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Costantini : Mobility, performance and security in the cloud
Since its creation almost exactly twenty years ago, System Solutions has not ceased to evolve in order to respond to the continuously changing IT needs of its clients.
Robert Roux
General Manager - System Solutions
Starting out as a computer vendor in the early days, the company very quickly developed a full range of services around its core business of IT integration through to the global management of its clients’ IT needs. Today, the System Solutions range has developed thanks to the creation of two fully redundant data centres based in Luxembourg.
These two data centres allow System Solutions to offer a bespoke approach to Cloud services whilst remaining carefully attuned to its clients’ business needs. System Solutions offers three levels of SLA so that its service hours can be aligned perfectly in line with those of its clients and this is based out of its support centre in Capellen.
The services provided by System Solutions rigorously apply current laws and regulations in Luxembourg, including the circulars issued by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (Luxembourg Commission for Supervision of the Financial Sector). Since 2008, System Solutions has held PSF (Professional in the Financial Sector) certification for level 1 support.
For System Solutions, the success of a Cloud project, like so many others, is the direct result of the quality service provided by its engineers. Each of the company’s employees holds an ITIL certificate, which allows us to offer a service that meets established quality standards at international level.
With strong growth in the Cloud sector, System Solutions is continuing to invest in technologies that will offer just as many extra advantages for its clients in the future.
As part of the management committee of Costantini, the management, operations and IT system development are overseen by Christophe Dardenne. “At the beginning,” he recalls, “all of our IT was managed internally: our single IT technician had put in place infrastructure with limited ambitions.” Then, about ten years later, when the company had grown in stature and had begun to operate in France, Costantini called in an external service provider to come up with a solution that was better adapted to the company’s growing needs.
“Unfortunately we never achieved the required performance specifications of this new installation,” laments Christophe Dardenne. “This is why we chose to place our trust in System Solutions, and outsourced the management of our IT systems to them. Today we have two internal IT technicians who provide first level support for the installations in our different agencies and about fifty sites.”
The decision to outsource“We progressively developed a trusting relationship with System Solutions”, explains Christophe Dardenne, “they presented their services to us, their support contracts, their assistance contracts.” Costantini’s IT was given a boost with the arrival of an ERP specialising in building and public works. Set up in January 2013, the new software required infrastructure that was better-performing, more reliable and easier to connect to. “That was the moment when we started to contemplate various Ion solutions, including the cloud,” admits Costantini’s managing director.
Alain Maringer
Account Manager - System Solutions
“Our new ERP progressively forced us to be more and more connected: everyone working within the company has to work using this shared tool which also means having IT infrastructure that is significantly more professional, fast and secure. Obviously we had to make a choice of cloud, too: our company is in the building trade, IT is not our field and was not considered a domain that we could afford to spend time and resources on,” recalls Christophe Dardenne. “The logic behind this outsourcing, which initially focused on managing infrastructure, servers and networks, now covers our whole IT system.”
Christophe Dardenne
Managing Director - Costantini
The cloud solution from System Solutions allowed Costantini to shift its IT spending towards operational costs completely which are invoiced in the form of a monthly rent. “It is a far more transparent way of managing costs,” confirms Christophe Dardenne. “We no longer have IT costs forced upon us, we are in control of them. The security aspect has also been a welcome development. We no longer have to worry about duplicating our servers, reproducing our data or back-ups, all of that is covered by the cloud solution from System Solutions.”
In mobility matters, Costantini has been faced with multi-site and multi-agency configuration as well as issues with sites. The company’s employees must be able to access information in a highly mobile way from all types of terminal: “Our ERP offers mobile solutions for certain applications and allows documents stored on our EDM to be viewed, for example. Whether using a laptop, tablet or smartphone, soon through the cloud we will have simple and direct access to all of our data relating to contracts, invoices or orders.”
Among the immediate benefits there is security (physical, logical, resumption and continuity of service) and increased performance. “The pooling of resources offered by System Solutions allows us to benefit from levels of performance that we would never have been able to achieve internally”, attests the delegated administrator of Costantini. “For certain processors, the processing times are 7 to 10 times shorter. For the user, that’s life changing!”
“Obtaining the same level of security would have required substantial investments. Furthermore, resorting to the cloud and managed services allows us to operate with a tightly-knit IT team that can focus on offering support to users.”
As well as being a local firm located not far from us, in System Solutions we found a partner with human dimensions. We were also receptive to their approach which is based on listening and truly wanting to understand the organisation and the processes their clients have in place, before offering up any solution at all,” recollects Christophe Dardenne. “Furthermore, a company like ours, when looking for a single partner to cover all of its IT needs, has to be able to count on a supplier that has the full range of skills needed to cover all IT roles, from the network to software licences, from architecture to security,” he concludes.
A standard-setter in the domain of civil engineering in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Costantini is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year: construction, property promotion, general contracting, demolition, exterior building works and general electricity make up the range of activities offered by the company in Luxembourg, France and Belgium. Today, construction activities have taken over the road works that constituted the core business activities of Costantini. As of 2003, the company decided to develop its construction business in Luxembourg and, in 2004, Costantini opened its first agency in France, in Thionville. Since then, the company has considerably expanded its activities in the whole of France and can be found in Thionville, Nancy, Strasbourg, Reims and Paris. The group’s annual turnover is 110 million euros. Costantini employs 500 workers divided between Luxembourg and the greater North East of France.
A trained engineer, Christophe Dardenne joined Costantini almost twenty years ago. Following a Management Buy Out that took place in 2009, he entered the company’s shareholding structure. A member of the management committee and managing director, he oversees the commercial aspects of the company’s day-to-day running as well as the human, technical and IT resources.
SystemSolutions_CloudBook_Costantini_UK.pdf