Limited.