DATA MANAGEMENT BY POOLING RESOURCES

Even though computer systems are playing an increasingly important role in companies’ operating processes, these companies are certainly not making a vocation of becoming professionals in the IT sector and most of them have neither the time, the budget nor the in-house expertise to control all their infrastructures correctly.

Similar needs but fewer resources!

Nowadays, the problem for an SME is far from simple because, while maintaining a sense of proportion, it must purchase and control the same operating services as a large company but without benefiting from the advantages in terms of volume and structure that large companies can enjoy.

In the majority of cases, you always find the same basic elements, from the cabling systems up, secure local computer services, services for sharing network resources, contact management, shared e-mail and agenda systems, Internet access systems, private interconnection infrastructures for sales offices or mobile users, the integration of professional financial type EDI, CRM, DRP and Data Warehouse applications, data storage, backup and archiving systems, the creation of secure links, emergency procedures, etc.

The problem with in-house control …

The complexity of the systems is directly proportional to the increase in the number of services they offer and it is becoming quite illusory, therefore, to consider that one person, however brilliant, could operate them all alone. On the other hand, in-house recruitment often proves to be difficult to manage when, quite simply, it is not justified in terms of cost versus workload. Lastly, there is also the question of security: what happens if the person responsible is absent? What if there were an accident or if he were to resign or if any other problem occurred whereby the person would no longer be available?

… or even working with external resources!

The traditional services provided by computer services companies are generally too expensive and only rarely ensure cost control because they do not incorporate the notions of shared risk and shared amortisation. Moreover, they also often prove to be too constricting and inflexible.

A concept for pooling resources and skills

Based on these various observations, one of SYSELCOM’s main projects is to offer small and medium-sized companies a level of service and expertise equivalent to that usually reserved for major companies. This is only possible by banking on an approach whereby work is of a recurrent nature and costs are shared between several companies subscribing to a project, i.e., in sum, by establishing a concept of pooling of resources adapted to computer services. Typically, this concerns any local company with 15 to 150 employees whose computer system must operate correctly as a matter of necessity.

SYSELCOM provides its services under annual or quarterly assistance contracts. Arranged in various formats, these contracts ensure the weekly presence of one of our specialists on each client’s site. The extent of this presence, generally between ½ and 2 days per week, is determined according to the requirements stated and those we diagnose. Each of our engineers is assigned to manage a pool of subscribers as part of a unit consisting of at least two employees to ensure continuity of service.

• In order to ensure the transparency of our operation, every subscribing company becomes the owner of a share in SYSELCOM SA. It therefore receives the company’s annual balance sheet and can participate in the general shareholders’ meetings.
• Our employees regularly carry out work in each company and therefore integrate themselves fully in the in-house teams. SYSELCOM becomes the company’s principal contact for its IT requirements (strategy, equipment purchases, external service providers …).
• Monitoring and the recurrent nature of the work enable coherent collaboration in planning IT projects and the integration of new technologies into the company at a good rate.
• Subscribing company has access to a high level of expertise and a body of specialists covering the whole range of IT infrastructure technologies (each of SYSELCOM’s engineers can make his expertise available to any of his colleagues at any moment).
• The “resources-pooling” method of operation enables costs to be offered, which are significantly lower than normal market costs without affecting the quality of service or the engineers’ expertise.
• The flexibility of this type of contract is much greater than for any other form of data management. It is not restricted to a fixed, pre-defined number of machines but instead ensures the correct operation of the whole IT system. For example, adding a new server or some workstations does not alter the subscription fee if the system’s overall operation can be guaranteed within the initially envisaged volume of work. On the other hand, we provide the possibility of changing our weekly presence quickly, increasing or decreasing it depending on the effective alteration in workload.

In addition to this weekly presence, every client also has a guarantee of rapid intervention in the event of a major problem occurring, a method of support and remote access to perform urgent work or work that does not require physical presence on site and preferential access to all our other services.